Cops take South Street

On the night of July 10th, a few of us from defenestrator hung out at Tattooed Mom's, tossing back beers and making plans for insurrection, like we usually do. It was a good time. When we left the bar around midnight, however, we stumbled onto a  chaotic scene on South Street that dissolved our good spirits. Groups of black youth were walking very quickly westward. There was a lot of shouting. There was almost no car traffic. We saw the rows of cops marching toward us. They were shutting down South Street.

Many black youth were out Saturday night for Philly Greek Weekend. Sponsored by African American fraternities and sororities, Greek Weekend was a toned down substitute for the more raucous Greek Picnic celebrations of past years,which have traditionally drawn a large police presence, and have seen many businesses and bars on South Street voluntarily close down for the weekend. The event draws many black youth to South Street  who do not officially participate in it.

Knowing this, the police planned a pre-emptive shutdown of South Street. The Inquirer later reported that the owner of Lickety Split, a former cop, closed his restaurant early in the evening and allowed police to use the space as home-base to patrol South St and when the shutdown commenced later in the night. However, newspaper coverage made it seem as if the police were responding to a threat that suddenly emerged from nowhere: “Philadelphia police shut down 11 blocks of South Street between 1 and 2 a.m. Sunday after officers decided that large crowds, estimated as high as 20,000 people, were in danger of overwhelming the area.” In reality, the police had decided there was a “danger” long before the night began, something which they have done in the past in response to crowds from the Greek Picnic.

The police cleared both the street and sidewalks using horses and motorcycles, yelling at people to move towards Broad Street and shoving them along. One of us saw a kid get beat up by the cops and arrested. . It was down the block, and we were trying to get away from the cops on horses. Police on foot chased individual young people with nightsticks who tried to walk down a side street away from South Street where they were being forcibly corralled. An eyewitness who worked at Tattooed Mom's reported seeing a person tasered in the street later that night. He also saw police violently pulling drivers out of cars.

In spite of the police brutality—or maybe because of it—there was an antagonistic, even festive, atmosphere in the streets. Many youth resisted the cops by taunting them aggressively and laughing in their faces when told to move. Others defiantly strolled toward Broad Street at their own calm, casual pace, refusing to be hurried by the police behind them. While the media often depict young people as pointless mobs, on the street it felt as if youth were asserting their basic right to occupy the public space of the streets.

Flash Mobs and The Culture of Fear

Part of why the police acted so harshly is because of the fairly recent but widespread fear of so-called “flash mobs” as a result of racist and anti-youth media coverage in the past few months. Flash mobs are spontaneous gatherings without an organized leader that participants hear about through social media and text messages. Television and news reports have portrayed flash mobs as groups of dangerous black youth threatening to overwhelm the city and unleash destruction upon innocent bystanders. The media covered the police shutdown of South Street on July 10 with the same racist sensationalism, making the pre-emptive action and police brutality seem appropriate and justified. While in the past, police have taken similar actions that were not without substantial support from businesses and residents, the flash mob media sensationalism has provided a new pretense for social control.

The actual dangers posed by the crowds of youth were absurdly exaggerated. The news reported that there were “disturbances” as they gathered on South Street, but no real details were given. From what we saw, the vast majority of people in the streets were simply hanging out and not engaged in any criminal activity. In the past, celebrations following Greek Picnics have involved incidents of sexual assault and violence on the street. However, during this year's  police sweep towards Broad Street, only 15 arrests were reportedly made for minor offenses, such as disorderly conduct and under-age drinking. Even so, such “minor” incidents did not stop the police from using brutal techniques of repression.

It's likely that any incidents that night were not much worse than what usually happens outside the South St bars and clubs on weekends. But the police don't shut down South St every Saturday because of a few bar fights or a couple of rowdy assholes on the street. The difference, of course, is the fact that the crowds of youth that night were overwhelmingly black and young.

In our last issue, an article on flash mobs pointed out that when the Phillies won the playoffs in 2008, there were numerous incidents of arson, property damage, and physical violence. Yet these crimes did not prompt the police to shut down the celebrations or prohibit Phillies fans from gathering in the future. At the time, Commissioner Ramsey commented that the crowds were generally under control, even in light of a few “celebratory fires,” as he called them. Perhaps an even starker contrast with how police have responded to Greek Weekend can be found at the annual Mummers Parade, where the police generally tolerate raucous participants and spectators. Media coverage often lacks perspective in pointing out how cops treat some perpetrators of violence leniently while they harshly repress others.

South St: Safe For Whom?

The racist hysteria over flash mobs and the police shutdown are parts of a larger picture.  There is a strong police presence on South Street, especially on the weekends, and police harassment has become more common. Cops terrorize not only black youth, but anyone who gives them the slightest excuse to be considered a threat or danger. As we worked on this article, we heard many stories from friends and acquaintances about incidents of police brutality on South Street.

Media racism provides the cops with the pretense of protecting the public from dangerous black youth, but in reality, they use their increased presence on South Street to harass lots of different people.

South Street is not just a commercial strip. It is a public street where everyone should be able to spend time without being subjected to police harassment. Keeping it that way involves being critical of police repression conducted in the name of public safety, finding ways to oppose it, and taking mainstream media to task for their biased coverage in support of business interests.