Alternate title: Reminder that segregation took longer to end in the north Alternate, Alternate title: your willingness to ignore or support the oppression of anyone else will screw you over
This was supposed to be about several different topics, but I’ve got too much to say.
Age verification
This is all kicked off by the reports of sites like Reddit requiring folks in the EU to submit their government ID in order to access the site to comply with age verification laws (something discord is now rolling out for folks in the US). And as a reminder, we Should Not be trusting these sites with as much information as we already give them. Giving them our legal ID does not help.
In the US, the kids Online Safety Act will implement its own age verification requirements which, in turn, will lead to the same thing, because 1 that will keep a company’s ass covered legally. But 2, they can sell that information for a profit.
So many people don’t care about what these laws are asking because people quite literally do not see kids as people. And there is a deeply imperial desire to restrict kid’s presence in any public space because god forbid you be disturbed by another human being in communal a space.
In practice, these laws are not going to help provide a kid safety. Trying to restrict access and information has Never helped keep people safe. The literal opposite actually. But it is easier for people who don’t want to have these conversations— not just conversations about sex, abuse, etc. But also people who don’t want to have a plain conversation about how capitalism no longer grants people the privilege of meaningfully raising the kids around us, forcing us to outsource that labor to schools, care workers, and media. Yet people still have desires about how they want Their kid raised, just don’t want to fight the fight for proper community culture. It’s lead to these massive attempts to exercise control over everything a kid can and is permitted to come in contact with. When in reality, the solution is to actually resist the system, not find temporary fixes within it.
(When I tell you that when I first wrote this first bit, I didn’t realize how relevant it would be for the rest.)
Speaking of restricting kids. Let’s talk about Chicago, the teen trends, and the fuck shit response the city’s having to it.
A lot of folks have noticed the death of third spaces, or spaces you can consistently and voluntarily spend your time. As opposed to homes, school, and work. The death of third spaces has hit teens very hard. And add on to that, the literal hate folks are okay with displaying for teens, especially in public.
From this mass push to exclude them from any place in society, kids here have started these mass gatherings called teen trends. During which, they get together in large numbers and hang out. It can get loud, rowdy, and on two occasions people have gotten shot and died.
Let’s define teen trends.
From the Public Safety Chair and 2nd Ward Ald. Brian Hopkins
==courthousenews==
Hopkins’ ordinance defines these “teen takeovers” as “a gathering of 20 or more people in a public place for the purpose of engaging in, or is likely to result in, criminal conduct, including reckless conduct … disorderly conduct … or that otherwise presents or causes, or is likely to present or cause an unreasonable risk to public health, safety, or welfare.”
Some key fucking things to point out here
including reckless and disorderly conduct amongst the criminal descriptions when talking about these teen trends is in effect criminalizing being a child
twenty people is less than every non gifted class I’ve ever fucking been in. My choir class was a class of sixty. The people in the public are little bitches if they can’t handle twenty kids being “disorderly”
This quote has some spoilers, but bear with me.
==chicagosuntimes==
Hall said he’s still working to refine his companion plan to penalize social media companies that refuse to take down notices of teen takeovers — essentially large gatherings of youths summoned by social media that sometimes turn unruly and violent.
I think this is a far more honest definition and better reflects how we’ll see folks talking about teen trends as we continue.
The approach of criminalizing
In past responses to the teen trends
==nbcchicago==
The city allocated 700 officers, but it didn’t stop the violence from happening:
…so cops don’t work, right? That is a lesson we’ve learned, yes?
the new approach?
==chicago suntimes==
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will veto the controversial curfew ordinance passed Wednesday (some time ago) by the City Council that would empower Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling to issue curfews anytime, anywhere in the city, with 30 minutes’ notice.
==chicago suntimes==
The policy approved by the Council requires Snelling to predict, based on social media chatter, flyers or other evidence, when a group of 20 or more people plan to gather “in a manner that is likely to result in, substantial harm to the safety of the community or others, or substantial damage to property, or substantial injuries to a person” or that is “likely to present or cause, substantial harm to public health, safety, or welfare.”
And I would argue that not only is this incredibly broad, but this seems to give police the option to criminalize prior to actually committing an offense with zero oversight on what is being targeted and what decisions are being made to decide if an event should fall under the category of “likely”.
==southsideweekly==
An on-scene commander would announce the curfew thirty minutes before giving a dispersal order. Under-eighteen-year-olds who defy such orders could be taken into custody until their parent or guardian picks them up, and parents or guardians could be fined $500.
And this just highlights the way this reinforces systemic abuses. We know laws like this always target people of color first, and it will especially target folks who don’t have just five hundred fucking dollars to drop because their child had the audacity to hang out outside with people. Because again, this snap curfew would be intended to occur before anything actually illegal happens. If done as intended, it is supposed to penalize you for the sole misdoing not fleeing in the given thirty minutes.
==chicago suntimes==
Under the ordinance, the curfew can remain in place for three hours, or as soon as the city’s regular curfew hits. For teenagers, that’s at 10 p.m.
This is just a little aside because as far as I saw, teenagers are the only ones with a curfew. And regardless of if this was just a little miswording, or an actual whole, attempt to manufacture consent for curfews for other groups. We’re just not going to let that slide without comment
==courthousenews==
Johnson added that Snelling said he didn’t ask for the ordinance and wouldn’t use it.
Now, I would like to emphasize, we do already have policies for “large group dispersal” in Chicago.
==wttw news==
That policy outlines when and for what reason CPD can declare a gathering unlawful and order people to disperse or face legal consequences. The policy requires that “three or more persons are committing acts of disorderly conduct that are likely to cause substantial harm in the immediate vicinity” before a dispersal order is issued.
The new ordinances would be about preventing a gathering in the first place.
a few notes on the more updated proposal that thankfully also has not gone into effect. Much praise to those threatening lawsuits over these attacks on civil rights
==wttw news==
The proposal would allow Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling to declare a pre-emptive curfew, with at least 12 hours’ notice, before a planned mass gathering. Read the full proposal. Snelling would only be required to consult with Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Garien Gatewood before declaring what the measure refers to as a “time and place” curfew. The curfew could last for no more than four hours, and there is no restriction on how large the area impacted could be.
Again, so much power. Such nonexistent oversight
Let’s take a moment to Repeat the fucking obvious
==courthousenews==
This ordinance threatens to further criminalize youth — particularly Black and Brown youth — under the guise public safety,” members of Chicago’s Progressive Caucus said in a statement released ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “It echoes decades of failed policies that have targeted communities of color with punitive measures instead of investing in prevention, opportunity, and support. We are deeply concerned that this approach will widen existing disparities, undermine trust in city institutions, and do nothing to meaningfully address the root causes of violence or insecurity
==chicago suntimes==
It is counterproductive to the progress we have made in reducing crime and violence in our city,” Johnson said at a news conference where he announced the veto less than two hours after the proposal passed
It would create tensions between residents and law enforcement at a time when we have worked so hard to rebuild that trust,” he said
==courthousenews==
The data indicates that setting … arbitrary curfews does not yield results that are favorable,” the mayor told the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board in a 2024 interview
==chicago suntimes==
The proposal has been a point of controversy in the Council as the mayor and its progressive members have derided it as an ineffective way to address teen takeovers at best and unconstitutional at worst
==chicago suntimes==
Some people have raised red flags that even though the police department may vow not to use the bare minimum of 30 minutes, the ordinance would still empower it to do so. They’ve raised concerns police will not be able to adequately inform youth that a curfew is being implemented within just 30 minutes, and that will lead to kids being unfairly cited for curfew violation, or to constitutional rights being violated
Being frank, the 30 minute timeframe is such an example of not thinking that kids and teens are like human beings and not little machines built to take inputs and respond to orders. Though calling these “orders” is being incredibly generous, because how in the ever living fuck are you supposed to communicate to several hundred unrelated humans that they have thirty minutes to evacuate a region. I work with a group of contractors, all grown ass adults older than me in a team with single digit numbers. Every single time we leave a job site, there’s at least one person who doesn’t go to use the bathroom until the moment we’re trying to leave despite the fact that we always make a call of when people should start trying to use the bathroom for the last time.
==wttw news==
Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez (25th Ward) and other progressive members of the City Council said the ordinance would do nothing to prevent the gatherings from taking place and serve only to criminalize Black and Latino teens and make them feel unwelcome downtown and along the lakefront
==chicago suntimes==
Repeated changes to the proposal — made in response to concerns — led one of the three lead sponsors, 28th War Ald. Jason Ervin, to drop his support. During his floor speech, Ervin, who is Black, spoke about a time he traveled to Anna, Illinois, a place with a notorious history of being a sundown town, where he was told he couldn’t be. When this ordinance first hit, it was eerily familiar to saying that Black kids could not go to downtown…. That’s why I got involved…. Unfortunately, what we have now is worse than what we started with. Now, not only can it happen downtown, but it can happen all over the city,” Ervin said. This power is bestowed in one department,” he added. “And again, giving authority to a department that historically has not had the best interest of Black kids in its place is not something I want to sign up for.”
Their defense of this bullshit?
Before we get into the defenses, I want to share this little bit that I think we should keep in the back of our minds-
==chicago suntimes==
The day before the vote, Johnson gave his most fiery criticism yet of the plan, which he characterized as a shortcut instead of holistic solutions to address crime’s root causes. …
Why not just work with my administration to continue to do the things that work, versus these make-believe, lazy, sloppily put together ordinances that work to just, like, absolve people of actually having to do the real hard work?” he asked.
in response to that
3rd Ward Ald. Pat Dowell, who endorsed Johnson for mayor and remains a Council ally, clapped back at his remarks. “I’m not down here doing lazy governance,” said Dowell, a co-sponsor of the plan.
of note, I am deeply embarrassed that this is a Black woman but keep that in mind
The defenses
==chicago suntimes==
We’re not saying get your billy clubs and beat the kids upside the head,” she added. “This is a tool before the crowd starts so we can shut it down.
I just can’t stress enough how much, your solution being in the form of arrests, detainment, and fines before a crime has occurred is such basic Jim Crow level shit its actually taught in US schools
From the Chicago Police Department Chief of Patrol Jon Heim
==wttw news==
Heim said CPD’s widely praised handling of the gatherings outside the Democratic National Convention in August and the progress the department has made in complying with the consent decree — the federal court order requiring CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers — should reassure alderpeople that CPD will use the new power appropriately. CPD has fully complied with 16% of the consent decree, according to the latest report from the independent monitoring team charged with keeping tabs on the city’s progress.
And that could be an article or a punchline in The Onion
==chicago suntimes==
Hopkins argued it is not a “snap curfew” because in order to declare a curfew and give a 30-minute warning, police would have to collect evidence that a group of 20 or more kids are intending to commit crimes, and then would have to consult with Gatewood, as the ordinance spells out.
This is another example of not perceiving the teens in the situation as real human beings. Because how are you going to say “no, we the state and the police we know that we might pull a curfew because we have to investigate it. It won’t be a surprise to us and that’s all that matters, right?”
==chicago suntimes==
Snelling said he would “never use” that snap power, that it is “not something that I asked for or that I need” and that it would be “unfair to the youth who are already in that location” to issue a curfew with just a 30-minute warning.
Garien Gatewood, deputy mayor for community safety, confirmed Tuesday, too, that he “didn’t ask for” the 30-minute provision.
So…You went to vote with a “solution” the person you’re giving an obscene amount of amount of power to will not publicly say they ever agreed to, and you don’t think this is sloppy?
Well, if the person receiving the power never asked for this, who did?
==chicago suntimes==
“We were in a room, and the superintendent was there, the deputy mayor was there, a number of attorneys were there, drafters from [the Legislative Reference Bureau] were there. The mayor himself was there, and we all made suggestions. And I can’t remember where the 30-minute time period came from. It wasn’t the superintendent — fair enough — but it did come about as part of that discussion,” Hopkins said.
It is at this point, that I start crashing the fuck out
you went to vote on a thirty minute time for the snap curfew, and not a singular person can identify whose idea it was? A number shows up out of thin air and no one questions it. No one challenges it. Nobody even seems to want it. But you still selected as your official number as you take it to an official vote.
Being very frank, I think every single person who agreed to this, and every single person that voted for it simply liked the idea of having the results of a sundown town directed at kids. But upon finding out that people were calling them Jim Crow laws in a bad way no one wants their career tarnished by being on record as being enthusiastic for it.
Reminds me of that rapper that got dragged because they were talking shit and essentially saying kids should not be allowed on public transport, and either they or their friend responded “everyone’s always talking about “fuck them kids” but getting mad when someone’s really about it.” like, actual gross shit
And it gets worse
==chicago suntimes==
If a curfew is implemented, will kids be detained or will kids be dispersed? Dispersing our children versus detaining our children is what was raised … by residents of the 6th Ward,” Hall said. “My residents were very concerned about… a roundup of kids because of a curfew that is citywide or in a certain area of the city that doesn’t apply to bad kids…. I’m on board as long as there’s not any civil rights violations that have been raised in the last 24 hours,” he said.
How in the ever living fuck are any of these ordinances going to votes and there are people unclear on if the kids will be detained or dispersed? How is it not crystal clear what the cops will be doing once they engage in the situation?
If you do not think that this is sloppy, you are bad at your job and you do not deserve your job.
This is a note from a parent talking about the situation, trying to sympathize with wanting the curfews
==southsideweekly==
if they don’t conduct themselves in the proper manner, it just might have to happen because you have other people that want to enjoy downtown without worrying about getting caught in a bunch of teenagers.
Could you fucking imagine if people talked about sports fans like this? I hate when when I get on the train to get home from work and its full of loud and rowdy sports fans. I’ve worked in several customer service jobs including a sports bar, and I was held to a standard of if a customer attacks me they get two-three swings before I am allowed to defend myself. But because they’re paying money no one would ever think to say something like this
hell, a much bigger problem, could you imagine if the state talked about bigots and rapists like this? People causing long standing, systemic, generational harm being given strict boundaries instead of positions in office. But no “the teens are being loud at the mall, how will I ever go on?”.
Then you had some twat on the radio respond to Mayor Johnson saying to solve the problem, we must “invest in them” and his response was something along the lines of “this is an angry violent mob. How do you invest in that?”
I mean this from the heart, some of y’all are so tunnel visioned on the sound of your own voice, you let object permanence beat your ass from Monday to Sunday. Because, believe it or not, this amorphous Creature you refer to as on “angry violent mob” is actually a group of a bunch of different people. Not only do they exist during the sliver of time where they have caught your attention, but they exist before and after those moments, just in less of a group formation. And frankly, if you do not understand the idea of investing in people to keep them from going to extremes or committing crimes, let alone the data on this specifically with regards to kids, I will not entertain the idea that you are ready to be a meaningful part of this conversation.
And even more disgustingly, they have been using the recent killing of Armani Floyd, the second of two kids to be killed through the history of teen trends, they are using their death as a prop. Using it to erase discussions about “Do these measures actually work? Are we addressing the root problem?” in favor of this reactionary “I see cops now and brain go brrrr, so I must be doing something right.” In a moment, we’ll get into a statement regarding social media companies that is so foul I have no faith in any politician that would ever actually say it.
But for now…
they claim
==fox32chicago==
Had that ordinance been in place, they could have used the curfew enforcement at 8 p.m. which would have reduced the number of teens that were there and quelled the violence.” Hopkins said
But the answer to this is the answer it seems its always been.
Looking back…
==axios==
the [State Street] incidents [a prior shooting] took place prior to any curfew violation.”
They’re talking as if, as if violence can’t possibly happen before ten pm
And when the results of these harsh curfews would force teens out of big social holiday events, they’re exacerbating the real problem.
Social media company “responsibility”
==wttw==
The second measure set for a vote Wednesday would require social media platforms to take down posts designed to advertise “unlawful teen gatherings” within six hours of being notified by city officials that the posts violate local laws — or explain why they didn’t take action, according to the proposal
The kids just gathering is not illegal. On the news they’re referring to these as teen takeovers to make it seem like they’re something intentionally malicious, to convince you that these are all criminals and that there needs to be a carceral response. But when you look at the actual fuckin reality of it, what about teens gathering is illegal unless you actually decide to declare teens gathering to be illegal. Which is oppressive
They’re saying
==axios==
“Cyber crimes are just as important to prevent as someone on the street with a gun. [They’re] a part in this mayhem,” Hall told Axios
In the research that I did, I have yet to see anyone describe an actual criminal act occur on social media. Exclusively, I’ve seen people trying to criminalize the act of using social media to organize.
(Which I think is super important for us to all be hyper vigilant of. Remember at the top, when I said our willingness to allow or participate in the oppression of someone else will fuck you over? Here it is again)
And here is where they again use the death of Armani Floyd in a way that I find to be deeply disrespectful and plain disgusting.
==chicago suntimes==
Talking to the family members — the realization that had the curfew been in place and we had the ability to cancel this event and prohibit it from getting to the point where fights broke out and guns were fired — [that] Armani Floyd would be alive had a profound effect,” Hopkins said.
Another official goes on to say
==chicago suntimes==
I’ve been to many funerals in our city due to gun violence. But this one was different because it was partly insinuated by social media, and wondering if the child hadn’t seen the image on their phone, would they still be alive?” Hall told the Chicago Sun-Times
Like, I refuse to believe these grown ass, adults older than me, are under the impression that violence didn’t exist before twitter. They use words like partly for plausible deniability, then throw the full hammer of “would they still be alive if it wasn’t for their phone?”
Not only is this statement, again, dehumanizing kids by ignoring the reality that the problem lies in the reason why they feel the need to gather like this and the reason why they have tense emotions that, on a few occasions, have led to violence at these events. But trying to frame social media and the lack of abusive curfews as the sole reason why this child died without taking a singular moment to talk to the actual kids is vile
Now on the other side, let’s look at what they’re calling “investing” in youths
==chicago suntimes==
She said investing in solutions to the root causes of crime, such as expanding youth jobs, isn’t an “either/or” to giving police the curfew tool. “Working with you, Mr. Mayor, we have prioritized and increased funding for youth jobs. We have increased summer employment… and we’ve given teens the opportunities to find fun.
This sounds like an evil step mom trying not to get caught sending you to military school
Let’s take a look at the programs
==chicago.gov==
Over 2,000 year-round youth jobs created through DFSS programs like Safe Spaces and the Chicago Youth Service Corps;
My CHI. My Future. platform connected over 50,000 youth to more than 45,000 opportunities; The DSS Laborer’s Trainee Pilot provided 70 recent CPS graduates with hands-on job training; 55 were hired full-time into union roles.
Over 2,000 year-round youth jobs created through DFSS programs like Safe Spaces and the Chicago Youth Service Corps;
You’re putting them to work. Fuck. Off
Don’t worry you’ve also got
==chicago.gov==
The Peacekeeper Pilot program, in collaboration with GoodKids MadCity, employed 100 youth to receive training and promote safety in their communities;
so, junior cops
But this one actually looked pretty good… at first.
==chicago.gov==
155 youth-focused “kickback” events** planned by youth throughout the city through the My CHI. My Future. (MCMF) Safe Spaces program, attended by more than 16,750 Chicagoans; 97% of youth employees agreed that participating in the kickbacks made them feel closer to their communities
Also from that report
The report highlights the voices and experiences of young people as they engaged with a wide variety of programs. “Being part of the Safe Spaces Kickbacks made me feel more connected to where I live,” said Jasmin R., a 17-year-old participant from Auburn Gresham. “I learned how to lead, how to speak up, and how to uplift my community. It helped me see what’s possible.”
When, may I ask, do they get to learn to be a fucking kid?
==chicago.gov==
Acting Deputy Mayor for Education, Youth, and Human Services.** “We created jobs, elevated youth leadership, and built real infrastructure around youth voice. Our strategy revolves around putting young people at the center so that they can design the spaces and services that work for them.”
So, to summarize, the responses to teens begging for and demanding space to exist in this city are either criminalization or the systemic adultification of Black and BIPOC kids. fuck the state to hell and back
But I’m getting ahead of myself. You don’t even know how bad the kids are strangled out of existing in this city, because barley anyone in the prior articles bothered to fucking ask.
Just like with any other form of systemic oppression, the discussions about how to solve these “teen problems” happen about kids without kids.
==southsideweekly==
We always talking about the kids, but you don’t hire them. You tell them what you feel they should have and how they should think, and right there is where we go wrong,” Phillips said. “How you going to dissect or solve a problem without the people you deem the cause of it? So you have to have them in a room.
==chicago suntimes==
It bothers me that we have a room full of young people, and no one has asked them their opinion on this issue,” Clay said. “People who are mostly impacted by what we are discussing should be at this table…. We can’t just talk about ‘Let’s have a curfew,’ but then what are you going to do after the curfew?”
==southsideweekly==
On May 8, Deputy Mayor of Community Safety Garien Gatewood hosted a roundtable discussion and field trip for about 100 adults. They visited multiple teen trend hotspots in Streeterville, including the AMC Theatre and Target on Illinois Street and Ogden Plaza Park. The goal of the trip was for attendees to brainstorm, collaborate and build out an intervention and prevention response for large-scale teen gatherings. Teens were noticeably absent because it was held during school hours.
This literally creates a system in which teens would be criminalized and demonized for attempting to participate in legislation about them. “Because they’re missing school”
Let me preface this next section with: Y’all are more than welcome to go on a rant about how kids are just not capable of understanding, couldn’t possibly have anything meaningful to say on the subject, etc. I will give you an infinite number of examples of the exact same thing being used to describe every other oppressed group throughout the entirety of history. If you want to bring up the debunked “science” of your brain not being done developing until twenty five, I’ll bring up the debunked “science” that the negro brain is smaller than the white brain and thus the negro “must be” less intelligent than the white man. “Science” the NFL used until a few years ago to deny paying out black players with concussions because “you’re just like that.” My warning to you is this, you can allow your biases to convince you of anything you want. But that does not mean the people you are putting down have to tolerate it.
So lets listen to the kids
I’d like to start by pointing out the fact that the article I read that did actually interview kids and teens about the ordinances pretty exclusively interviewed kids at prep schools and one college student. I think its very important to point out the situation we have in which those probably are the only kids that the state would consider as having voices worth listening to, but also the fact that the article and the magazine allowed those to be the only voices that they validated.
==southsideweekly==
Hanging out with friends always involves spending money. There weren’t many spaces that I could go to in my neighborhood that were free.
==southsideweekly==
Before what happened to Seandell, I didn’t feel welcome at Millennium Park. It feels like we have to stay inside or only go to certain neighborhoods and places to enjoy ourselves. It’s sad to say, but mostly the places that aren’t in our neighborhoods are the best places in the city. I feel like that’s where we have to go to have fun.
==southsideweekly==
In some other places, like Navy Pier, we can’t get inside because we’re not old enough. So far, those were like the only places I’ve been, like, downtown. Chinatown is very nice, but there could be some more, like, chill hangout spots, indoors for all ages, not just until you have an ID and stuff like that. Because, I mean, Chicago, it’s very nice. There are lots of places to go to, but you either have to have an adult with you or be eighteen. I haven’t heard of teen trends before, but I have tried going to Millennium Park with friends. We couldn’t get inside alone because we needed a parent.
And expanding off of that with two notes from parents
==southsideweekly==
Not long ago malls in and around Chicago were the go-to spot for high schoolers with nothing to do, which eventually led to parental supervision rules at Water Tower Place and a youth escort policy at Ford City Mall. These restrictions essentially ban teens seventeen or younger from being at these malls starting Friday evening and spanning the entire weekend, unless they’re accompanied by a parent or adult over twenty-one.
==triibe==
You can’t go to the movies without bringing somebody — an adult — with you. So, where do you go?” she said. “We down these kids and say they don’t have any social skills. But, where [are] they gonna go where they’re not policed?
==southsideweekly==
My school is really the hangout spot. We have an open gym and we have workouts together. It’s free of charge.
another note from a parent
==southsideweekly==
Even though I grew up in public housing, we still had so many resources within the school system. We had gym, recess, we had actual extracurriculars already built into the school schedules, so there wasn’t a need to worry about after school stuff or before school stuff —and a lot of things were offered in our neighborhood schools. That’s another issue; neighborhood schools have been demonized. Those students are considered the “leftovers” that couldn’t get into this or that…. So it’s a lot of things going on that is really pushing kids to seek fun elsewhere
==southsideweekly==
There are no places for us to just be free. The only thing that you can do for real is walk to the store, get some snacks and then go back home. I want my alderman to convince the mayor, or somebody who has enough money, to build a space where teenagers can eat, hang out, and have fun without all these restrictions making us feel like children. There’s really no other solution to these teen takeovers
==southsideweekly==
As a Black teenager downtown, it does not seem like a person like me, who has dreadlocks and is African American, is welcomed downtown. It feels like you’re invading someone’s space, but the space exists for everyone. I totally disagree with the new curfew. I feel like it treats all youth like we’re criminals or troublemakers. They’re basing this on small events that have happened up north. They’re making a mass movement on all youth
==southsideweekly==
I’ve been to one teen trend at 31st Street Beach, and it wasn’t like that negative experience. It was really like that exposure of Black culture. There were dancers and speakers. It felt like it was unified where I was, but like, throughout downtown, there were more teens and like, violence may occur, but where I was, it wasn’t like that. What youth need in general is safe spaces. We need spaces where we can gather in our community. We shouldn’t have to be downtown.
I have a few more notes from a parent even though this particular parent- I believe all these quotes are from the same person- also had the most egregious nostalgia filter/ was dissociating teens as non human beings but rather some other secondary thing that could never have feelings similar to yours. Saying things along the lines of “kids go to school and then they come home and talk to their classmates on social media and they’re just bringing school home with them now” As if those classmates are not also a thing called friends. As if its suddenly abnormal for a kid to want to hang out with friends in their free time. As if they as an adult would not also want to finish a long hard day at work and then maybe kick it with some friends.
But they do make some absolutely phenomenal points after
==southsideweekly==
I think a lot of these policies being introduced aren’t to stop these things from happening within our community, they’re to stop where they happen. Because y’all didn’t care, and y’all haven’t cared, that this exact same thing has been happening to the South Side, to the East Side, and to the West Side. It’s when they come downtown and y’all pass a certain threshold, we got to do something about it because you’re making other demographics feel uncomfortable. Everybody wants to come see the Mag Mile and the Bean and Buckingham Fountain, but don’t nobody want to see that if all these teens are getting off the Millennium station line and coming up there and just being teenagers, they don’t want to do that if it’s too many Black people. ^[q]
If there were more age-friendly concerts, shows, exhibits, etc. How do we have all of these fantastic institutions, museums and things, and there’s nothing geared towards engaging the next generation? Y’all not trying. You put all this effort into trying to blockade them from messing up what money you think is there, instead of engaging them and making money from them, making money with them.
(Though I must emphasize that kids should not be required to spend money to exist. no one should)
Y’all missed the opportunities to engage and provide space for these communities, and instead just want to blockade them away. It’s just gonna breed rebellion and contempt, and a lot of what you think you’re preventing or stopping, you just exacerbate. ^[q]
This shit isn’t just random, they don’t got no where to go!
Instead of just saying ‘stop this, you can’t do this,’ say ‘y’all can’t do this, but we got this for y’all in the summer.’ Why aren’t they having somewhere they can go and just be? It just feels like there’s nothing for them to do so they go downtown and do what they’d normally do on their block.
If you pullin’ up somewhere consistently and we can create this sharing of knowledge, you would brighten up a kid’s life.
==southsideweekly==
Elijah Burkaklter is a student at Butler College Prep. He wants his neighborhood to be more inclusive for children so they can meet there instead of traveling outside their neighborhood
Keep in mind The types of events kids are being pushed out of now
The shooting that happened most recently was at the city’s christmas tree lighting ceremony. It resulted in kids being policed out of new years celebrations.
Remember what we just learned about what kids are actually saying about why they gather in mass. about the things they feel like they actually need. When you refuse to respect what they have to say, you continue to go down roads that insist on dehumanizing them, and make the problem worse.
But where are the parents?
==fox32chicago==
Hopkins also raised concerns about parental supervision, questioning why so many teens were out downtown late at night without adults present.
I will only be entertaining this question here, because the answer in most other situations is “teens are people too and people like to hang out with their friends without being monitored sometimes.”
But other answers can include:
the parents are dead tired
they’re spending what time they can with their own friends and not forcing their kids to sit around bored and lonely while the adults spend time with their friends
they are not a safe person for the child to be around.
You actually don’ see a ton of politicians asking about the parents. And its for the obvious reason. If you’re trying to solve this problem with child labor or police, then you can’t bring up the parents because the targeted policing and the overworking are what got us here. This is an entire broken system, giving kids the option of jail or a job is only going to exasperate it.
And something I think folks really need to get through their head, pushing kids out of spaces like this primes them to be abused by an adult. It creates a carrot someone can dangle in front of a kid’s head.
To create a safe for kids you have to demystify adulthood, talk to them, answer questions, treat them as if they’re full human beings deserving of respect and dignity. But if they can’t even go to the Christmas tree lighting anymore- a major social holiday event- that becomes bait abusers can use. If the community that actually cares about them does not show them what its like to be properly cared for, then someone else gets to be fully in control of what that kid thinks it would look like.
But all y’all just wanna talk about our cell phones. Y’all want to talk about some cell phones? Let’s have a real fucking conversation. Would those kids be alive if they felt like they were welcome in their city? Would those kids be alive if they didn’t feel like invaders in their own city? Would those kids still be alive if they didn’t need to be in groups of a couple hundred in order to hang around with their friends? Would those kids be alive if they felt like they were being treated like human beings?
Because the reason teen trends happens is because you’re safer in numbers. Teens are not welcome to exist and just hang out with their homies in this city. So if they want to hang out with their friends, they have to be in groups of hundreds in order to protect themselves from us. And that that is the fucking problem
Reading the statements from teens about what it feels like what they need to try and be okay in the city, I can only think of one thing.
==histiory.com==
In his 1993 article “A Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing,” published in the magazine Foreign Affairs, Andrew Bell-Fialkoff writes that the aim of the Serbian campaign was “the expulsion of an ‘undesirable’ population from a given territory due to religious or ethnic discrimination, political, strategic or ideological considerations, or a combination of those.” ^[q]
gentrification is a face of ethnic cleansing- a connection I personally learned from Ismatu Gwendolyn, but I believe they learned it from Black Panthers that have still been fighting all these years
gentrification is a face of ethnic cleansing and teens, minors, are at a bottleneck of oppression, strangled out of society, and presented as the one group we should all agree apartheid is ok for.
And while I must emphasize that teen trends should not be classified as riots, or demonized as the state continues to try to do for the sake of getting support for their restrictions on teens, I still think this quote by Martin Luther King Jr is important to reflect on right now,
“…I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.
So what’s the solution?
1
Third spaces
==nbc chicago==
Local youth activist Daquan Ford, a fellow with Communities United, is a proponent for a solution outside of a curfew ordinance. “I think the solution is to build centers where teen youth can actually gather themselves while being monitored by older adults,” Ford told NBC Chicago
==southsideweekly==
I feel like alders are missing the fact that teens need a space, a space that is welcoming and a space that doesn’t really limit them. There are rules everywhere, but I feel like there should be a space where teens can meet up and not be watched by 100 policemen. Community centers are needed everywhere for teens to hang out. I still think about the trend events at Markham Skating Rink. It was a treasure because it was a party room for kids, and we could go skating.
the long term solution that we need, is for kids to be able to exist in safe spaces. Community centers, bring back the juice bars they sound dope as fuck. Places to hang out, have fun, and not be policed
2
Stand up for them
The most immediate solution to resolve the problem of teens feeling so unwelcome and chased out of society is for us adults to stand the fuck up and protect them. Adults that are not associated with the state: if you see a group of teens trying to hang out with their friends but they start getting hassled by security or by cops; if all they need is to be with an adult of twenty one or older, stand up and say “they are with me”. Make your presence a symbol that teenagers will always be allowed to exist in public spaces as everyone should be allowed to.
And super important point, this has got to be all of us. Remember what I said about these restrictions priming kids for abuse, if we all step in, if we all participate in making sure spaces are welcoming to teenagers, then that’s a lot of eyes holding each other accountable for how we interact with kids making the space that much safer
