[Photo by AL IN PHILADELPHIA]
INQUIRER: The economic and social core of the city will be off-limits to minors after 9 p.m. on weekends after Mayor Nutter announced Monday that he was expanding the city’s curfew in response to “flash mobs” of marauding teenagers. The early curfew will apply to anyone under 18 in Center City and University City, where police officers on foot, bike, and horseback will continue to be deployed in force. Nutter also said 20 of the city’s largest recreation centers would be open until 10 Friday and Saturday nights as the city searches for more “long-term, sustainable . . . safe spaces for our young people.” MORE
RELATED: Teenagers who beat a man near Independence Hall during an afternoon attack July 29 have been identified as Mastery Charter School students, a school official said Monday. Surveillance footage of the attack, which occurred around 2 p.m. – hours before more teen mob violence in Center City – shows six males, some with backpacks, walking north on Fourth Street just below Walnut Street. They come upon a man walking south. The man, who police said is 36, gives the teens room to pass when one, who is without a shirt, suddenly punches him in the head. Two others join in punching and kicking the man. An eyewitness yells and the students flee. The victim was treated at a hospital for jaw injuries. […] Mastery has won high praise for its ability to turn around once-troubled middle schools. In July 2010, President Obama singled out Mastery for dramatically boosting test scores and curbing school violence. Oprah Winfrey gave Mastery a $1 million grant as part of her Angel Network last year. Mastery aims to prepare students for college with a strict behavior code. More than 90 percent of Lenfest students go on to college, Gordon said. “We are horrified and shocked that our students were involved in this,” he said. “This behavior is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.” MORE
RELATED: Now we call them “flash mobs” or “teen mobs,” but in the early 1980’s Philadelphians called them a somewhat more indelicate term: “wolf packs.” In 1981 and 1982, Philly struggled to deal with dozens of violent attacks and robberies committed by packs of marauding teens across the city: on the Market-Frankford EL; in Northern Liberties, in University City; and in Center City. In Oct. 1980, according to Inquirer clippings, 49 young people were arrested in the aftermath of “wolf pack” raids on Super Sunday revelers. About 250 teens walked through the Benjamin Franklin Parkway crowds, punching and pouncing people, police said. Two weeks later, during the Phillies World Series Parade, police arrested 226 purse snatchers and pick-pockets — many of them working in “wolf packs,” police said. MORE