Hours before they called the cops and the U.S. Marshals, there were warning signs we were in for trouble. "These are the same people that were here the last time it happened," one of the servers said while waiting for food to come out of the kitchen at the Cheesecake Factory on the Plaza.
A manager who hadn't worked on the Plaza long enough to know it attracted as many trashy people as rich people was complaining about a table of a dozen kids who'd ordered one piece of cheesecake and asked for 12 forks.
About a year ago my wife started graduate school. If you've ever pursued a master's degree, you know that higher education isn't cheap. I don't consider myself above a little food service, so I took a night gig working at the Cheesecake Factory to help pay for all of those big books. I wasn't around when the first so-called flash mob hit the Plaza earlier this year, but I happened to be working the desk this past Saturday night.
Since I didn't see the rest of the Plaza, I can't say what happened everywhere, but I can tell you how things looked from the Cheesecake Factory's patio. It started and finished in five minutes -- not even long enough to feel anything besides confused. Things were quiet, and then, at about 10:30 p.m., and from seemingly nowhere, the restaurant's patio was flooded with people.
On one side, there was a wall of kids standing up on the fountain and running down to the tables screaming and shouting and seemingly threatening another dozen kids across from them. I watched from behind the smaller side. All of these kids -- none of whom was probably old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes -- blending into one another and cutting their hands though the air. It was like looking at a living impressionist painting.
I doubt anyone could quote anything anyone was saying, because it was impossible to make out one voice from the chorus. All that you knew for sure was that the people eating out there were so stunned that they didn't react, and a manager was hollering from inside the restaurant for the rest of the staff to get back behind closed doors while another boss called the cops. Then, as quickly as it started, the police were there, and the crowd scattered.
We all heard stories in the spring about people being robbed and a girl wearing a prom dress dunked in a fountain. But if there was any consideration of the people around them, this time the mob didn't show it. It was as if they were putting on a show for one another, and they cared about the men and women on the sidewalk as much as an actor onstage cares about a bit of set dressing.
Immediately after the crowd had left the Cheesecake Factory patio,
cop cars were cruising down the street behind kids, their PAs
blaring out: "Keep walking! Keep walking!" while officers on foot
hung out on corners herding the stragglers. The law appeared so
quickly, and in such numbers, you figured they'd been waiting for
something like this all summer.
I'm not a bodybuilder, but at 6-2 I'm big enough, and one of the managers asked me to guard the patio gate and keep everyone out until the cops finished their crowd control. Mostly, I just watched the people.
"You want me to act gangster you fuckin' bitch?" one boy asked, walking by a cop.
"What was that?" the cop responded.
"Nothin'" the kid said, and walked the next 10 feet with his hands in the air like a gun was pointed at him.
Across the street from the restaurant, another officer shouted at a girl who couldn't have been older than 12 to use the crosswalk. The girl shouted back something that didn't use the words "fuck" and "you," but meant just that. When she reached his side of the street, the cop pushed her against the wall of the Cold Stone Creamery ice cream shop and handcuffed her. A girl of maybe 15 who said she was the jaywalker's sister ran over using the words her sister hadn't. She got cuffed, too.
Another boy said something about shooting a cop the next time he saw one.
As Nelson Algren once observed of my relatives in the slums of Chicago, some of the people our hearts bleed for are also cruel and stupid.
Though no one in my corner of the Plaza was hurt and no one had seen any weapons, it wasn't long before there were people speculating that a gun was involved in the fountain incident. When I first heard it, I could easily picture how by 1 a.m. some ass in a bar could be telling people how he'd narrowly escaped certain death and that the mob had come in on horseback with grenades and bazookas.
The last time this happened, the action was a lot more violent, with a lot more people, and a number of bloggers speculated that race played a part of it, whether because low-income black kids wanted to raise hell and scare a bunch of rich white people, or the city's response was somehow racist. This time the reaction both from mainstream media and blogs has been fairly muted -- perhaps because it happened on a holiday weekend when no one's staffed properly -- but there's still the mention of racial tensions.
As I watched the police work, a guy who'd just finished a shift at the Classic Cup Cafe worried aloud that there would be another week of people calling the Plaza racist because of what was happening. Some people are going to argue -- correctly -- that assuming every black kid is a thug from a low-income area is small-minded bullshit. Some people are going to argue (reasonably) that if you're confronted with a few hundred pissed-off kids threatening one another, the only sensible response is to call the cops. Which side you're inclined to go with probably depends on whether you were there at 10:30 or 11 p.m.
Imagine you're a black kid who just wanted to go see a showing of Machete or take your girlfriend out to dinner. You finish watching Danny Trejo teach evildoers that they've fucked with the wrong Mexican, and you're having a good night, and you have no idea of what's been happening outside of that theater for the last 30 minutes. Now when you walk out, the first thing you see is a cop rushing at you screaming to get out of the Plaza before he puts you in handcuffs. From the cop's point of view, everyone that looked like the flash mob was in the flash mob. Who has time to question 500 people individually?
About 30 minutes after the cops arrived, there were some scared-looking black kids inside the Cheesecake Factory. Booths that had been full of laughing teenagers a minute earlier now had people holding menus up to cover their faces long after they'd ordered. They got quiet when new customers came in making a lot of jokes about dinner and a show. The same manager who had yelled at the staff to get inside the building was now muttering about racial profiling. At least one server told a table that they should wait until the police were finished before they left, unless they wanted to be chased out. The kids who did decide to leave asked for empty to-go boxes just to prove they were legitimate customers and not rioters.
I'm not going to presume to solve a problem better men than me have failed to answer. I'll bet against even the best of you solving it in the comments section, even though I'd love to hear what you think and I suppose some have ideas. But for now, know that it's a hell of a sad thing to see how quickly good cops can scare the shit out of innocent children. Sadder when you understand everyone did the only thing they could do.
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The parents dont want to be parents and expect the government to do their job for them. This is not a race issue except that those involved say they are being harrased due to being black. Bull they are being treated with the actions that their actions deserve. The parents should be held accountable. Numerous 10,12 and 15 year old kids are dropped off by their parents so their parents "can get their party on". Under Missouir statute if a person is in fear for their life they are authorized to use deadly force to protect themselves. Just a note that there is a very large group of legally armed citizens that are going to be visiting the Plaza area frequently on the upcoming weekends. Hope to see you there
Oh if we could get rid of the illegal mexican's in this country then maybe there would be jobs for teenagers again. Look at all the fast food restaurants, there full of illegal's or someone who is pretending to be legal with someone else's social security number. they cant even understand when i tell them no onions and no pickles on my sandwich.
anyways, kids these days have no respect. im tired of all the trashy people who cant raise thier children right. i was raised poor in the ghetto's and i got away from it by working hard and saving money. I have a great job and it pay's great and live in a beautiful neighborhood raising a family and teaching them family value's and respect. Seeing kids act stupid and ghetto just gets on my nerves. It seems as if america is on a downward spiral and its only going to get worse as more trashy people keeping breeding trashy children and so on.
Didn't we already have to deal with these people doing these things on the Plaza in the 60's? I say put them in their place like that again.
Someone should inform anonymous that unemployment for kids is at record levels, there aren't jobs for kids because of the economy.
This problem is a combination of about a half dozen different factors, it will take alot of people working together to help us solve our problems.
Its not a fucking black or white issue!... Its the fact that some dumb ass ignorrant parents should have gotten their tubes tied or put a damn sock on it!... They have zero parenting skills and shouldnt be allowed to even have kids because the level of common sense and morals are so low!.. Get off of the race card its old ,overplayed and a b.s. excuse!!!
I agree all! They need jobs...but it comes down to the fundamental aspect of (drumroll please) Parenting! That is all
All of these problems and probably the majority of problems in our world come down to "RESPECT" and usually the lack thereof.
They all need jobs. I didn't have time to do this shit when I was a kid. MAKE YOUR KIDS WORK. It isn't something that only backwards ass rednecks (hard working farm folks) do. It is okay for teenagers to work. Just make them get jobs....maybe they'll grow up and have jobs instead of running around shooting each other over $43.
I'm latina and was raised poor. However, I have respect for authority and for other people as well. From the observations made in this article, I don't think the cops were wrong in what they did (in these instances anyways). You don't disrespect authority by cussing at them or acting crazy. They are there to preserve the safety of the public. What is the point of a flash mob anyways? To stir people up and create senseless havoc? These kids need something to do so they don't have to do dumb stuff like this. Also, the innocent kids should not be afraid of the cops, but instead of their peers who act in shameful ways. I can understand them thinking that they'd be profiled but if anything, they should blame the ones who caused the havoc, not the police for preserving their safety.
I was there last Saturday. I was also there for the "Plaza Riot" and the four weeks prior that the media refused to cover. Last Saturday there were some groups of kids but nothing like the 500+ there were last time. No pepper spray, no mass vandalism, no assault charges, and not even a police copter. Are we going to have to report every incident on the Plaza from now on as "The Riots Part II"?
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