A mob of teenagers swarmed Chicago’s Hyde Park on March 30, jumping onto cars and running through the streets.
Multiple vehicles were damaged during the incident and neighbors said the mob did not leave the area for hours, Fox 32 reported on March 31.
When speaking of the state of his own car, neighbor Jason Hale said, “Yeah, it’s bad. The hood is messed up, terrible. A thousand worth of damage, dents everywhere, footprints everywhere.”
Video footage shows the young people running down a street with some of them leaping onto parked cars. The chaos included shouting, car alarms, and sirens from police vehicles:
“The incident is the latest in what police and city leaders describe as a growing trend of teen takeovers across Chicago. These gatherings, often organized on social media, have been linked to property damage, fights, injuries and, in some cases, deaths,” the Fox article read.
Officers with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) were seen walking with the teenagers for some of the time while “trying to keep order,” ABC 7 reported. The officers cited three people for curfew violations and a 16-year-old girl is facing charges that include unlawful possession of a weapon.
Chitown Crime Chasers founder Justin Peters, who was at the scene with team members trying to quell any violence, found an eighth grader who had been beaten.
“He was scared. He was he was crying. He was confused. He just wanted to go home. We’ve been urging for more parents to just step up and have conversations with their kids about these takeovers, the crowds they hang with, the things they do and activities that they do,” Peters explained.
Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) said law enforcement has been using new methods regarding such behavior from teenagers, saying he wants them to be able to gather downtown but not be irresponsible. He then said, “Parents and guardians, I need your assistance in making sure that we know where your children are at all times.”
In 2023, CPD was forced to call for reinforcements after teenage mobs engaged in rioting and violence for four nights in a row, a few days after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) chose Chicago to be the site of its 2024 National Presidential Convention, Breitbart News reported at the time.
Following those incidents, Johnson said he did not condone violence but “it is not constructive to demonize” the teenagers who took part in the four nights of chaos.
Hale told Fox he believes there is a lack of guidance and leadership when it comes to the teen mob incidents.
“Your kids should not be out here. When I was a kid, I would never. I had parents who guided me. And these parents, they just let them run rampant,” he stated.
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