"he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper"

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Plaza, Juvies, and Social Media = Trouble?

I am not one to watch the news much at all, but after some investigation realized there has been an ongoing problem the past few weekends with juvenile crowds causing mischief and chaos on the Plaza. It came to a head this past weekend with around 700-1100 kids involved. A prom date got pushed into a fountain, and there were crowds of kids blocking store entrances and streets, but also an assault and strong arm robbery of an adult couple. It appears the police are trying to be very active in providing a mobile solution to the problem should it arise on the Plaza again or anywhere else in the metro area. It appears to be precipitated by the Plaza Cinema lowering it's age requirement.

I am not trying to cause alarm, but it's worth a heads up, especially if the Plaza is your destination of choice on the weekend nights. For the record, Mayor Funkhouser has stated he continues to hang out there on the weekends regardless... :)

Another note that interests me: Apparently some of the activity may have been "arranged" via social media like Facebook and Twitter. It has the feel of a "flash mob" type of event but it's not being deemed as such by the police as of yet. I find that aspect intriguing and wonder if anyone has been crawling twitter or FB and seen anything that looks like "flash mob material" . Apparently Westport and Raytown Schools were possibly involved based on the reports below in social media "gathering":

Here is a link to the police chiefs blog about the event:

And a link to the actual police report filed by KCPD:

What are your thoughts?

2 comments:

Jake said...

Well, the police are denying it's a flash mob stating "we don't believe this to be a result of social media, black kids can't afford internet! oh, is this mic on? we are live? we are going to have to edit this."

あじ said...

Yay for flash mobs! I'm more worried about getting pepper sprayed as an innocent bystander. It's not like there's a shortage of adults on the Plaza; whether they would be willing to put themselves in danger to stand up for others is another story.