Throngs of rampaging youth amassed in Center City Friday night, as the Gayborhood became the latest victim in the city’s plague of so-called “flash mobs. ”
About 30 young people gathered around 9 p.m. near 15th and Sansom streets and began randomly attacking passersby, punching at least two men in the face as they ran south, where they stole a cell phone and wallet from another victim.
Outside of the IHOP at Walnut and Juniper streets in the Gayborhood, a group of youth attacked a 59-year-old man, punching and kicking him to the ground.
He was transported to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital with a head wound and has since been released.
A 33-year-old man attacked earlier in the night was also taken to Jefferson and later released.
The youth on Walnut Street scattered when police arrived but officers were able to arrest 19-year-old Raymond Gatling, along with three others, ages 17, 16 and 11.
Gattling was charged with reckless endangerment and robbery.
In recent weeks, officers from the 9th District have been deployed as “spotters” to areas such as the 100 block of Chestnut Street, Love Park and various spots on 15th Street to look out for the beginnings of large gatherings of youth, explained 6th District Capt. Brian Korn.
Korn said his district, which encompasses the Gayborhood, also has officers who patrol from 12th to Broad and Spruce to Walnut.
Last Friday, Korn said the 9th District officers quickly notified the 6th District officers that the group had formed and was heading across Broad Street, and two officers from each district headed to Walnut Street to intercept the group.
As the officers were en route to Walnut, Korn said about eight to 10 members of the group attacked the man outside IHOP.
“They surrounded this man and, completely unprovoked, just started all punching him and kicking him,” Korn said. “There was no discussion, no words, no argument — they took him completely by surprise.”
Franny Price, chair of the Police Liaison Committee, said she learned of the attacks almost instantaneously through Facebook.
While she hailed the communication among business owners and others who took to social media and other outlets to put the word out, Price questioned how such a mob could be allowed to progress as it did.
“I don’t understand how they can get from 15th and Sansom into the Gayborhood with no police stopping them,” Price said. “How do that many kids — and they’re not just walking slowly — get that far without being confronted by any police officers? That’s what’s scariest to me.”
Korn said, however, that the officers responded immediately, and that the distance covered by the teens was a short one.
“It only takes probably a minute and a half to get from one spot to another,” he said.
Last Friday’s incident comes just a few weeks after another violent youth mob attacked several people in the Spring Garden area, one in a string of similar random attacks that popped up west of Broad Street and on South Street in the past two years.
The city is working on a plan to stem the attacks, which will be unveiled next week and will include a response team from the police department, District Attorney’s office, Department of Human Services, Law Department and area business owners and residents.
“There are going to be additional resources in place and the police are going to be working with other agencies to get to the root of this problem,” Korn said. “And in the meantime, we’re going to be working overtime and getting additional officers into that grid area of where this has been happening on the nights it’s most likely to occur.”
Mayor Nutter said in a statement this week that parents and mentors need to be responsible for their own children, and that the courts will “prosecute these offenders and make it clear that this behavior has very serious consequences.”
The police also announced the launch of SafeCam, an initiative that allows business owners to register their own security cameras with the city to facilitate the collection of surveillance video.
To register a camera, visit www.safecam.phillypolice.com.
A proposal has been in the works to install a police surveillance camera at 13th and Locust, but the application is stalled in the Managing Director’s Office.
Korn noted that residents and visitors to Center City can best protect themselves by staying alert when walking around the city.
“One of the worst things is when people are texting or talking on the phone and not paying attention to what’s going on around them,” Korn said. “There was one lady who saw the mob a block away and recognized it right away, got to a place of safety and was a witness. A lot of people aren’t aware of their surroundings because of the gadgets, the earphones, the texting, but if you can see ahead of you and around you, you can often see something like this coming and take a different course of action and get out of the way quickly.”
In addition to seeking shelter, Korn advised anyone who sees such a mob forming to immediately notify police.
Price agreed that Gayborhood residents and visitors need to be on guard when out on the streets.
“If you see something happening, you’ve got to get inside, and you’ve got to have that chain of people calling police. We still have the rest of the month before school even starts up again, so who knows if this could happen again,” she said.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].