Parents of Flash Mobs Kids Will Be Arrested Says Ethical Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia

Last weekend, Mayor Michael Nutter, stood before the Congregation at the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in West Philadelphia, the Church where he was married and attends still.  He called upon parents to become far more involved in the raising of their children.  He talked about the fact that the City contributes much by way of centers and activities but that parents must be active and participatory in their children’s lives.   What brought him to speak in an uncharacteristically animated and forceful way was the most recent flash mob incident in the City where teens and even one child, eleven years old, were arrested for beating and injuring total strangers.  Mayor Nutter spoke passionately when he directed his comments to these young people as he said, “You damage yourself, your parents, your peers and your own race.”

But the Mayor didn’t stop there.  He held a press conference where he told his constituents that this behavior would not be tolerated and that the City and the police department would be extending themselves beyond the norm to combat this unacceptable problem.  He informed the perpetrators, with the district attorney by his side, that not only would they be in jail but their parents would be incarcerated right along with them. That is a man of ethics.  He is determined to turn wrong into right and willing to take whatever lawful measures required to make that happen.  I think we’ve just defined ethics.