MANSFIELD: Flash Mobs & Hooray for the Casey Anthony Jury

Flash Mobs

Last week I briefly touched on the recent incident of bands of Black youth supposedly running wild at the Coventry Street Fair in Cleveland Heights and then allegedly marauding through adjoining neighborhoods. The next week a similar problem occurred in Shaker Heights where a July 4th fireworks celebration was disturbed by a group of 500 to 1000 youth.

These “flash mobs,” created by a bunch of young people texting each other with details on where they plan to meet up and create havoc, are a national nuisance that we’re going to have to figure out how to deal with in a sane, even-handed and fair manner — indeed, if we’re capable of doing so.

However, given how law enforcement historically has responded to these types of macro threats, we’re more often heavy-handed than even-handed… especially if Black youth are involved, as they seem to be in the majority of cases.

Race, and the historical ill-treatment of youth of color in suburban communities (both locally and around the country) certainly further complicates this already complex and volatile issue, but at the end of the day we simply cannot allow youth — no matter their race — to run wild through the streets. In this day and age one or more of the youngsters are likely to have a gun, and excited by the mob mentality, might pull it and start firing indiscriminately. Gunplay is already occurring all too frequently in inner-city neighborhoods and will spread like a cancer to suburban areas if left unchecked.

It’s tempting to think these are simply chickens coming home to roost, to caustically say, “See, this is what it comes to in a country that leaves too many minorities locked out of the prosperity and progress: their progeny, with little or no sense of a bright future, suffering mind-numbing ennui due to a lack of opportunities, and armed with new technology that puts them in instantaneous touch with each other begin coalescing into mobs that get their kicks and seek their thrills not at amusement parks they can’t afford to go to — but by carousing through the streets, gleefully, laughingly running towards the sound of gunfire rather than away from it.” I’ve personally witnessed this kind of behavior.

Racists, of course, simply love to take the easy way out and say: “See, something is wrong with those people,” as if Black skin alone is proof of criminal tendencies… but the truth is, nothing is wrong with us, something was done to us, and is still being done to us on a daily basis. But accepting this fact would require that we, as a country, embark on real remedies to solve the ills of the underclass… members of which come in all races.

Civil libertarians, always mindful (and rightly so) of the fact police will use sledgehammers to swat flies when the supposed threat is coming from youth of color, sometimes are so tightly focused on the big picture — protection of everyone’s rights from a Constitutional standpoint — they quite literally can’t see the forest from the trees. For too many of these youth the only “right” they have is the “right” to die young. But it won’t be the kid of a civil liberties advocate lying dead in the street; it will no doubt be an inner-city kid of color. If we have to reformulate rules to deal with this new threat, then so be it.

Here’s one potential solution: Figure out how to pay a reward to young people who receive these text messages… who give the cops a heads-up on where the next group is planning to mob-up. Yes, some will call it paying snitches, but so what, we’ve got a serious problem on our hands. And let’s be totally honest: Paying snitches is not a foreign concept to law enforcement officers, especially when they’re attempting to trump up charges on someone; so why not use them to save kids from themselves?

A very bright young lawyer friend of mine has this suggestion: Once the groups are infiltrated (how hard can that be?) disruptive messages can be sent out on the social media sites. If the plan is to meet up on, say, Shaker Square, someone could send out another text that says there are too many cops, and the location has changed. And the location perhaps can even be changed again and again until the youth don’t quite know what to believe or where to go. I mean, after all, if we’re not smarter than a bunch of teenagers… then we’re really in trouble.

For the youth that show up anyway with bad intentions, authorities have to show up with buses (borrowed school buses if necessary) and escort the youth onto them for a “time-out” or until their parents come and get them (if they are minors). Call it an investigation if necessary; people can be held for up to 72 hours without any charges being filed, so what’s wrong with three or four hours? Once the event is over or the threat has passed, the youth (who are over 18, or whose parents did not come to collect them) can be let go in small numbers. Once this happens a few times the young folks will no doubt get the message loud and clear. Will some innocent youth occasionally be detained? Of course; it won’t be a completely fair or perfect process, but, in light of what we’re facing, a very necessary one.

If we don’t use these methods of disruption and containment, here’s what’s going to eventually happen: Wholesale arrests of these youth and the charging of them with felonies… something that can ruin their lives forever — over what still essentially is juvenile behavior. We need to avoid that outcome at all costs — and civil rights organizations and advocates need to show some flexibility on this issue. If these were White youth acting out, society would come up with reasoned and sane solutions to the problem; we should do no less simply because they are Black.

Hooray for the Casey Anthony Jury

“We’re gonna give you a fair trial, followed by a first class hanging,” said the tough-talking character of Sheriff Cobb in the 1985 western Silverado. And that’s exactly what that hatched-faced Nancy Grace and the other over-the-top media pundits — in league with Florida prosecutors — attempted to do in the highly publicized Casey Anthony murder trial.

Cheney Mason, a member of Anthony’s defense team was swift (and accurate) in castigating TV lawyers for betraying the canons of their profession simply to have their 15 seconds of fame in front of the camera. Instead of arguing to allow the justice system to play itself out in the fair and unbiased manner in which it’s designed to work, instead of arguing to maintain the “presumption of innocence” our legal system is based on, they joined the baying national chorus (with Grace at the podium conducting) crying out for a verdict that would satisfy their manufactured bloodlust.

And manufactured it was. Nancy Grace isn’t about justice as she fools her audiences into believing night after night — she’s all about ratings. And to increase those ratings she whipped much of the nation into a case of mass schadenfreude in her effort to use the media to control the outcome of the trial. But, as prosecutors should have learned from the O.J. case, some juries don’t like to be used to railroad someone… even someone who is in all likelihood guilty. In a just society everyone deserves a fair trial… even in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt. If we abandon the presumption of innocence in this country, all is lost… we’re doomed.

The cries of “travesty” that are as loud now as they were after the O.J. verdict was announced are, in fact, being shouted in the wrong direction: They should be hurled at the prosecution team for attempting to use the media to poison the minds of the jury and unfairly win a victory… the rule of law be damned. And the fact they overcharged Anthony with capital murder when the evidence didn’t warrant it certainly didn’t help their case.

In the O.J. case, rules of evidence were broken (remember the planting of the glove?) to assure a victory… one that was within their grasp had they not allowed investigators to take the stand and lie through their teeth. The law should not (indeed, can not) be allowed to be broken in pursuit of victory, even when the defendant is obviously as guilty as O.J. was, and perhaps Anthony is too.

One axiom of law is: “Better 10 guilty men go free than to convict a single innocent man.” We need to add to that: “Better 10 people — when tried by the media in the court of public opinion — go free than one person is convicted by a poisoned jury pool.”

In the Anthony case, evidence which pointed to her guilt was consistently (and inappropriately) leaked to the media with sole intent: To gain a conviction. But the Florida jury, even while sequestered, must have been aware of the circus atmosphere that was being created to keep viewers glued to their TV screens so they could be sold more laundry detergent… and they rebelled in the only way they could: By allowing a woman who is probably guilty of a heinous crime in the death of her daughter to go free. And now that same media is about to make Casey Anthony a millionaire… again, simply to sell more soap. And guess what… millions will be tuning in.

Prosecutors around the country should take note of what this brave Florida jury did: It rebuked the underhanded tactics engaged in by the government (aided and abetted by a hungry media) to convict a woman who most likely deserved to be punished. They did so to protect our system of justice from overzealous prosecutors and outside influences that have no legitimate place in a courtroom anywhere in a nation that prides itself on upholding democratic principles and the rule of law. Hooray for them.

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.

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