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A growing wave of juvenile crime and \u201cteen takeovers\u201d in major Democrat-run cities is prompting renewed scrutiny of leftist policing policies, with critics warning that years of anti-law enforcement rhetoric have created an atmosphere of escalating disorder.<\/p>\n
The phenomenon has erupted in cities including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in recent months, with incidents often coordinated through TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and other social media platforms.<\/p>\n
Col. Frank Carpenter, chief of police in Chesterfield County, Virginia, told The New York Post<\/a> these scenes resemble \u201cThe Purge,\u201d a dystopian horror film franchise depicting cities descending into lawlessness. Police sources say that massive groups of teenagers have increasingly overwhelmed officers, shut down public spaces, and engaged in assaults, robberies, vandalism, and shootings.<\/p>\n As with Virginia, these incidents are especially concentrated in Democrat-led cities. Chicago, in particular, has emerged as one of the most visible examples.<\/p>\n Last week, a silver sedan rammed<\/a> a Chicago Police Department squad car during a downtown street takeover near Grant Park while crowds of teens surrounded the vehicle, cheering, filming officers on their phones, and pounding on the patrol car\u2019s hood. Just two days later, on Friday, a second takeover erupted<\/a> on the city\u2019s South Side. In another incident earlier this spring, teens allegedly set vehicles ablaze by igniting fireworks inside them.<\/p>\n Similar incidents have recently unfolded in Los Angeles beach communities and Washington, D.C<\/a>., where viral videos show large crowds overwhelming police presence and turning public areas into chaotic scenes. Though no one was killed, in one Los Angeles-area takeover, gunfire broke out and struck four victims ranging from 17 to 22 years old.<\/p>\n In New York City, police arrested a 17-year-old suspect in the fatal stabbing of 39-year-old Leonides Baez near Times Square. According to investigators, the teen allegedly said he was inspired by a TikTok trend known as \u201cmessing with crackheads<\/a>,\u201d in which vulnerable or homeless individuals are harassed for entertainment and online attention.<\/p>\n Authorities say several teens approached Baez before he was stabbed to death outside of a restaurant.<\/p>\n Critics say the social media component is central to understanding this crime trend. The Wall Street Journal recently characterized many of the incidents as \u201cperformative crime,\u201d that is, criminal acts committed for viral attention and social status online.<\/p>\n But some analysts argue the deeper causes run far beyond TikTok.<\/p>\n Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of \u201cThe War on Cops,\u201d said authorities are failing to confront the fact that these crimes are overwhelmingly being carried out by young African Americans and reflect long-term breakdowns in the black family structure.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a long-standing problem, and nobody wants to talk about what the causes are,\u201d Mac Donald said during an interview with Morning Wire<\/a>. \u201cThe criminal justice system is terrified, really, to do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n