Teenagers, especially boys, need to be careful about what they post online. 2019 has been a good year for law enforcement throughout the United States and abroad. From catching terrorists and planned school attacks, to criminals dumb enough to post what crimes they committed (and how they think they got away), Facebook, Twitter, and a slew of other social media sites are helping keep communities around the world stay safe. I’m 100% for all that, but male teens need to be extra careful of what they say and post online, or they can, and WILL BE targeted, and locked up. More and more, young males ages 13-19 years old are being put into the gang and criminal databases for actions as simple as throwing up hand signs, bragging, and showing hundreds of dollars wrapped in rubber bands, to repeating lyrics from their favorite rap songs. What young males in America don’t understand is that even if they haven’t committed a crime, certain social media posts can be interpreted as evidence of gang and criminal activity. There is a strategy that more and more police are using nationwide, called “focused deterrence”. The program was created after criminologist David Kennedy’s “Operation Ceasefire” policing model, which focuses on small groups of people (or “gangs” as police refer to them), those suspected of violence in communities. Like similar programs throughout the country, focused deterrence relies on internet surveillance.
Police go through thousands of young people’s social media posts looking to see if they’re gang-affiliated, bragging about crimes, or what rap lyrics they are repeating, then compile the information, and store it in a database. Many social media posts by teens are simply by boys being boys – lying, bragging, and just trying to show their peers they’re cool, with little intent on doing any harm or committing a crime.
A year or so ago, Philadelphia had a big case involving a young man who tweeted out lyrics by rapper Meek Mill’s. The young man was then targeted, because the lyrics involved some guns and drug talk. The young man was already on juvenile probation for a school lunchroom fight, and was placed in the focused deterrent database. After police saw what he posted, they contacted his probation officer, and subsequently raided his parent’s house – where he lived. A gun was found in a bedroom, other than where the teen and a friend were playing video games. The teen was arrested, and charged with illegally possessing a firearm. The district attorney also argued that the Meek Mill rap lyrics the teen tweeted was proof that the gun belonged to him, even though there were no fingerprints or other proof that the teen had touched the gun. He was later released when the judge ruled there was no legal basis for the gun charges.
If you are a parent with a teen, PLEASE talk with your teen, and make him/her know how serious law enforcement is about what they post on their social media accounts, and that EVERYTHING posted can be seen!
Advocate / Mentor
Leonard E. Love