The invitation can be as simple as a blank Instagram note containing only two letters:
“D.T.?”
About a month ago, 15-year-old Saria Thomas received that message from a friend, who had in turn gotten it from someone else.
“They put D.T. on their note and put a question mark, and everybody would just go down there, down that day,” Thomas said.
“And you know, everybody went,” she said.
D.T. stands for downtown. Thomas arrived in central Charlotte to find hundreds of teenagers filling the streets. Videos Thomas recorded on her phone show teenagers running around, laughing and screaming.
“You really just walk around,” Thomas said. “And if you see your friends down there, you hang out with them, make a big group.”
The spontaneous gatherings have taken on a shared name — teen takeovers — and they are happening in cities across the country, straining police departments, raising fears about public safety and raising questions about who public spaces are meant for and how to keep kids out of trouble. In response, the city of Charlotte is considering a 9 p.m. curfew for people under 18.
Thomas said she attends to meet people and enjoy herself.
“The teen takeovers be fun,” she said. “Getting to know new people, that would be fun. The danger — (that) was not it.”
More than once, however, Thomas said the gatherings have turned chaotic. She vividly remembers one last summer when she saw people suddenly begin running. She ran with them.
“You see police chasing teenagers. That’s what you mostly see when it goes down, and you just see people running out of nowhere,” she said. “So you gotta run too.”
It's a dynamic she's seen play out multiple times. Thomas does not always know what triggers the panic and sets people running. Sometimes, she said, someone sees an “op” — slang for an opponent — and a fight breaks out.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Estella Patterson said that is how the gatherings can change in a matter of seconds.
One such gathering turned violent on June 14, when gunfire erupted near Romare Bearden Park.
“Early that morning, we experienced a shootout in our center city near Bearden Park, in which a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old were shot,” Patterson said. “The shooter was 16, and he provided a full confession of what occurred.”
The following weekend, police encountered another gathering of more than 200 teenagers at the park. CMPD said officers arrested 24 people, including 23 juveniles, and seized a firearm. Thirteen parents were cited for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Charges included disorderly conduct, fighting, trespassing, curfew violations, carrying a concealed firearm and impeding traffic.
Three weeks after the shooting, Patterson said CMPD deployed more than 200 officers when another large group gathered around Romare Bearden Park on July 4.
“I am confident that the only reason we did not have another shooting or a major incident was because we had over 200 officers in a small geographic area working,” she said.
Is a curfew the answer?
Patterson said that the level of policing is not always sustainable. She is supporting a 9 p.m. curfew for everyone under 18, a proposal now headed to the full Charlotte City Council.
The proposal would expand Charlotte’s existing youth curfew and require most people under 18 to leave public spaces by 9 p.m. Exceptions would apply in certain circumstances, including when a teenager is traveling to or from work, school, or another supervised activity. City leaders are still considering how the ordinance would be enforced and what consequences teenagers and their parents could face.
But some researchers and youth advocates say a curfew may not solve the problem.
“Parental and familial curfews work. Countywide, jurisdiction-wide curfews don’t,” said Susan McCarter, a professor in UNC Charlotte’s School of Social Work.
McCarter told WFAE’s “Charlotte Talks” that curfews can strain relationships between young people and police and, in some cases, have been linked to increases in crime.
“When you take youth off the streets, there are less bystanders, there are less folks to see what’s happening,” McCarter said. “And so crime, actually, in those instances, rose.”
She also said broad curfews can disproportionately criminalize children of color.
McCarter said local governments should instead focus on creating spaces where teenagers can gather safely.
Safe programming for teens
Mecklenburg County is already trying that approach through programs such as Teen Summer Jam.
These events are free and include sports, music, gaming, art and food. County officials say the program is designed to give teenagers a place to gather during evening hours when many traditional recreation programs have ended.
Inside Eastway Regional Recreation Center, past police cars and a row of metal detectors, teenagers dribbled basketballs on one end of the building and played video games on the other. In one room, teens quietly painted. In another, they played cards. The smell of popcorn, cookies and pizza filled the air.
Seventeen-year-old Marcus Durgin and some friends hung out in a small recording studio, working on music.
“We’re trying to make a raw beat, and we’re gonna see what we can do with it,” Durgin said.
He said he has seen what happens at teen takeovers and would rather spend his time at the recreation center.
“It’s a better outlet to, like, scream into the microphone than rather do some violence,” he said.
Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Superintendent Justin Jackson said the county began planning the teen events more than a year ago.
“We listen to our teens,” Jackson said. “A lot of times, they say that they are overlooked, that they don’t feel like they’re heard. So we decided to listen and provide quality programming in a safe environment for them.”
Jackson said county officials drew inspiration from programs in Baltimore, where expanded recreation opportunities were associated with a decline in youth crime. Mecklenburg County hopes to see similar results.
Still, Jackson said Teen Summer Jam is only a beginning.
“I think we need more activities for the teens, not just this,” he said. “I think this is great. I think this is a start, but I also think we need other organizations to come to the table and offer more diverse programs as well.”
Many teenagers at the event said they do not believe a citywide curfew would accomplish much.
Josh Goden and his friend Caleb Johnson laughed at the idea.
“They're not stopping nothing,” Goden said. “It’s Charlotte. To be real, it’s nothing to stop.”
“Yeah, bro, it’s not gonna stop nothing,” Johnson added. “We don’t listen. We're hardheaded.”
Thomas is skeptical, too.
“Oh, no. That’s like me being at least 11 years old, and that’s my bedtime,” she said. “If it’s that curfew around the summertime, no, they’re not going to like that. They’re going to stay outside.”
Thomas’ friend, 15-year-old Kahmaijah Smith, said that if the city is serious about keeping teenagers safe, officials should invest more in public transportation and dedicated places where young people can gather without feeling pressured to spend money.
“Teenagers deserve spaces, too,” Smith said. “I feel like we deserve a free space that represents us as people and as a community. Not only just a very broad summary of what we are.”
Until then, Thomas and other teenagers say a 9 p.m. curfew is unlikely to stop the next “D.T.?” message from spreading — or young people from answering it.
