We also generally don’t think of e.g. 15yos as “children”. They aren’t adults, but they aren’t “children” either.
That’s kind of where I am. Practically speaking, going in there with force might create more problems than they solve.
I don’t know if this is really about pools. Aren’t these take overs happening in other locations? You’re not wrong about pools though. A community pool used to be a source of municipal pride, but they started shutting down largely because of desegregation in the 60s and 70s.
In general if there is an organizer it’s illegal. We are not talking about a christening that had a few too many guests. These are commercial enterprises being held in an area where such activities are not legal, and for good reason. There are multiple ordinances and laws that cover it. There are businesses that are designed specifically to handle such things. It’s just cheaper to do it at a house where they can make life miserable for those that live around them.
I have a place with an HOA and there are constant complaints about kids coming over from a nearby community to ride their dirtbikes around on our (private) streets. Ultimately, though, “doing something about it” would require our community security force to chase kids with our security vehicles and somehow capture them for the State Police to come get them. That’s going to get some kid hurt, even if it’s just them riding too fast and hitting a culvert.
As annoying as the vroom vrooms are, a big special assessment to compensate some delinquent’s family is a way bigger deal to me, even discounting entirely the fact that I don’t want some kid maimed because he was annoying the community.
…I’m not really arguing it is.
I’m suggesting that the story in the OP might be about pools.
And I’m suggesting that something more might be going on here.
For starters: the fact that more Black people and people of colour reportedly do more “take overs” could be because they do more take overs.
Or it could be that Black people simply generate more outrage, and when white people do it, it’s just a bunch of slightly over-zealous sports fans overturning cars or setting buses on fire.
A group of Black kids “taking over a pool” are being conflated with “street drag races” as if they are the same thing. And then “youth takeovers” becomes something that needs to be addressed, when in reality it isn’t all just one thing. These are different things.
This is how things escalate.
The story told in the OP suggests something that should be addressed with community engagement, youth programmes, and directly addressing the issue. The “street takeovers” in Milwaukee mentioned in the second post would require a different approach in the short term, but in the long term, community engagement etc, would also be needed.
But it isn’t useful to conflate the two. Because those proposed $500 fines for doing donuts at three in the morning might also be levied at the kid who hopped over a fence to go for a swim.
I’m more worried about the over-reaction to “youth takeovers.”
When society have decided that teens have to be accompanied by adults to enter a mall, and the police are called out to enforce that law, something seriously is going wrong here. What the hell is really going on? Do you feel safer?
More from that article:
From linked reporting:
Allegedly, multiple fights at this takeover resulted in no damage and zero arrests. It makes me wonder exactly how dangerous these takeovers really are, or how much of this is being driven by the same culture of fear that has led to American gun culture, militarised police forces and rounding up immigrants off the streets.
Really, this might be the most face to face engagement teens these days ever get. It could well be driven by a desire to you know, see people.
Not saying this is the best way to do it. But it could be driven by an unmet need.
Our society hates and fears the young. Note for example that there’s a machine called the Mosquito used by many businesses used to drive away young people by emitting a sound older people can’t hear. People pay money and buy specialized equipment to drive the young away.
So I’m very skeptical about all this handwringing over supposed “takeovers”.
Over 30 years ago, I dated a man who owned a record store, and if he had customers that he thought might be troublemakers, or closing time was approaching, he would put on classical music. In the years since, I’ve read about places like convenience stores installing Muzak and the like to deter loiterers.
My ex-boyfriend never failed to be amazed at who knew what was being played.
Yeah, a surprising number of young people and/or poor people whom I (an uncool frumpy bourgeois type) might not initially guess to be a classical music fan actually listen to their local public radio classical station quite a bit. They may not tell their cooler friends about it (or for all I know, they may be the cooler friend), but they like it.
My response to the “youth takeover” scenario if, say, a couple hundred of the local high schoolers had an impromptu “block party” on my residential small-city street and blocked traffic:
- kids dancing and playing touch football, cars having to go down neighboring streets instead: oh that’s kind of sweet, these crazy spunky kids, I’d probably bake some cookies to pass around
- kids trampling the flowers and throwing litter, angry altercations with drivers: oh I don’t like this, I hope they go soon
- kids getting into serious fights, property damage, gunshots heard: yiiiiiiikes, sheltering in place till cops arrive
I would rather like it if option (1) was a thing in my area, but I worry that if you try to encourage option (1) you may end up with option (2) or (3).
They needed an entire radio station working for them, to make that assembly of unruly kids happen. Have you any idea how much paperwork that requires? (Does The Warriors say whether its AM or FM?) 
You know, I never thought about it before, but, according to the very first words spoken in the movie, Cyrus sent an emissary to make sure it was still on. Now that is some old-school etiquette. (And a bit of a flex, as he must have had dozens of messengers going all over the city.)