When 18-year-old Damarion Spann saw a flyer on Instagram calling for a mass gathering on a beach near downtown Chicago, she immediately wanted to go. Thousands of people joined him that night in the arena, playing music and dancing.

The cultural trend of so-called teen power grabs has emerged across the United States in recent years, influencing local policing and national politics. The events, often publicized online and captured on videos on social media, have led to shootings, robberies and vandalism. City officials and police are concerned about a summer surge and are under pressure to prevent similar gatherings or punish those who participate.

Over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, several thousand young people gathered at two locations in Raleigh, North Carolina, police said. Nine people, including an adult who was not part of the meetings, were wounded by gunshots.

There were also takeovers in Pensacola, Florida, where a 19-year-old was shot and killed; and Newport Beach, California, where more than 400 people were arrested after the police chief said teenagers threw “explosive mortars and other projectiles” at officers, ordering them to disperse.

But Spann and other teens say the events are largely misinterpreted. They point to formal curfews or limits on group sizes at malls and movie theaters that have made it difficult for teens to gather, exacerbating a sense of disconnection that dates back to remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic.

Communities and police across the country are trying to identify organizers, fine parents of those involved and impose curfews.

In Detroit, officials say they have “thwarted” 19 meetings so far this year by monitoring time and location changes while youth coordinated over social media, said Teferi Brent, director of the Mayor’s Office of Community and Neighborhood Safety.

“We’re keeping an eye on all the behaviors and activities of those who have expressed interest in trying to take over and we’ve done a good job of being well ahead of the curve and being able to prevent a lot of these things,” Brent said.

Councilwoman Jessie Fuentes, who chairs the Chicago City Council’s Youth Employment subcommittee, said her office has tried to find solutions that don’t rely exclusively on police and instead coordinate with parents and community members to prevent conflict or crime.

Blue Island, a south Chicago suburb, has taken another tactic: fining parents or guardians and using the funds to cover cleanup after the events. That could include debris left behind or other damage, such as cars dented by dozens of teenagers climbing over them as they fled from police.

Other places have taken tougher approaches, such as in Florida, where state officials said prosecutors can pursue racketeering laws, typically targeting criminal gangs or organized crime, if acquisitions appear to be facilitated by “an organized network.”

But some have rejected the idea that the threat of harsh legal punishment could prevent the gatherings in the first place.

“What we know about adolescent brain development is that what is at stake is not going to be what stops a youth from engaging in risky behavior,” said Melissa Milchman, executive director of the nonpartisan Coalition for Juvenile Justice. Milchman added that mass arrests often ensnare those seeking innocent fun without stopping others from breaking the law.

For Spann, recent media attention on the events has largely failed to capture the appeal to young people.

“You feel like a young person who has freedom, who is not subject to anything,” said Spann, who is black. At the event he attended, he was able to catch up with people he hadn’t seen since eighth grade.

He said the events are a direct result of a cascade of school closings in black neighborhoods over the past two decades in Chicago. To discourage people from gathering even on basketball courts, where fights sometimes broke out, officials removed the nets. Spann said his mother, who grew up in the same neighborhood, often talks about how easy it was to hang out outdoors without fear of gun violence.

When Spann goes to malls in more affluent areas with his group of mostly black friends, shoppers often stare and are questioned by security guards. To avoid scrutiny, Spann and his friends sometimes sneak into outdoor malls or downtown areas in smaller groups at staggered times.

By contrast, in the same spaces, Spann said, “If I’m with my white friends, I feel like I belong.”

Despite the physical dangers that come with procurement and the threat of being fined or even arrested, the appeal is strong, according to Jeffrey Bernstein, a psychologist and author.

“Kids still do it because they feel like it’s their second family,” which, she said, “really becomes their main sense of connection.”

“They get things from their peers that they can’t get from their parents.”

Some cities have tried to meet that need head-on, rather than cracking down on law enforcement.

In St. Louis, officers have begun taking some teens to community centers instead of jails so their parents can pick them up, and in Baltimore, officials have tried to tap public schools to offer alternative programming. In Chicago, Spann received an $11,000 grant from the city and partner nonprofits to host an event for her peers at the end of the summer, in an effort to give her community more places to gather.

In April, Daveion Page, a 16-year-old from Detroit, was bored. He turned to his phone and created a social media post promoting a teen acquisition. Hundreds of teenagers soon flocked to a downtown site and fights broke out at the end of the night. At another takeover in May, a 14-year-old boy was wounded by a gunshot.

After the Detroit event in April, Page told reporters that he did not intend for the power grab he organized to result in violence.

“I just wanted to get out of the house, have fun, enjoy time with my family and my friends, too,” said Page, who was flanked by Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield and other city officials at a news conference.

He told city officials that young people might react if there were more safe places to gather.

Before the acquisitions, there were already plans to use $1.5 million of the city budget for summer programming and to support violence prevention programs. In response to the takeovers, the city launched a youth affairs office, met and listened to students in schools, and created a youth advisory board made up of teens and young adults.

“We’ve brought them to the table and made them part of our structure with respect to identifying what the needs and concerns of the city’s youth are,” Brent said.

In Detroit, a nighttime basketball league has formed as an alternative gathering place for teenagers and young adults. T-shirts and sneakers are provided by the city.

“This league just helps me find something to do,” Cameron Chandler, 21, said while playing basketball at the recreation center.

He’s never been involved in a takeover, but recently, after practicing, he came across one near his house.

“There were a lot of police officers and some people were arrested,” Chandler said. “You just have to think, ‘that could easily be me.’”

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Riddle reported from Los Angeles. Williams reported from Detroit.