violentflashmobs.com

From the website:

Note: If you're inclined to get hung up on the definition of a "flash mob" just read the incidents that meet your threshold for # of participants.  I'm not a professional criminologist, so please, no need to email me about my methodology.  Also, I don't know any more than you whether social media was used to plan these - this is just a simple list of group mayhem.

About
The purpose of this site is to document dangerous, violent, or otherwise unwanted flash mobs and group mayhem.  I find these crimes to be particularly galling because they're indicative of societal dysfunction, rather than an individual pathology.

Definition of a flash mob:  A large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse.

Definition of a wilding:  The activity by a gang of youths of going on a protracted and violent rampage in a public place, attacking or mugging people at random.

I fully admit it's often difficult to distinguish between a flash mob, a wilding, a riot, an unruly crowd, a swarm robbery, and a fight with an unequal number of participants.  One incident often has elements of all those things so you may find some of the flash mobs I've identified don't fit your definition.

I only include events with four or more participants.  I am not including group "brawls" from nightclubs, bars, house parties or sporting events. While this list may seem comprehensive, the actual number of incidents is much greater.   For example, I won't document smash and grab robberies that occur without witnesses or video since I can't confirm they were group attacks.  In a similar vein, if the media doesn't pick up on a story, I can't list it.

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:o   >:(

HUH?

Be sure to keep us informed.

           Potter

I'm glad that you posted this. I have been hung up on the definition of " flash mob" all afternoon.

Another flash mob - START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

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This happened in a shopping mall about 5 miles from where I live.

The haka is what you'll see when the All Blacks (NZ rugby team) play a game of rugby, with the rugby world cup just about to start here in NZ on Friday.

Quote:

I find these crimes to be particularly galling because they're indicative of societal dysfunction, rather than an individual pathology.

Umm...where's the evidence for that? While I am far less interested in how to classify a gathering of individuals who intend harm to self, property or others, I am curious why you think those who choose to participate in such things are not individually pathological? OK, sure, the mob takes a personality of its own, but that personaility is derived from the composite of personalities present. Both the individuals and the gathering itself are whacked, morally deficient or out to get something for nothing. I am much more concerned about what to do when faced with such an unpleasant event. Blessings. lance

[quote author=1B13180C560 link=1315184399/4#4 date=1315211505]Another flash mob - START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE
That is top-notch Mike.

On the violent mob front.... I live in one of the few states where you cannot concealed-carry.  In PA I could.  In IL I cannot.  The moment that changes I will be carrying.

When you carry you do not worry about such things all that much.  Nothing ensures your fellow man will be decent toward you like letting them know you are packing. 

Quote:

I live in one of the few states where you cannot concealed-carry.

Hate to break it to you, my friend....you live in the ONLY state where you cannot carry a concealed weapon. Wisconsin, the only other one that was on that list, just passed concealed carry legislation, which is due to go into effect in just a couple of months.

And if you needed more persuasion:

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C'mon up - the water's fine. ;)

Flash mob.  OMG.
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Quote:

... and group mayhem.  I find these crimes to be particularly galling because they're indicative of societal dysfunction, rather than an individual pathology.

I've seen one and been in another, both were just spontaneous, out of nowhere fun with no one hurt.  A huge mess was left, but nothing to do but have someone get out the brooms or mops.  The surprising thing was that each had about 50 people who were just standing around in the area, every single person there got in on it and all stopped abruptly.  It dawned on a number of participants many minutes later, "Wow, that was just crazy!"  Yep, it sure was.  Out of control group mayhem that can happen once. 

Both involved high school kids.  I wouldn't say every person who happened to be present was pathological, but I also couldn't say a societal dysfunction was to blame either.   Awfully thrilling mischeviousness though.

wimsey1 wrote on Sep 6^th, 2011 at 8:17am:

Quote: I find these crimes to be particularly galling because they're indicative of societal dysfunction, rather than an individual pathology. Umm...where's the evidence for that? While I am far less interested in how to classify a gathering of individuals who intend harm to self, property or others, I am curious why you think those who choose to participate in such things are not individually pathological? OK, sure, the mob takes a personality of its own, but that personaility is derived from the composite of personalities present. Both the individuals and the gathering itself are whacked, morally deficient or out to get something for nothing. I am much more concerned about what to do when faced with such an unpleasant event. Blessings. lance

In answer to your questions, you would have to ask the website creator.
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I did not make the statement/comments, hence the "From the website:" in my original post.

;)

Unfortunately, I live in the same retarded state as does Lobster. >:(  However, this might shed a little different light on the subject.  ;)


Story from a Kansas State Highway Patrol officer:

I made a traffic stop on an elderly lady the other day for speeding
on U.S. 166 Eastbound at Mile Marker 73 just East of Sedan , KS .
I asked for her driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance.
The lady took out the required information and handed it to me.
In with the cards I was somewhat surprised (due to her advanced age)
to see she had a conceal carry permit. I looked at her and asked if
she had a weapon in her possession at this time.

She responded that she indeed had a .45 automatic in her glove box.
Something---body language, or the way she said it---made me want
to ask if she had any other firearms. She did admit to also having
a 9mm Glock in her center console. Now I had to ask one more
time if that was all. She responded once again that she did have
just one more, a .38 special in her purse. I then asked her what
was she so afraid of.
She looked me right in the eye and said, "Not a darn thing!"



Seniors - Don't mess with them. They didn't get old by being stupid.


Jerry

Brew wrote on Sep 6^th, 2011 at 1:59pm:

Quote: I live in one of the few states where you cannot concealed-carry. Hate to break it to you, my friend....you live in the ONLY state where you cannot carry a concealed weapon. Wisconsin, the only other one that was on that list, just passed concealed carry legislation, which is due to go into effect in just a couple of months. And if you needed more persuasion: START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE C'mon up - the water's fine. ;)

Man I hate my state!  Grrrr!

Mob Attacks Terrorize Port Richmond; Retaliation Threatened
Sept. 13, 2011

Mark LaVelle, 37, lives a few blocks away from Campbell Square, but closer to Stokely Playground, another park residents say trouble-seeking kids take over at night. On the entrance hangs a sign that warns: no trespassing between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Someone covered the word “trespassing” with stickers. Now it reads: “No cops between the hours of 10PM and 6AM.”

LaVelle says a mob of crazed teens beat him with a pipe in his own home in front of his wife and kids about 11 p.m. on Friday.

He believes his assailants may have been seeking retaliation for whatever went down at Campbell Square, and he just happened to be in the way.

“I guess they were coming back looking for anyone,” he says.

LaVelle, a volunteer soccer coach, was loading sports equipment into his car when he spotted “six or seven carloads of black and Hispanic males pull over down the street.” He estimates the mob at “at least 50” dudes, maybe up to 75. When the crew emerged from their cars, he saw some were holding bats.

“I told my wife to call the police,” he says. Meanwhile, LaVelle figured he’d jot down license plate numbers in case there was real trouble.
"I walked down and I started getting their license plates with the help of two kids walking by,” says LaVelle.

“As the mob again turns the corner, [they] see us and start chasing us. The two kids, I grab them I tell them to run into my house… I’m outside my house now. I asked, ‘What’s going on here?’”

When they came after him, LaVelle ran back into his house and locked the door. His wife, 1-year-old twins, two older boys and a cousin were also in the house.

“They kicked in my door,” he says. “A Hispanic male came through it and hits me in the shoulder with a pipe … another Hispanic male punches me in the face. That’s why my eyes are swollen. As I kicked him off my step, a black male was swinging a gun in my face.”

Someone yelled, “The cops are coming!”

He says the police nabbed two assailants on the spot and picked up a third one a few minutes later.
The next day, Saturday afternoon, LaVelle says 20 to 30 men between the ages of 16 and 40 rolled up to his house.

“I thought it was safe,” says LaVelle. “It was during the day.”

“They were yelling, ‘You white motherf*cker! We know where you live now watch what happens if you go to court.’ They made this whole racial thing, ‘You’re white and you’re getting Spanish and black kids locked up.’”

“I said, ‘It had nothing to do with it.’ They said, ‘Watch what happens if you go to court you white motherf*cker.’”

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Video shows teens mob clerk, rob convenience store in Red Bird area of Dallas
Sep. 8, 2011

Dallas police are investigating a convenience store robbery in which a group of teens attacked a clerk.

The melee, which was caught on video, happened last month at the Exxon Tiger Mart at South Polk Street and Interstate 20, WFAA-TV (Channel 8) reports.

A large crowd of young people entered the store about 10:15 p.m. and began throwing bottles at one another.

When the clerk confronted them and tried to close the door, someone in the crowd punches him, knocking him to the ground.

"Once they got me on the ground, I thought they were going to kill me," C.J. Thomas told Channel 8's Monika Diaz.

Fortunately, two girls helped him up and pulled him out of harm's way.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Mob' attacked other people before store clerk beating
Posted on September 9, 2011 at 11:06 PM
Updated Saturday, Sept. 10th at 8:53 AM

DALLAS - Twenty minutes before a group of young people attacked store clerk C.J. Thomas at the Exxon Tiger Mart on Interstate 20 and South Polk Street in Dallas on August 26, the same group apparently had beaten a teenager.

"It was out of control," said Gwen Calloway.

Calloway was parked at the Love's Travel Stop gas station on the other side of the highway. She was waiting to pick up her daughter, who was attending a high school football game at Dallas ISD's Kincaide Stadium.

Calloway told News 8 she saw trouble heading her way when the game ended.

"I'm talking about a mob of kids coming, you could tell," Calloway said.

Seconds later, she saw the group chasing several kids on Polk. They attacked one in front of Love's and threw him on Calloway's car, cracking the windshield.

The boy, who was not identified because he's a minor, suffered three gashes to his head and a fractured eye socket.

"About 20 kids were beating up on one," Calloway said. "They were stomping on him, beating him, blood splashing all over my car 'cause they are hitting and kicking him in the head."

She told News 8 she yelled at the group and tried to shield the victim.

"If I hadn't been there, they would have beaten him to death," Calloway said.

News 8 has learned the violence on Polk started after a fight at the stadium.

DISD officials said safety at the facility is the district's top priority.

"Officers responded appropriately by breaking up the altercation and having participants leave the facility," said Jon Dahlander, a DISD spokesman. "Once those participants leave the facility, we have no control over their actions. We will be in contact with Dallas police about this incident and work with them to hopefully avoid this from happening in the future."

As for Calloway, she wants more security at future games, and plans to take her concerns to the district's next board meeting.

"There's no one to protect our children," Calloway said.

Dallas police are investigating both incidents. No arrests have been made.

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Gotta go back to my "original" question of the ages.... WHERE THE HELL ARE THE PARENTS OF THESE KIDS? And WHY are THEY not being held responsible?

And yes, that is one of my biggest soap box things.. these kids wouldn't being doing this stuff IF parents would be parents and start taking some responsibility.

I may be old, but when my child was small and did something bad (and he did) I took responsibilty for getting him straightened out (as did MY parents with ME). Today that just ain't happenng - Maybe it's time we put the BURDEN (and blame) back on the parents.

I don't give a rat's rear what anyone says - Kids are NOT born bad - but am a firm believer that "enviorment" plays a key role in behaviour. When I see a kid smart off to their parents and the parents just smart off back to them I want to take a flyswatter to BOTH of them... what can we EXPECT from the kid?

I don't like gangs (oh yeah we had them back in the old days too - but they were frowned upon by most of us who had "parents" and most of the "members" I remember either straighten up, died early or ended up in jail).

But then the govt stepped in (or the ACLU - can't remember which) and told "kids" they had "rights" - and things went to hell...

My 10 year old (in the middle of a well-deserved butt whipping) told his Dad, "I could have you arrested for spanking me!" I couldn't help myself - I came back with, "And Granny would be at the jailhouse five minutes later with bail money and you'd be off at boarding school by morning - now suck it up and quit whinning!" He shut up and took the spanking. "Rights" my rear!

If the govt wanted to do something "useful" for a change - they'd pass a damn law making parents responsible for their kids. Now my kid is a LONG way from being perfect, but he still says "yes mam, no mam," respects his elders and goes to work everyday since he got out of college and does NOT drink and drive and knows mama can still spank his rear with her flyswatter if the need arises. But he KNOWS that he's got back-up if he needs it (kids today don't know that) because there's always been his parents in the background. We were NEVER his best friends - we were his PARENTS.

Maybe I'm just stuck in the 50s - you did something wrong, you got your butt spanked and you didn't do THAT again - you found something else to get your butt spanked for.. but at least you could walk to town without fear of being mugged or killed.

Off soap box... :-*