Now a few days later, reporters seem bewildered this might have been a racial incident and are asking what could have motivated such a thing
This morning's twitter brought news that Philadelphia Mayor Micheal Nutter had condemned something he called flash mobs.. The only flash mobs I was aware of are the groups that create spontaneous appearing musical events in unlikely places and leave crowds happy and smiling,, I couldn't see Mayor Nutter or any Mayor getting upset over that.. I clicked the link.
Philadelphia mayor talks tough to black teenagers after ‘flash mobs’

“Take those God-darn hoodies down, especially in the summer,” Mr. Nutter, the city’s second black mayor, said in an angry lecture aimed at black teens. “Pull your pants up and buy a belt ‘cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt.”
“If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you? They don’t hire you ‘cause you look like you’re crazy,” the mayor said. “You have damaged your own race
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"In the latest event July 29, about 20 to 30 youths descended on Center City after dark, then punched, beat and robbed bystanders. One man was kicked so savagely that he was hospitalized with a fractured skull. Police arrested four people, including an 11-year-old."
Wisconsin had a problem, Philadelphia seems to have an ongoing issue, and it seems to be getting overlooked by the national media...It only took a couple seconds to find out this becoming a National Problem....
In Upper Darby Pa. police are concerned because citizens are arming themselves for protection against the mobs... They afraid of a shoot out between citizens and children.. Note to upper Darby police.. if a half grown adult picks up a gun with the intention of hurting someone, they're playing an adult game with adult consequences....
In Chicago on a Saturday night in mid June a gang of 15-20 "Children" beat and robbed at least 5 people including a 68 year old.. Police there acknowledge it's a growing problem and have implemented several new countermeasures.. Police made several arrests including a couple 17 year olds that will be tried as adults.
Roughly 100 youths who had attended a church picnic in Pittsburgh July 31, 2011 decided to have some fun on the way home, they trashed a Targets Store a Trader Joe's and ran all the customers out of a McDonalds.
On July 26, in Winfield NJ alert police noticed a group of roughly 150 young people marching towards a carnival.. Winfield is a small town but they were able to get back-up from several nearby communities.. Several fights broke out and a number of arrests made. Police say the entire thing may have been organized on twitter and facebook.
According to a list put together by violentflasmobs.com there have been at least seventy of the incidents so far the year..Race seems to be a factor in many, possibly most of them, although in many of the media reports race isn't mentioned.. As always there is someone around to justify things, in this case it's Phillip Jackson who wrote in Young Black Men, and The Power of Flash Mobs!!
The best way to deter a violent flash mob is to stop it from forming. The best time to stop it from forming is when the potential congregants are 2 and 3 years old, not when they are 16, 20 and 30 years old. The best weapons against flash mobs are jobs, not police with guns; education, not incarceration; and positive guidance and direction, not threats or curses. Can flash mobs be stopped? Absolutely. Is America working properly to stop them? Absolutely not.
Starting with LBJ's war on poverty hundreds of billions of dollors have been spent trying to do exactly what Jackson is complaining about. What exactly does he want.. The programs have been there,for almost fifty years. Those programs have helped countless people break from tpoverty and become successful. Others have decided that involves work. we'll stay were we're at and cry about how mistreated and abused we are.....And the Government will give us more money...
I have a little warning for some of them.. not everyone is willing to become a victim of flashmob violence