Leave it to a bunch of knucklehead kids to turn the wholesome notion of flash mobs into just another form of juvenile delinquency.
Remember when flash mobs were choirs and dance troupes striking up entertaining and heart-warming performances in public places? In fact, one of my favorite TV commercials is the one for AT&T’s 4G phone service featuring a guy – who looks like an accountant – prematurely launching into a flash-mob dance in Grand Central Station.
Well, today they are almost always packs of marauding kids either attacking unsuspecting strangers on the street or pillaging items indiscriminately from stores of every type.
This latest version was on shocking and appalling display during the London riots a couple of weeks ago. But far too little media coverage was given to the flash mobs that struck in American cities around the same time.
This summer, spontaneous incidents of group violence – dubbed ‘flash robs’ – have happened in Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Washington, among other cities. Most episodes involved groups of young people looting stores or assaulting pedestrians and then running off.
Authorities said they believe at least some of these incidents were triggered by calls on social-networking sites to meet up and wreak havoc.
(When flash mobs attack, CNN, August 18, 2011)
In my commentary on the London riots, I recommended that all those who joined in flash-mob criminal behavior should be locked up and given a few smacks upside the head in the process. This should apply even more so for kids in America who can’t even claim that they just got caught up in the nihilistic frenzy of prevailing riots.
Ironically, all of these kids seem too stupid to realize that the technology they use to organize their flash mobs is the same technology the police can (and will) use to identify and capture every one of them. For example, Scotland Yard hunted down and arrested over 1,300 rioters and looters in large measure by using facial recognition software. It was also a cinch for the police to cross-reference CCTV images with images all of those pilfering exhibitionists are so fond of posting on Facebook, Twitter and other social-networking sites.
No doubt the police in America will be able to do the same with the images of those who were caught on tape scavenging through stores for everything from candies to designer jeans. After all, there isn’t a store anywhere these days that does not have surveillance cameras installed.
And think again if you think you’re being clever by inciting others to participate in flash mobs while chilling out at home and waiting for those stooges to send videos of their crime spree for you to upload. Because two kids in the UK are each serving four years in the pokey for doing just that.
In a similar vein an up-and-coming rapper was arrested in Cleveland, Ohio just yesterday for urging his Twitter followers (aka his fans) to congregate at a suburban mall where they proceeded to cause public disorder and make a nuisance of themselves.
Interestingly enough, most adults are so incensed by this form of social barbarity that neighbors, and even parents in some cases, are tipping off the police, for no reward, when they recognize kids (from their mugs being flashed on TV or featured in newspaper) engaging in flash-mob criminal behavior.
On the other hand, it’s no wonder kids have no moral compunctions about pillaging a convenience store when some adults justify their behavior by claiming that “times are tough and people need to eat”.
For this was the fatuous and morally bankrupt reaction that was featured on the local news last week after a group of girls were caught on tape snatching drinks and snacks from two stores here in Washington, DC. Never mind that some of these purportedly poor, starving kids could be seen carrying the expensive mobile devices they used to set up their flash mobs….
Let me hasten to note, however, that I do not think these kids should be thrown in with the general prison population. Instead they should be sent to old-fashioned reformatory schools where they will be required to not only take age-appropriate academic courses (or have vocational training), but also participate in discipline-inducing, military-style boot-camp exercises on a daily basis.
Frankly, I’m convinced that these flash mobs and riots would not exist if, at age 18, boys and girls were required to serve in the military: i.e., a de facto Draft. Of course, this won’t happen in the U.S. or UK anytime soon because far too many rich white folks fear their kids being forced into tours of duty in killing fields like Afghanistan and Iraq … with Syria looming.
Related commentaries:
AT&T flash mob
London riots…
Reinstate the Draft…
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