Philadelphia: Teen flash mob attacks pedestrians, several injured

[cali]

Woman's leg broken, others hurt in Spring Garden mob attack

By STEPHANIE FARR
Philadelphia Daily News

A WOMAN'S leg was broken and several other people were injured Saturday night when a large group of teens accosted pedestrians in Spring Garden, police and witnesses said.

Philadelphia police responded to two reports of pedestrians being assaulted by a large group of young people along Broad Street about 9:30 p.m.

One of those reports came from Emily Guendelsberger, 27, city editor for local arts and entertainment content for the Onion, the satirical newspaper and website. She was walking with seven friends on Green Street near Broad when they were accosted, she said. Guendelsberger, who remained hospitalized with a broken leg yesterday, declined to comment further.

A friend who was with her at the time, Daily News staff writer Molly Eichel, said that they were walking down Green Street when a group of teens was walking down Broad. "We heard kids yell, 'Run, run,' " Eichel said. "Some kid just came out of nowhere and punched my friend Charlie in the face."

<snip>

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110627_Woman_s_leg_broken__others_hurt_in_Spring_Garden_mob_attack.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Shagbark Hickory]

18. Wutcha talkin bout Willis?

[Brickbat]

2. Flash mob?

[ImNotTed]

4. Exactly

A bunch of rowdy teenagers does not equal a flash mob.

[Brickbat]

5. There's no "flash" reference on the story at the link. Having said that, "rowdy" is not the word I

would use here, either.

[GoneOffShore]

3. Predictable Philly comments thread.

[Renew Deal]

6. You don't know what a flash mob is.

[BeFree]

7. Fox like headline, eh?

Flash mobs are cool and anti-establishment, had to know it wouldn't be long before 'Flash' was ACORNED.

[TorchTheWitch]

10. Philly police have been calling these incidents flash mobs since they started

It pisses me off. Surely they could have come up with some other term to describe them rather than hijacking one that means something completely different and fun.

[kenny blankenship]

13. The term is used, bc in Chicago & Philly these riots are coordinated thru social media & txting

just like "regular" flash mobs.

[Obamanaut]

20. Things, names, symbols change. Take for example the swastika. For hundreds

of years it was used in various forms, until it was taken during WW2 and became a hated symbol.

When the American 'Pledge of Allegiance' was first used way back when, the salute described was quite similar to that of the Nazi 'Heil', so it was changed at that time to the hand/hat over the heart.

We have a remarkable way of taking good stuff and turning it into something less.

[razorman]

31. Calling these violent thugs, "flash mobs" is meant to make them sound harmless.

They should call them what they are: "criminals".

[-..__...]

8. Time to bring in the "Sanitation Department"...

and clean up the garbage...

[Renew Deal]

9. This is bound to go well

:hide:

[-..__...]

12. Meh...

If anyone gets upset, they can blame it on the "Hugs for Thugs" outreach program being eliminated due to budget cuts.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. If you look closely at the post above, you'll hear a ''fap fap fap'' sound.

Mainly from the upper left corner.

[chrisa]

30. One of the few groups of people

that deserve a legitimate ass kicking from the police.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. cali, please answer me this question.

Why did you add "flash" before "mob"? The term does NOT appear in the article.

[Matariki]

15. That's just fucking scary.

Like some kind of Clockwork Orange trend...?

[slampoet]

16. This is not a flash mob FUCKING PROPAGANDA!

[slackmaster]

22. What do you believe would motivate someone to usurp and propagandize a term like flash mob?

Assuming that is what you are suggesting here. Propaganda by definition has persuasion as its core purpose.

[slampoet]

24. There has been a concerted effort to link criminality in the real world with the internet.

Internet predators

Craigslist is nothing but adult services

etc.


you haven't noticed ?

[slackmaster]

25. No, not really. Who do you believe is behind it, and more important - WHY?

And an aside question - Does it really matter?

[kenny blankenship]

27. It is strange watching people freak out about the use of "flash mob"

as if "mob" were a nice word. And as though the people freaking out had some sort of proprietary copyright over the use of the term.

Most of the existing usages of "mob" alone or in combination with other words and particles have been highly negative: mob rule, lynch mob, mobster, mob killings, mobocracy, and of course the widely loathed Mob of Seagulls.

Put mob together with flash and suddenly the valence is positive. "Flash mobs" have had a mostly benign history-til now- as surrealist "happenings", where some pointless and harmless activity like synchronized dancing or a giant pillow fight is staged in public without the foreknowledge of those who will be witnessing it as spectators. The coordination of the flash mob is accomplished in cyberspace, ensuring that spectators who witness it in meatspace will experience it as an eruption of absurdity, a violation of norms, a disruption and rejection of routine existence without a critique including descriptions of what ought to replace it. The accepted use of Flash mob so far has not encompassed political protests, and excludes commercial purposes. In its accepted use then, it is a kind of performance art with familiar, good old-fashioned Surrealist values.

But does anyone who objects to the use of "flash mob" to refer to arbitrary violent mobs coordinated by social media and sms messaging, remember what the "ultimate Surrealist act" was, according to Andre Breton?

[B-Stupid]

17. This might not be PC

but I bet you nightsticks and a few German Shepards might solve this problem.....

[JoePhilly]

21. How would that work exactly?

You have innocent people running, and you have members of the mob running.

Maybe the dog can smell the "innocent" people?

[alcibiades_mystery]

26. No, see, that's how they handled "the blacks" in the old days

That what the poster means, and why he/she is worried about being "PC."

Easy, see:

1) Assume rampaging mobs will be made up of African American inner city teenagers
2) Imagine a previous form of "control" for African Americans
3) State said form of control
4) Inoculate your racist drivel by stating that other people surely will be upset that it is not "politically correct"
5) Suggest in passing that these other people are too sensitive and not realistic (about African American inferiority and criminality)

Rinse and repeat.

I'm only surprised that the poster didn't mention water cannons - an act of extraordinary restraint.

[ileus]

28. a few wood shampoos and a nibble here and there will deter innocents from attending

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. "a bunch of girls from the mob protected me from the boys trying to hit me "

[slackmaster]

23. I can't wait to see what The Onion does with this story

It could be epic.

[WatsonT]

29. A few people with CHLs . . .

I have zero sympathy for these kind of violent thugs. We'd be better off as a species without them.