Mob violence
A round up of other such attacks.
A lot of people are taking to calling these flash mobs. They’re not. Flash mobs, though annoying, are mostly harmless. A lot of these mobs are people using social media to coordinate violence and looting.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:14 am
When they steal it becomes a flash rob.
Maybe these rioters could simply be called flash yobs.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:29 am
All they’d need to do, if the UK police and prosecutors were competent, is catch one and get his cell phone number, or social media usernames. Then they’d have sufficient cause to get a warrant for all messages sent and received, by phone, by text or by other means during the riots and leading up to them. Pick out the ones that seem likely to be related to the criminal conspiracy, and identify the senders and recipients. Get the cell phone numbers of those people, and then get the records from the cell company to find out which phones were registered to the cell towers in the vicinity of the rioting at the time of the riots (even better if those phones typically don’t go anywhere near there).
Actually, I’m kind of surprised the police don’t already have the cell tower logs. It’s not that hard to filter out those that live in the area, and everyone else is either a witness or a perpetrator.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:41 am
Flash Gangs
August 10th, 2011 at 10:42 am
And since London is filled up with cameras, there’s a good chance that a huge percentage of those found could be matched with incriminating pictures.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:16 am
Sadly, they’re not. Three days of riots, with them spreading from London to cities across the country, and they’re still wringing their hands over whether they should use water cannons or not, and the idea of rubber bullets is making people in authority almost hysterical over fears of being seen as the ‘bad guys’.
If this kind of phenomenon managed to go this long and spread so far in the US, there would be dead protesters, because the police would have long ago graduated to using live rounds alongside the water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, Tasers, and other less-lethal weapons. The National Guard would probably be involved by this point.
Oh, and the peaceful population would be organizing, like the Sikhs in England are now, except most would have guns – like the Koreans during the LA riots did – instead of having to desperately order baseball bats off of Amazon and hope they arrive in time.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:16 am
Notice that it is happening in places where guns are basically verboten…
August 10th, 2011 at 11:42 am
This is unpossible! All citizens are under constant CCTV surveillance to prevent crime! No citizen is allowed to commit any violence, including defending themselves!
August 10th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Is it time again?
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/would-you-send-a-gun-to-defend-a-british-home
August 10th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
smash mobs?
August 10th, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Here in U.S.A. I’d charge them with violating the RICO act as well as conspiracy, assault, robbery, theft…
But we all know in Britain they would only charge them with disorderly conduct and let off with an admonishment.
August 10th, 2011 at 1:47 pm
I don’t know how much the police would really do here. I am thinking of the Milwaukee thug attack at the State Fair over the weekend.
August 10th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
That a flash mob has previously mostly been harmless and law abiding doesn’t mean that the same technique can’t be used for ill.
(Such as in Niven’s story that nearly coined the term – they’re a phenomenon about the technology that allows them; they’re not about the goals or the ethics of behavior.)
August 10th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
What would the official reaction be (here or over there) if regular citizens (or subjects over there) used social media to organize defense against the flash mobs?
August 10th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
“What would the official reaction be (here or over there) if regular citizens (or subjects over there) used social media to organize defense against the flash mobs?”
Announce that the defenders are terrorists.
August 10th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Still think someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes, like the SDS and the Black Panthers did during the 60’s.