Violent, urban flash mobs: the delightful product of the Democrats' unbounded welfare state and gun control

"Flash mob crimes" are a growing problem in large cities around the country. The phrase refers to a large crowd of individuals -- usually teens -- that use social networks to coordinate riots, assaults and robberies. And they occur almost exclusively in cities where the concealed carry of firearms is either banned altogether (unconstitutionally, as in Chicago) or permit holders are simply harassed to discourage them from packing.

The inevitable result: law-abiding citizens are unable to protect themselves from swarms of attackers. Consider the following sampling of incidents that have occurred in Philadelphia over the last few months.

Teens in a mob assault and rob Center City patrons

The two young women were sitting at a window table inside the Max Brenner restaurant on 15th Street, near Walnut, sharing chocolate fondue after some shopping... But their night on the town was about to become frightening.

...Heading their way was a pack of teens roving through Center City after leaving a North Philadelphia music festival... They were part of about 100 or more young people who had left Saturday night's event, police said, committing a series of violent assaults and robberies, including one against Maria, 25, of North Philadelphia, and her cousin Cecilia, 29, of Havertown.

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

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... the mob ranged from 50 to 100 people and that participants not only assaulted people but also threw trash cans and lit fireworks...

Hearing for Flash Mob Looters

Police are seeking a joint hearing for the juveniles arrested and linked to the flash mob that filed into a 69th Street department store last week and stole sneakers, socks, watches and other merchandise... The group, all West Philadelphia residents, boarded SEPTA’s Elevated train in the city and got off at the 69th Street Terminal at approximately 7 p.m. on June 23... “They proceeded up the hill to the Sears store and entered together,” police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said, estimating 30 to 40 teens engaged in the planned flash mob...

West Philly man pleads guilty to 'flash mob' assault

A West Philadelphia man - charged in one of the first "flash mob" incidents in Center City, during which a bicyclist was beaten unconscious - pleaded guilty Monday in an agreement that will keep him in prison for five to 20 years... Stephen Lyde, 23, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, conspiracy, and riot in the May 30, 2009, assault on Thomas Fitzgerald, who was yanked from his bicycle and beaten during the melee at Broad and South Streets...

Mobs Are Born as Word Grows by Text Message

[Philadelphia] flash mobs have taken a more aggressive and raucous turn here as hundreds of teenagers have been converging downtown for a ritual that is part bullying, part running of the bulls: sprinting down the block, the teenagers sometimes pause to brawl with one another, assault pedestrians or vandalize property... ...In a Feb. 16 melee, 150 teenagers spilled out of the Gallery shopping mall east of City Hall during rush hour and rampaged through Macy’s, knocking down customers and damaging displays...

Pennsylvania has a law on the books that permits concealed carry, but Philadelphia's city officials have done their best to block and harass permit holders. The result: defenseless citizens at the mercy of mobs.

Economist John Lott explains how it's done:

In the last two years, Philadelphia police have confiscated guns from at least nine men - including four security guards - who were carrying them legally, and only one of the guns has been returned, according to interviews with the men... Philadelphia has unusually strict criteria for obtaining a concealed-carry permit. Philadelphia, according to police and gun owners, relies heavily on a clause that allows denial of a permit based on "character and reputation" alone...

Flash mob crimes represent the confluence of two failed Democrat social engineering policies:

• A massively expanded welfare state, which -- as study after study after study has shown -- encourages single-parent families and breeds criminals;

• And onerous gun control laws, which only impact the law-abiding citizens who follow cities' unconstitutional dictates

You know what would stop 'flash mob crimes'? Shooting about a dozen criminals in the kneecaps.

That sounds cruel, but now that Democrats have begun to unravel the civil society, I don't see many good alternatives.


Linked by: Ed Driscoll and Marathon Pundit. Thanks!