The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Exhibition cancelled at McCormick due to flash mobs in Chicago?

Bartholomew Roberts · June 28, 2011, 08:50 AM

Originally, the idea behind a flash mob was more artistic. People would suddenly form up and start dancing like you had been dropped into some musical. Or they would act out a scene or something - just goofy fun. It was called a flash mob because it basically formed in a flash out of what looked like a normal crowd.

In the past two years, some people have been using the same organizing tools to get large numbers of people together for criminal activity. Looting merchants, assaulting people, destroying property, etc. So far all of the accounts I've read tend to happen in places with bad self defense laws.

I wish they would come up with a different term for the criminal version than "flash mob" though since it kind of confuses harmless behavior with criminal behavior.

June 28, 2011, 08:50 AM	#5
Bartholomew Roberts member Join Date: June 12, 2000 Location: Texas and Oklahoma area Posts: 8,462	Originally, the idea behind a flash mob was more artistic. People would suddenly form up and start dancing like you had been dropped into some musical. Or they would act out a scene or something - just goofy fun. It was called a flash mob because it basically formed in a flash out of what looked like a normal crowd. In the past two years, some people have been using the same organizing tools to get large numbers of people together for criminal activity. Looting merchants, assaulting people, destroying property, etc. So far all of the accounts I've read tend to happen in places with bad self defense laws. I wish they would come up with a different term for the criminal version than "flash mob" though since it kind of confuses harmless behavior with criminal behavior.