I remember seeing this ‘game’ as early as the mid-1990’s. Ted Koppel had a clip of some thugs pulling this garbage on some poor guy walking by them. It was in Washington, D.C., IIRC. From what I’ve read in more recent stories, when a girl/woman is among the thug party, she is often the one who picks out the victim.
At any rate, your advice is excellent (i.e. keep alert). Being aware of your surroundings and keeping an eye out for potential threats can save your life. If not in avoiding a situation entirely, then at least giving you a better chance of coming out in one piece.
As I recall, at least back then (90’s) a lot of the victims were black. Perps of course always were. I don’t know how it is now.
On a similar note, these thug women when in small groups of say 4 or so can be pretty bold and nasty too.
on a couple occasions I've seen them walking around a Meijers store, no groceries or anything with them, strolling down the middle of an aisle forcing everyone coming their way to step to the side.
4 once targeted me while I was carrying a loaded hand basket. As they approached they angled in my direction attempting to force me to step against one of the food shelves but just as the closest one got to me, I swung my basket back then forward and clobbered her in the knee. She yelped in pain causing the others to stop their giggling and laughing. I simply said I'm sorry and continued walking away.......