Police Investigate Downtown Greensboro "Flash Mob Beatings"

WFMY ^ | 7/26/11 | Mark Geary

[Kartographer]

This past weekend, a former mayor had his business vandalized and another community leader got beat up in Center City Park.

"One of the teenagers came up from behind and just punched me in the back and kicked me and knocked me to the floor. Then, he just continued to kick me, punch me, step on me. People were screaming," Mitchel Sommers, executive director of the Community Theatre of Greensboro said.

The swarm came from nowhere and the beating lasted seconds.

"Within a minute, I'd say, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds...I'm not being dramatic...hundreds of young people...just came descending upon this area," he said. "There were so many young people. I would say all the way from across Elm Street all the way to the park. You couldn't even get out of the swarm of young people."

[sinanju]

Dunno, I’ve been reading that Obama and his gang have been quietly undoing welfare reform out of the limelight.

[MrB]

This quote stood out:
"hundreds of young people...just came descending upon this area," he said. "There were so many young people. I would say all the way from across Elm Street all the way to the park. You couldn't even get out of the swarm of young people"

"young people", eh?

[Yardstick]

Yeah, can’t you just see it? Sometimes they write themselves...

[Haiku Guy]

There are at least two sides to this story and the one that will receive the least attention is police malfeasance. While they run radar, conduct East German style checkpoints for (wait for it) seat belt use, sit outside bars waiting for someone, anyone, to exceed an artificially low limit of so-called ‘drunk driving’ and take their, er, hard-working K-9 unit to another PR appearance, the actual job of keeping the populace safe - especially from premeditated, coordinated violence - is ignored.

Many police are involved in money-raising activities rather than law enforcement. If your goal is to raise money, it makes much more sense to ticket the law-abiding person who is likely to pay the fine. But it makes no sense to try to stop the notorious law-breaker, because you can't make any money off of him.

I drive the same section of highway to work Monday to Friday and again on Sunday to go to church. During the week, traffic moves along at 25 to 30 miles per hour over the speed limit of 55, and you rarely see anybody stopped for a ticket. If you tried to drive 60 MPH in the right lane, you would be a traffic hazard because you are too slow. But on Sunday Morning, traffic is moving along at 55, and anybody who drives 60 MPH gets pulled over immediately. The Sunday Driver pays his tickets without a fuss.

[Haiku Guy]

There are at least two sides to this story and the one that will receive the least attention is police malfeasance. While they run radar, conduct East German style checkpoints for (wait for it) seat belt use, sit outside bars waiting for someone, anyone, to exceed an artificially low limit of so-called ‘drunk driving’ and take their, er, hard-working K-9 unit to another PR appearance, the actual job of keeping the populace safe - especially from premeditated, coordinated violence - is ignored.

Many police are involved in money-raising activities rather than law enforcement. If your goal is to raise money, it makes much more sense to ticket the law-abiding person who is likely to pay the fine. But it makes no sense to try to stop the notorious law-breaker, because you can't make any money off of him.

I drive the same section of highway to work Monday to Friday and again on Sunday to go to church. During the week, traffic moves along at 25 to 30 miles per hour over the speed limit of 55, and you rarely see anybody stopped for a ticket. If you tried to drive 60 MPH in the right lane, you would be a traffic hazard because you are too slow. But on Sunday Morning, traffic is moving along at 55, and anybody who drives 60 MPH gets pulled over immediately. The Sunday Driver pays his tickets without a fuss.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Curious to learn how. If their website is to be believed, Obama’s own home state of many a moon, Illinois, is one of the kids-are-king but forget-about-the-adults welfare systems. They duly threaten to get you in trouble if you do things like apply under different names or misstate claims in order to get more benefits. But it hit me as fairly lean.

[kearnyirish2]

Thanks; it is just a sad situation. Here in northern NJ if they weren’t throwing things at your car as you passed their tenements on a freeway separated by a 10’ barbed wire fence, you’d never know they even existed. The teachers in their schools will tell you candidly how hopeless it is.

[kearnyirish2]

It is getting harder to “re-distribute” others’ wealth; despite the depictions on TV, working people know the danger they represent and treat them accordingly. Newark, NJ is begging white (and other) hard-working people to stay after 5 pm and spend some money; it ain’t working. It just isn’t safe, and isn’t worth dying for. While “Yankees” like to point fingers at “rednecks”, we have the most segregated society in the country; even Frederick Douglass commented on it.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

I’m thinking water cannons and mega-tazers...Lighting bolts.

[RegulatorCountry]

A couple of very stout “trip lines” that could be rapidly raised would have an interesting domino effect on a running mob.

[meadsjn]

Or a large-mesh net hanging from the ceiling.

[steve86]

Learned a new word today "dystopia"

I had that once and was in the bathroom for three days.