Flash Mobs: Peaceable Assembly for Spontaneous Fun

Schmendr1ck writes "The Orlando Sentinel is carrying a story on the growing trend of 'creating a crowd on a moment's notice for no particular reason' knows as a flash mob. Recent flash mobs (sometimes hundreds of people) have wandered into into an upscale NYC shoe store acting like confused tourists from Maryland, gathered at the Hyatt near Grand Central Station for 15 seconds of spontaneous applause, and converged on the Macy's carpet department to debate the quality of the rugs for sale. Check cheesebikini? for pictures and info on past mobs, as well as links to sites that organize these events. Sounds like a fun, harmless, and Constitutionally-protected way of blowing off a little steam."

Comments

Larry Niven

[dachshund]

Why doesn't this article mention Larry Niven even once? I was under the impression that he coined the term ("flash crowd") in his earlier short stories.

If I'm wrong, I stand corrected (in advance.)

Re:Larry Niven

[ScrewMaster]

That's correct. Those stories (part of Niven's Known Space future history) took place after the invention of the matter transmitter. Whenever an interesting news story would break, bored people, reporters, whoever, would "flick in" by the thousands from around the country to see it firsthand. Once the cops would realize that a flash crowd was building, they would turn on "riot control" which would redirect anyone trying to flick back out to a central processing facility somewhere in Nevada, I think.

Actually, this sounds remarkably like the Slashdot effect, only with people not Web hits.

The first story I know of that mentions the "flash crowd" was "The Permanent Floating Riot Club", where a gang of criminals actually used flash crowds to steal.

Re:Constitutional protection! Ha!

[ScottGant]

I followed your link to the kmart incident and read further because I was outraged also...but found that the police were basically handed their collective asses after this fiasco happened.

The police chief was also fired and went through a lenthy trial...though he was aquitted later. His police life is over though.

It's not like the police did this and just got away with it...they were slapped down pretty hard...which brought a smile to my face!

Re:One Question...

[Blimey85]

people were not getting violent in Seattle during the WTO protest

I do blame you for being a moron and trying to skew the facts. Yes there were violent people. Yes they were blocking sidewalks, streets, shops, etc. Yes they basically shutdown most of downtown seattle for several days. I live just 10 miles south of Seattle and I saw much of this first hand. I've also seen a couple of documentaries about the protests and while I think the cops were out of line on more than one occasion, the protestors were not the innocent angels you make them out to be.

Why did you fail to mention the bottles and debris being thrown at police officers? It's sad that we only see what we want to see. You apparently wanted to see peaceful protestors being victimized by the Seattle Police and so that is what you saw. Maybe you should look again and see the truth.

You should be able to find any of a number of documentaries on the protest at any local library in Seattle or the surrounding area.

Back to the topic at hand, what are the flash mobbers hurting? They show up, gather for a few moments, and then disburse. I don't think there is enough time for anyone to become annoyed with these people. I think most people would still be in shock by the time it's over. With the WTO protests you had individuals "manning" the streets and key intersections pretty much around the clock.

Re:Critical Mass

[TheViewFromTheGround]

Of course, I and every single one of my friends who bikes on a regular basis has had to go to the hospital because they've been hit by a car and the driver was at fault. I was hit, rolled up the hood, smashed into the windshield, and was thrown to the pavement when someone ran a red light and wound up spending the morning in the ER. Another time, my feet were run over when a car intentionally pinned me in. My girlfriend almost got killed by a van which tried to run her off the road. Another friend was knocked unconscious by someone who threw their door open without looking.

Recently, the city settled out of court in a lawsuit where an elderly black man (in his 60s) without drugs, weapons, or any malicious intent was intentionally hit by a police car while riding his bike.

One of the protest aspects of Critical Mass is to protest the interference of cars in the lives of cyclists when the law states that cars and bicycles must share the road. A statement is needed precisely because drivers are so careless and malicious towards cyclists.

As a sidenote, every time Critical Mass has taken over Lake Shore, the bikes are slowed down by the cars. Traffic around downtown Chicago at rush hour is so slow that bikes have a greater average speed. I'd guess that the amount of time that you lost was minimal.