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Flash Mob Gang Warfare

TexasDex writes "You've all heard of flash mobs and Flash Mob Computing. Now here's a new twist on the flash mob phenomenon: Almost 3 dozen people were arrested for a March 3 street fight. 'What makes this case unusual is how the clash was arranged: via a profanity-laced Internet chat room.' Apparently two Dallas gangs, after trading insults in a chat room, traded their keyboards for fists and baseball bats and arranged a time to meet and duke it out in real life. The gang members were later identified and arrested with the aid of a digital video tape of the brawl. According to one officer, 'Some of them actually signed in with their true names, so that helped us identify people.'"

325 comments

  1. Scoop! by balthan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gotta love how slashdot stays on the forefront of up-to-the-minute journalism.

    1. Re:Scoop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, this story was already told about 21 years ago.

    2. Re:Scoop! by Glonoinha · · Score: 4, Funny

      About like a bunch of computer nerds to bring baseball bats to a gunfight.

      Actually none of them sound like rocket scientists - but given that it happened in Texas I am shocked, awed, and dismayed at the complete lack of firearms in this disagreement. You would think that with upwards of 40 or so hooligans ... somebody would have remembered that rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and a few H&K MP5A3s full of 9mm Hydroshok ammo and laser designators beats a bunch of punks with baseball bats.

      Damn kids today ...

      --
      Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
    3. Re:Scoop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Worse than that I am in Garland and most likely all the vehicles in the immediate area had guns in them I mean sheesh when I was that age if someone had tried to start a fight at a previously disclosed location and set time there would have been serious casualties, but then when you hang with a bunch of competition shooters ....

    4. Re:Scoop! by ObSean · · Score: 1

      Yes, because as wel all know, Texas is the only place in the world where people have firearms.

    5. Re:Scoop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I heard that gangs are using the web to recruit. In fact, the TCP gang has joined forces with members of IP, and are getting ready to battle a combination of the UDP and IPX gangs.

    6. Re:Scoop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i think this is funny as hell... an article about fights that started on the internet... and this dumbass is just the kind of person who says dickless things on the internet trying to start something. would you say that to a black person, to his face? no. i think not. because its cowards like you who have no alternative, since you are too spineless to say anything in real life, that instead you get off saying stupid crap on message boards, as if anyone cares what a pussy like you thinks.

      ps - yes i see the irony in the fact that i'm posting this criticism anonymously, and he at least has a login name, but i'm just too lazy to create an account ;)

    7. Re:Scoop! by ninji · · Score: 0

      Keep in mind alot of these kids were 14 years old... even in texas they dont tend to carry a gun on them at that age...

    8. Re:Scoop! by SphericalCrusher · · Score: 1

      Baseball bats? Gah, how old are they!? They should bring crowbars and chainsaws like a true nerd...!

      --
      "Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
    9. Re:Scoop! by AndroidCat · · Score: 1

      I hear the Cisco Kids are trying to control new parts of that gang.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    10. Re:Scoop! by CreatureComfort · · Score: 1


      Actually, the news is reporting that several brought thier golf clubs...

      --
      "Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
      Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
    11. Re:Scoop! by RogL · · Score: 1

      True nerds would build their own non-lethal stun-guns & shock-batons. The advanced ones might bring a paintball-firing paintball launcher, but these kids were probably too young.

      On a serious note: if anyone showed up with a "spud gun", they might have been charged with firearms violations.

    12. Re:Scoop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WHOOSH!

    13. Re:Scoop! by Glonoinha · · Score: 1

      Actually Texas is the only place in the world (that I know of) where the law supports killing someone for vandalism or purse-snatching.
      Read literally, the law supports killing someone for stealing candy from a baby.
      Texas is the only place (that I know of) where a judge will ask 'Well ... did he need killing?'
      In Texas a man with a gun can walk up to a fist fight between his friend and someone he does not know and simply say 'stop fighting' - if his friend backs off and the other guy swings at him again, he can be shot to death.

      Then again, you never hear about full scale Riots in Texas and people are generally pretty polite. Kind of refreshing to hear that these cyberpunks could keep their streetfight civil. Completely funny to hear that the digital recording of the fight was used to prosecute some of the fighters. Who brings a digital camera to a street-brawl?

      --
      Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
    14. Re:Scoop! by Glonoinha · · Score: 1

      Ouch bingo - you are right. That explains everything. Petty fist fights stop about age 18 in Texas, not because they grow up and are mature ... but because that's when they all can legally buy rifles. When the law lets people shoot you if you hit them - people stop hitting each other. Yea maybe he was disrespectful, but if it isn't worth dying for, it isn't worth fighting about.

      --
      Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
    15. Re:Scoop! by TheLink · · Score: 1

      Well, maybe they agreed on the type of weapons?

      --
    16. Re:Scoop! by whodunnit · · Score: 1

      I"m just curious, do you live in Texas? Or have you ever even been to Texas? Personally I have lived in Texas the large majority of my life, and while the laws are deffintely in favor of people being allowed to defend themselves, I think you are pushing your stereotype of texas a bit too far.

    17. Re:Scoop! by operagost · · Score: 1

      Dude, I am SO moving to Texas!

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    18. Re:Scoop! by SEWilco · · Score: 2, Interesting
      ... in Texas I am shocked, awed, and dismayed at the complete lack of firearms in this disagreement.

      If all the neighbors and bystanders are armed, would it really be a good idea to wave a gun around?

      An armed society is a polite society. Particularly polite in practicing proper aiming etiquette.

    19. Re:Scoop! by Glonoinha · · Score: 1

      Harry Hogge: What do you know about Texas?
      Cole Trickle: Well... watched it on television, of course.
      Harry Hogge: You've seen it on television?
      Cole Trickle: ESPN. The coverage is excellent, you'd be surprised at how much you can pick up.
      Harry Hogge: I'm sure I would.

      Lets just say that once upon a time I passed through Texas, and I took the concealed handgun permit class while I was there. And I read the news on cnn.com quite a bit.

      I'm not saying they do all that stuff, I'm just saying they can. And that probation for a first time murder conviction wasn't unheard of in S. Texas 20 years ago - if the judge / jury could be convinced that 'he had it coming.' Today? Who knows.

      Then again, Dallas represents Texas about as well as Detroit represents Texas. And no, never been to either, but I have had long talks with people that have (which is why I have never been to either.)

      --
      Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
    20. Re:Scoop! by JAD+lifter · · Score: 1

      True nerds would build their own non-lethal stun-guns & shock-batons

      I am just curious, why would a true nerd build a nonlethal device? Why wouldn't a true nerd build a shock-baton so powerful that one touch causes lightning to shoot out of all of the victims orifices before he explodes into a cloud of statically charged blood mist?

    21. Re:Scoop! by pete6677 · · Score: 1

      And this is a bad thing?

    22. Re:Scoop! by the+Man+in+Black · · Score: 1

      Actually Texas is the only place in the world (that I know of) where the law supports killing someone for vandalism or purse-snatching.

      That certainly can't be true. We LOVE our guns here in Michigan. LOVE them. However, in the time I've lived here (my whole life) I've never heard of large groups of people getting together to shoot at each other, so I'm not certain how the two are connected.

    23. Re:Scoop! by Fig,+formerly+A.C. · · Score: 1

      If I had points, I'd mod you up for the excellent reference. :-)

      --
      Murphy was an optimist.
    24. Re:Scoop! by Craig+Davison · · Score: 1

      Then we'd have a bunch of dead kids. How would that be any better?

    25. Re:Scoop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      An armed society is a polite society.

      Can we finally lay this piece of shit from Heinlein to rest? The U.S. is without a doubt a heavily armed society. Polite? Not even close.

      Heinlein was a racist, misogynistic homophobe fascist.

      You are a dumbass.

    26. Re:Scoop! by timlee · · Score: 1

      I heard that a few brought +1 maces.

    27. Re:Scoop! by magarity · · Score: 2, Informative

      Classic prisoners' dillema. As soon as you agree to limit what kind of weapons to bring the person bringing the next level up wins easily. No one should ever agree to a limit and if they do don't trust them to stick to it.

    28. Re:Scoop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "An armed society is a polite society."

      'Can we finally lay this piece of shit from Heinlein to rest?'

      No.

      Spend some time in places where everyone is obviously armed, then draw your conclusions from that. It is when armed resistance is unexpected that danger from thugs and ruffians is high.

    29. Re:Scoop! by Frizzle+Fry · · Score: 1
      However, in the time I've lived here (my whole life) I've never heard of large groups of people getting together to shoot at each other

      Especially not in Detroit. Certainly no groups of people have every shot at each other there.
      --
      I'd rather be lucky than good.
    30. Re:Scoop! by TheLink · · Score: 1

      It wasn't a spur of the moment fight etc - it sounds more analogous to a duel. Since the report says nobody was carrying firearms even though gang members probably had easy access to firearms or other deadly weapons, then maybe it was more of a "honour/prestige" thing and they actually did agree to the type of fight. I mean "one person who suffered a broken arm", doh, if bladed/edged weapons were used, broken arms wouldn't be the injury of note.

      If it's an "honour/prestige" fight, then hey if the other side doesn't stick to an agreed limit it's major loss of face for them. I'm sure they're not the only gangs around.

      We're not talking about politicians here y'know ;). Seems more like young kids trying to feel important or something, and trying to create a sense of order, structure out of the chaos that is their world. If a gang loses it's street cred it may actually get picked on by everyone else. Why would a kid want to be part of a group that has even less respect than the kid alone? I'm sure there are tons of unwritten rules, things you don't do, things you can do. Otherwise what defines a gang anyway?

      BTW I don't see how it is the classic prisoner's dilemma.

      --
    31. Re:Scoop! by BrainStain · · Score: 1
      Not within 10 yards of alcohol. In a bar, y'all have to check your guns in at the door, damn!

    32. Re:Scoop! by Glonoinha · · Score: 1

      Given the average age of the fighters was 14, I'm guessing they probably shouldn't be drinking. Then again, they probably shouldn't be carrying guns, or even hitting each other with shovels and baseball bats either.

      That said, the alcohol rule is for bars that derive 51% or more of their revenue from the sale of alcohol. Pop into Friday's for a beer while you are packing (if you are so entitled, carrying a concealed handgun permit) and that's fine. Don't try that at a place that is a BAR bar, cause you are 100% right. Actually need to leave them in the glove box of your car.

      Funny story - I was in a high class 'gentleman's club' in Philly a year or two ago, metal detector and what have you at the door. Sit down, order from the menu and in addition to my drinks and meal the waitress brings me the biggest knife I have ever seen. Crocodile Dundee would have been proud. The steak was amazing and the knife came in handy - but it just seemed funny at the time. So mate, you not carrying any weapons? Well here's your scotch and steak dinner and a big ass knife.

      --
      Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
    33. Re:Scoop! by BrainStain · · Score: 1
      Didn't know about the %51 thing, but saw a sign in a bar in San Antonio a couple years back, and it was no joke.

      The joke's on California though... After reading up on Calfornia SB 1152, which basically says they'll be forcing retailers to thumbprint ammo purchases and keep records for 2 years, ( based on Los Angeles city ordinance creeping its way across the entire republic... ) wondering if Texas will please invade the state, I'll lay down my arms, and should, my AR doesn't even have a detachable magazine, and sure thing the Texans would pack the real deal. CCW Permit in Cali? They don't even give those to COPS! Ohh but if you are the biggest anti-gun lobby ( Feinstien & Boxer ), you can and do have a CCW.

      Hi-class gents club in California? No cigar(ette) smoking indoors, and in my hometown, you can't smoke OUTSIDE! Just around the corner in Santa Cruz, if you are a hairy armpit lumberjack female, you can walk around topless in public. But they give out drivers licenses to illegal aliens, and jam up the freeways with car pool lanes that nobody uses cutting utilization potential of the roads by %33, and let cats marry dogs in SF, a city that funds open pot fields.

    34. Re:Scoop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Why wouldn't a true nerd build a shock-baton so powerful that one touch causes lightning to shoot out of all of the victims orifices before he explodes into a cloud of statically charged blood mist?
      Because a true nerd is so physically uncoordinated that his chance of hitting himself with it would be around 50% (or as he'd say, 7 or more on 2D6)?
  2. With or without computers.... by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 4, Insightful
    criminals are always stupid.

    (This is why cops can catch them).

    1. Re:With or without computers.... by blackula · · Score: 1

      It's true. Criminals actually have a lower average IQ than non-criminals.

    2. Re:With or without computers.... by hutkey · · Score: 1

      criminals are stupid,
      criminals are humans,
      =humans are stupid
      cops are humans,
      =cops are stupid

      finally stupidity prevails

      Einstein: "there are two infinite things, Universe and human stupidity. i don't know anything about the later"

    3. Re:With or without computers.... by benna · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually I believe its "I'm not quite sure about the former" or something like that.

      --
      "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
    4. Re:With or without computers.... by Phidoux · · Score: 1

      However, those with computers seem to slightly worse.

    5. Re:With or without computers.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      humans are stupid
      geeks are humans
      therefore, you, and your whole argument, is stupid

    6. Re:With or without computers.... by hutkey · · Score: 1

      well u made one mistake. the the WFF u stated doesnot include 'argument' as a variable that's why you cannot state any result which can include 'argument'.
      according to your WFF the result would be
      'geeks are stupid' and nothing else.
      plz chk this for more explaination.

    7. Re:With or without computers.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only crimminals the cops catch are the stupid ones. Those of us with an IQ over 88 aren't.

    8. Re:With or without computers.... by hutkey · · Score: 1

      actually,

      There are two infinite things. The universe and stupidity of men,
      but I'm not sure with the universe." -- Albert Einstein.

  3. cool by brainkiller · · Score: 2, Funny

    irc gangs... haha.. how geeky is that?

    1. Re:cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Na that is just stupid, it would be geeky if they actually were same enough to set up their own servers and fight war games style.

    2. Re:cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am an internet G. Try www.gang-wars.com

    3. Re:cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i limit my gang banging to www.gang-wars.com

    4. Re:cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *** brainkiller joins: #slashdot (~brainkiller@pacbell-18.dialup.pacnet.com.us)

      irc gangs... haha.. how geeky is that?
      Who you gettin' crazy with, esse?
      Don't you know I'm loco?!?
      Come to #vatos puta mierda! I'll skullfux yor head w/ my keyboard!

    5. Re:cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dude when I get out of here you are SOOOOO dead!

    6. Re:cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah.. great!.. Now there is nowhere for me to hide from the school bullies.

    7. Re:cool by EvilAlien · · Score: 1

      About as geeky as kids in Korea killing each other in Internet Cafes over MMORPGs?

      --
      perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
  4. God willing... by digitalunity · · Score: 1, Interesting

    One of these days, all the gangs will just shoot each other. Their existence is self-perpetuating. I don't blame members because I fully understand what they get out of it. I only wish they could fill their psychological needs with more constructive activities.

    --
    You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
    1. Re:God willing... by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 2, Funny
      I only wish they could fill their psychological needs with more constructive activities

      Like slash-dotting?

      --
      Engineering is the art of compromise.
    2. Re:God willing... by irokitt · · Score: 1

      That's like saying that everyone who uses contraception will die out, because their existence is self-perpetuating. There will still be people using contraception 1-2 generations from now. And my bet is that there will still be screwed-up kids who have nothing better than beat the crap out of each other.

      --
      If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
    3. Re:God willing... by digitalunity · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's like saying that everyone who uses contraception will die out, because their existence is self-perpetuating.

      No, that's not the same. Contraception is a different thing entirely. It prevents the spread of diseases and makes unwanted pregnancy almost zero for those who actually use contraceptive devices. It allows those who cannot maintain manogomy to engage in recreational sexual activity with few drawbacks. There are VD's you can get even while using a condom but to say that all those who use condoms will die out is absurd. It just means that those who don't 'screw up' can have children when they want them.

      There will always be schoolyard bullies with inadequacy issues who will always be robbing small children of lunch money. There don't always need to be gangs. I've known quite a few gang members and I really know what they get out of it. A lot of the needs they have that gangs provide can be removed. It is a social problem. It is difficult to get people to care about things they don't normally see. Where I live, gang activity is frequently reported in the news. Yet still, you have to live in a 'bad neighborhood' to actually see any of it in person. That's why no one cares. Unemployment, poverty, homelessness, child abuse, split families, child neglect, bad parenting skills, fear, money, there are too many factors to list. Be sure, however, they are not insurmountable problems. The violence can be stopped, but law enforcement isn't the solution, it's the band-aid to the symptoms.

      --
      You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
    4. Re:God willing... by jimbolaya · · Score: 1

      "Contraception" is not synonymous with "condom." There are many other forms of contraception (e.g., the pill, IUD, foam) that prevent pregnancy but do not prevent STDs. It's dangerous to suggest, or believe, otherwise.

      --

      There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.

    5. Re:God willing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...and condoms only will stop about 50% of the STDs that are out there and slow down the rest unless one person has an alergy to latex in which case they can cause an increase the chance of catching some skin to skin things. Condoms are worthless aginst things like crabs. What are they teaching kids these days?

    6. Re:God willing... by irokitt · · Score: 1

      What I mean is that the people who use contraception won't have a lot of children, and therefore won't teach their children to use contraception. Should have explained that one better.

      --
      If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
    7. Re:God willing... by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 1

      Um, right, like the Mafia wiped itself out in a generation?

      There will always be a willing supply of recruits, because organized crime makes money. Okay, most of these kids were probably just morons ... but it's a good bet that one or two of them are headed for an exciting and lucrative career in the Colombian and Afghan imports business.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    8. Re:God willing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      think about it. those who use contraception will be the strong. those who don't will be the stupid ones. stupid + stupid = little stupids. little stupids tend to die off or go to the streets. strong greedy people will never have children. strong giving people will have children. it's darwanism at it's greatest.

    9. Re:God willing... by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

      Don't be foolish. The last thing we want is constructive criminals. They'll be setting up nice, constructive ...*cough cough* herb importation businesses.

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
    10. Re:God willing... by Henrik+S.+Hansen · · Score: 1
      Hehe, ah yes. Likely candidates for the Darwin Award.

      They are probably already eligible for an honourable mention. :)

    11. Re:God willing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently very little, but then when most politicians think that teaching abstanance is a suitable alternative to actually providing real facts and information so that kids don't believe half-truths and whispers, what do you expect?

    12. Re:God willing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow you TOTALLY missed what he was saying... or just had fun spewing there for a bit

    13. Re:God willing... by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      No Fight Club, silly...

      Jaysyn

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
  5. yeah by twenty-exty-six · · Score: 3, Funny

    I would have used the keyboard instead of a baseball bat. Would have been sooo much cooler with keys flying everywhere with every strike.

    1. Re:yeah by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 1

      Kinda makes me wonder why they didn't settle it on a counterstrike server or Unreal server...

      --
      There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
    2. Re:yeah by Belfy · · Score: 1

      We can play that, but i'm bringing my battle keyboard!

      (Texas Industrial Peripherals DT-1000)

      Not for the weak of arm....

    3. Re:yeah by Phidoux · · Score: 1

      And you could have typed each other over the head? JK

    4. Re:yeah by debest · · Score: 1

      I've got 5 IBM Model M's in my arsenal. Is that the equivalent of pulling out a machine gun in a fight like this?

      --
      Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
  6. You know what they sing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way, from your first blogging breath, to your last journaled day.

    1. Re:You know what they sing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      aw man, I just wanted to rumble with those greasy sharks!

    2. Re:You know what they sing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not without seven years of ballet and two of jazz-tap you're not!

  7. Should have let them kill eachother by aardwolf204 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Should have let them kill eachother, would have been Darwin at its finest

    --
    Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the /.crowd.May ur days b merry & bright & may al
    1. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by evilWurst · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The problem with that is that the stronger/smarter members would survive. Then we'd have stronger gangs that are better at killing... indeed, very Darwinistic. But also the exact opposite of what the rest of the law abiding community wants.

    2. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by pla · · Score: 0, Troll

      Should have let them kill eachother, would have been Darwin at its finest

      Why did this get modded funny?

      I tend to agree, quite seriously.

      Here we had three dozen people, all members of organizations we consider a bane on society, organizations that have, as their very essence, violence and theft.

      These three dozen people wanted to kill or seriously injure one another. Success in that endeavor would have removed them from both the streets and the gene pool.

      So why did we waste taxpayer dollars stopping this brawl before it happened?

      Optimal situation... All of one side dies, half of the other side dies, and we can throw the rest away for murder. 36 problems vanish in a half-hour "controlled burn", of sorts.

    3. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      36 problems vanish

      Umm yeah - because no one that goes to prison and gets out repeat offends...

      riiiight

    4. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by thryllkill · · Score: 0, Troll
      "Why did this get modded funny?


      I tend to agree, quite seriously."


      Your complete and total lack of humanity disgusts me.


      Optimal situation... you are slain by a stray gang fight bullet. 1 Apathetic twit vanishes in a momentary embrace of the chaos he condones.

      --

      Note to self: No more arguing with the faithful.

    5. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by pla · · Score: 1

      Optimal situation... you are slain by a stray gang fight bullet.

      How ironic... Even in your ill-wishing, you addressed the very reason for my original point.

      No one cares if gang members go around killing one another. Sure, a few surprised family members end up on TV ("No, really, we thought Ricky just liked collecting guns and playing pool... I blame this on that tough crowd he hung out with!"), but for the most part, one less gang member means, well, one less gang member. The realists (and just about everyone but the most hardcore bleeding-hearts) will consider it good riddance.

      People do care, though, when a three year old boy takes a bullet playing in his back yard as entirely unintended collateral damage. People care when a woman dies in a hit-and-run after a joyride in a stolen car. In a current case local to my area, people care when an engaged 20YO couple gets carjacked and killed execution-style in either some sort of initiation ritual or just to look "tough" for the boyz.


      1 Apathetic twit vanishes in a momentary embrace of the chaos

      ...Because, as we all know, apathetic twits pose a far greater danger to society than those deliberately choosing to destroy, steal, kill, rape, and otherwise wreak havoc. Yeah, whatever. At least you have your priorities.


      Your complete and total lack of humanity disgusts me

      And the fact that you would defend human scum, who have chosen to find recreation in activities the rest of us consider horrifying, disgusts me. Guess we can call it even, eh?

      When I say we'd do better off letting them kill one another, I say so because of compassion for my fellow humans, not out of a lack thereof.

    6. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by Hanzie · · Score: 1

      Your logic is flawed. They all passed Darwinian selection, because they all survived.

      At least if they had fought it out, some would be removed.

      The result of what actually happened is that they'll ALL be back very soon, and possibly a little more versed in how to slide through the legal system, and with a little less respect for it.

      --
      ********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.
    7. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by Hanzie · · Score: 1
      I must respectfully disagree.

      Optimal situation... All of one side dies, half of the other side dies, and we can throw the rest away for murder. 36 problems vanish in a half-hour "controlled burn", of sorts.


      We can't just "throw the rest away for murder". They require food, housing, medical treatment, trial, lawyers, appeals, ad nauseum.

      I became anti-capital punishment simply because an average life sentance without parole is 14 years of hopelessness ending in death or suicide, with a total cost of around $600,000. The average death-penalty recipient lives 16 years, most of that time with the hope of beating the system on appeal, at a total cost of $1.8 million.

      No, in my humble opinion, the "Optimal Situation" is all of the participants mortally wounding each other in an exciting enough fashion that it becomes a popular sport for idiots.

      Hey, it's been done before, we can certainly hope.

      For those who consider this viewpoint repugnant: All participants were informed and consenting. I believe that self-destructive behavior shouldn't be outlawed. I also believe that acts between consenting adults are nobody else's business. I also believe that everyone should have a right to end their own life in any way they please.

      Oh, if they're old enough to get into something like this, they're old enough to consent. I had a pretty good idea of right and wrong at twelve. The age of responsibility for actions not hitting until 18 is a bad idea.

      Hanzie.
      --
      ********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.
    8. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by thryllkill · · Score: 1

      It was hardly ironic, it was actually hypocritical, and I take it back. I really, honestly, in my heart do not want anyone to die. (even you :o)

      I do care if people, even people you and maybe me, find undesirable, go around hurting and killing each other. 1st off, killing people is wrong. There are a few justifiable instences, but gang violence is not one of them. To allow it to go on, even if it kills of the undesirables you don't like, you are condoning the action.

      Yes your apathy is worse. As long as these folks are just destroying, stealing, killing, and raping their own it must be okay right? Wrong. If you have the ability (as the cops do) to stop these actions, and yet you allow it to go on you are just as responsible for the negative effects as those who performed them. But you are much more morally remis since you KNOW it is wrong, and you had the ability to suppress/prevent the actions, and yet you allowed it to occur.

      Another thing to bring up is chaos does not stay bound. You allow this stuff to get out of hand, and it affects the innocents. You can not depend on a chaotic solution if chaos is the problem. It will NEVER work.

      As far as defending them? When did I do that? I never said anything they did was okay. I never said they were justified, poorly represented, or not responsible for their actions. I commented on your lack of humanity, not their right to it.

      And for my last point. They, as undesirable as they may be, are also your fellow human beings. Not some kind of wild dog to be shot because you can not predict its next action, or set upon eachother to weed themselves out. As a human they have the ability to change and grow. Just as it was wrong for the couple in your example to be killed, because it robs them of life and love and all of the great things we have in this world, it is wrong to kill undesirable people because you rob them of the ability to grow and discover the things in life that a truly worth having. Yes that change may happen behind bars, and though it might not, you should not prevent it from happening... if you do truly have compassion for your fellow humans. Not just the ones that look, act, and talk like you do.

      --

      Note to self: No more arguing with the faithful.

    9. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by Graff · · Score: 1
      I became anti-capital punishment simply because an average life sentance without parole is 14 years of hopelessness ending in death or suicide, with a total cost of around $600,000. The average death-penalty recipient lives 16 years, most of that time with the hope of beating the system on appeal, at a total cost of $1.8 million.

      I've got a better answer to that. How about people on Death Row should be put to death? Honestly, wtf is the point of putting someone on Death Row and then leaving them there to rot for 10, 20, even 30 years? Kill them already!

      Give Death Row criminals a certain amount of time to make their appeals, say 2 years. After that time they die, as quickly and inexpensively as possible. Yes, maybe we'll kill an innocent person but at some point we just have to bite the bullet and take that chance.

      More harm is done to society by having an inefficient and costly judicial and penitentiary system than would be done by the rare person getting wrongly put to death. Think of it this way, maybe with the money we will save by having a more efficient penitentiary system we can spend more on prevention and education to actually keep people from turning criminal in the first place!
    10. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by CamShaft · · Score: 1

      Why bite the bullet, when instead we can use it to shoot them, and then bill their family for it?

    11. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      throw in the cost of the trials too while you're at it.

    12. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by chamenos · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If just ONE innocent person is put to death wrongly, the whole system has failed. Its easy to speak like you do, but I'd like to see you put in such a position. Just keep telling yourself you're saving taxpayers' money as you get strapped into the electric chair for something you didn't do, whilst the guilty person walks free.

      I don't see how killing innocent people whilst letting those who are guilty walk free will benefit society in any way.

    13. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by SlamMan · · Score: 1

      I don't see how that much different fro the argument to not put stoplights on every intersection, and mandate all cars be filled with bubble wrap. Speed limit should be 5, and all cars should have a system to detect everything around it within a half a mile, regardless of the cost.

      Hey, if it saves one person from dying unnecessarily....

      --
      Mod point free since 2001
    14. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by geoffspear · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Well if that seems reasonable to you, why not just have the government kill everyone right now, to prevent any future crime.

      If you can't see a difference between allowing potentially unsafe driving conditions and having the government killing innocent people, you're a moron.

      --
      Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
    15. Re:Should have let them kill eachother by anagama · · Score: 1
      • If you can't see a difference between allowing potentially unsafe driving conditions and having the government killing innocent people, you're a moron.

      Well said. And I'm sure that any number of interviews with people who have lived under governments which perpetrated random death on their citizens (as the GP poster apparently condones), would agree that governments must be restrained from such practices.
      --
      What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  8. newsflash by Rev.LoveJoy · · Score: 1
    Gang members can use AOL IM, too!

    News at eleven!

    -- RLJ

  9. Chat logs anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does anyone have the chat-log of that chat-session?

    1. Re:Chat logs anyone? by 10Ghz · · Score: 3, Funny

      right here!

      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
  10. Why do I think this all started with.... by Bryan+Gividen · · Score: 5, Funny

    *gang 1 slaps around gang 2 with a bit of large trout

    1. Re:Why do I think this all started with.... by RuneB · · Score: 1

      Well, they have "their own alphabet, their own language, [and] their own hand signals", so they already fit in perfectly with most Internet chatters.

      --
      dtach - A tiny program that emulates the detach feat
    2. Re:Why do I think this all started with.... by Adam9 · · Score: 1

      Or..

      "You &%*%^&$ wall hacker, get over here and I'll show you a REAL awp!"

    3. Re:Why do I think this all started with.... by AndroidCat · · Score: 1

      Sure. Once someone starts a fish pun cascade, there's no stopping it and it always ends in blood.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  11. Communications medium was used for communicating? by RollingThunder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Say it ain't so!!!

    This is not newsworthy. People traded insults and got into a fight. So it happened over the internet - so what?

    Communications can be good or bad. The internet isn't going to prevent some punk from talking shit about some other punk.

  12. On the bright side... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    If gangs are going to do the 'disrespect' thing on-line rather than via grafitti, and the other methods mentioned in the article, it'll save public infrastructure.

    Do us a favour guys and also hold your fights somewhere out of the way?

    1. Re:On the bright side... by wwest4 · · Score: 1

      > Do us a favour guys and also hold your fights somewhere out of the way?

      maybe some FPS multiplayer arena - that would save hospital beds AND fit their MO.

    2. Re:On the bright side... by proj_2501 · · Score: 1

      and that way they leave the graffiti to the professionals who at least make it look nice.

  13. Yo by antic · · Score: 1

    /me is bringing a bat, fool!

    --
    'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
    1. Re:Yo by monophaze · · Score: 1

      /me slaps antic around with a big wet trout

  14. n3wzF1a5h by WTFmonkey · · Score: 3, Funny
    g4ng m3mbrzzz kkkan uz3 A0l iM 2 !!!!one!11

    n3wz @ 11!!!

  15. oh great by poofyhairguy82 · · Score: 4, Funny

    of great... now our gangs are on the internet. I wonder how much longer till our crime is outsourced to india like our jobs are.

    1. Re:oh great by DrEldarion · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, our organized crime is already outsourced to Italy...

    2. Re:oh great by platypibri · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I wish I was a mod. That's WAY funny.

      --
      Yeah, I guess I'm funny like that.
    3. Re:oh great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And India is poised to have an Italian born premier: Gandhi's 'Made in Italy' label not an issue

  16. I'd love to read that transcript by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nigga4Life82: fuk you mama
    FreshJackMan: u smoke dicks
    FreshJackMan: an you mama a ho
    Nigga4Life82: fuck yo mama ho
    DJMonkeyAss: sup bitches
    FreshJackMan: niga4life needs
    DJMonkeyAss: indahouse
    FreshJackMan: a cap in his ass
    Tawneesha79: sup dopeman
    FreshJackMan: GLOCK GLOCK LoL ;-)
    Nigga4Life82: gona buts a cap in jack ass
    Nigga4Life82: punk ass bitch anyway

    (... six hours later ...)

    Nigga4Life82: make you move motherfuker
    FreshJackMan: kick yo bitch ass bitch
    FreshJackMan: fuck your mama bitch ass ho

    (... two hours later... the fight begins)

    1. Re:I'd love to read that transcript by severed · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hell, that sounds like just about every game of WarCraft III that I have on battlenet...

      --

      HaXXXor.com - Naked Chicks Teach You How To Ha

  17. Excuses, excuses. by RuneB · · Score: 5, Funny
    "For the most part, it's nothing but cursing on it. ... Some of them actually signed in with their true names, so that helped us identify people."

    I wonder how many of them will claim that it wasn't really them becasue of a worm or virus or someone else using their password.

    --
    dtach - A tiny program that emulates the detach feat
    1. Re:Excuses, excuses. by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

      That's a geek excuse.

      A gang member excuse is "the bitch set me up"

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
  18. -1 Redundant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .. But i've gotta say... DUMBASSES.. Ok, move along..Nothing to see here..

  19. West Side Story by tim_mathews · · Score: 4, Funny

    West Side Story meets IRC? You are now chatting in #gangfights, the topic is "Jets vs Sharks set to a wonderful musical score by Leonard Bernstein"

    1. Re:West Side Story by Stalky · · Score: 2, Funny
      "But, Riff, the chat-room's neutral territory!"

      "Arab, I'm gonna make nice with him. I'm only gonna challenge 'em."

      "Cool, Daddy-o."

      --
      Jeff
  20. Flash-Crime isn't that new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately this trick is also apparently used in street crime in places like Brazil: flash-mob in 15 minutes here, steal the money from the rich guy, disperse, meet again later to fence results.

    1. Re:Flash-Crime isn't that new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wtf are you talking about, stupid?

  21. Here's the transcript.. by djcreamy · · Score: 0

    i was able to retrieve a part of the transcript.. g4ngst4: uR bUt is m1nE, g0nn4 tke u rght!!! l0wr1d4: jUzt show ur fac4 n br0ad d4ylitE MICHAL47: j00 wait 'til I gEt tHru cUz i am TEH B4D, 0mG, TEH B4D 0mG!! U Kn0w it!!!!

  22. Slashdot effect street fight!!! by identity0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Quick, everyone! Let's have a Slashdot-effect mob street fight!

    Rusty from Kuro5hin says this - "Hey Taco, j00 sux0r! CowboyNeal is a loser AOLer! Slashcode is worse than VB code! Hemos is a homo! If j00 l05ers think otherwise, show up at the corner of 2nd and Main at 3pm with 'yo posse, and we'll settle this with a fight between us K5-krew and the ./ Horde. J00 g01n' D0wn!!"

    I'm putting money on the K5er's. Slashdotters aren't exactly tough.

    1. Re:Slashdot effect street fight!!! by nomadic · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm putting money on the K5er's. Slashdotters aren't exactly tough.

      I don't think either side would acquit themselves well. Though the cops may have trouble; they'd be laughing too hard to effectively make the arrests.

    2. Re:Slashdot effect street fight!!! by RollingThunder · · Score: 1

      You underestimate the force-absorbing power of a gamer-gut.

    3. Re:Slashdot effect street fight!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No way. K5ers are a bunch of pantywaist liberals. They don't believe in "fighting", only "civil(?) disobediance" and whining. I mean, even more so than Slashdotters.

    4. Re:Slashdot effect street fight!!! by skasingularity · · Score: 1

      You are forgeting the slashdot-effect itself. Someone would link to mapquest and all traffic in that area would stall out with the sheer number of cars. The whole transit system surrounding the location of the fight would be to congested for there to even be a fight.

  23. Were they called the Sharks and the Jets? by craXORjack · · Score: 3, Funny

    They should have told the police they were just practicing for a performance of West Side Story and then started singing Tonight

    --
    Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
  24. Stupid is as stupid does. by platypibri · · Score: 1

    Talk about kids abusing the internet!!! Don't these kids know they can look at free pr0n, get free music and keep all their teeth?
    Seriously, anyone still think our society is on the right track?

    --
    Yeah, I guess I'm funny like that.
  25. Fights on IRC are fun to watch by British · · Score: 4, Funny

    Guy 1: I'm gonna kick your ass!
    Guy 2: Bring it on!
    Guy 1: Fine! Where do you wanna meet?
    Guy 2: I'll go to your place just to kick..your..ass. Where do you live?
    Guy 1: 1328 Farnsworth street in Edina
    Guy 2: Oh I'm so there. Wait, I'm in Rosevile
    Guy 1: Okay, you can take I-494 westbound, then take hwy 100 northbound.
    Guy 2: Can't do that, 494 near me is closed and there's no detour
    Guy 1: Okay, how about County road B? ....and so on, and so on...

    1. Re:Fights on IRC are fun to watch by pilkul · · Score: 1

      I would guess in this case it was probably a forum. Reporters like to call everything a "chat room". I'll bet that almost none of those famous "Chinese chat rooms" are actually chat rooms, either.

    2. Re:Fights on IRC are fun to watch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      St. Lious park in tha hizzy. Hwy 100 and Hwy 7 representin'

      I'll roll down to Edina and some punk as IRC bitch will be pickin up his teeth with broken fingers

    3. Re:Fights on IRC are fun to watch by Vellmont · · Score: 1

      Hmm.. Roseville isn't too far away. Let's go, bitch. Def Leopard sux0rs.

      --
      AccountKiller
    4. Re:Fights on IRC are fun to watch by CComMack · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that sounds like a Minnesota gang fight all right.

    5. Re:Fights on IRC are fun to watch by Rupert · · Score: 1

      They should just agree to meet half-way, in Minneapolis. Doesn't matter if they both show up, there's sure to be someone else hanging aroung who wants to fight.

      --

      --
      E_NOSIG
  26. What crime was committed? by QuantumG · · Score: 0, Troll

    If I wanna get together with my friends and beat the shit out of a bunch of other consenting adults why is that a police matter? If two teams were hanging out on #football, finally got sick of hearing the other team slag them and demanded a game, no-one would even blink an eyelid. Just because life and death brawling is not your thing doesn't mean others shouldn't be free to do it. If it's ok to arrest these "gangs" for fighting then please arrest every amature football player too.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
    1. Re:What crime was committed? by platypibri · · Score: 1

      Please tell me you are not seriously drawing an anolgy between murder and football.

      --
      Yeah, I guess I'm funny like that.
    2. Re:What crime was committed? by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 1

      Dude, if you can't tell the difference between a sport, where a contestant, even a boxer, can throw in the towel and call it a day at any time, and a street brawl, where a guy who's taken several blows from a baseball bat and is about to get his skull crushed, then you need help.

      Also, in organised sports, the health of the participants comes first, and there is normally a medical kit, if not a trained medical team, on the sidelines. When a player is injured, he can leave the field, etc to get immediate medical treatment. I don't see people in street fights respecting timeouts, etc and, until they do, don't expect a street fight to get treated like a game of three on three.

      --

      "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
    3. Re:What crime was committed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      If I wanna get together with my friends and beat the shit out of a bunch of other consenting adults why is that a police matter?

      Bodily harm is a tort anywhere. The idea of "consent" is not recognized.

      If it's ok to arrest these "gangs" for fighting then please arrest every amature football player too.

      Do you mean "armature" football or "amateur" football?

    4. Re:What crime was committed? by no+reason+to+be+here · · Score: 1

      Actually, if someone were seriously injured in an amatuer American football match, I bet that charges of some kind would be filed. Not to mention the civil lawsuit. And, as much as I would like to subscribe to your libertarian mind set, I do believe that if a group of 34 idiotic 14 to 20 year olds were beating the shit out of each other on my street, I would want the cops out there post haste.

    5. Re:What crime was committed? by Glonoinha · · Score: 1

      I tried subtle humor and sarcasm the other day in the Hybrid vehicle thread. It doesn't work. Trust me, I know.

      --
      Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
    6. Re:What crime was committed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps he meant armchair football ?

    7. Re:What crime was committed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They need to have medics on team. Just like AAO. That would be cool.

    8. Re:What crime was committed? by pafcu · · Score: 1

      Bodily harm is a tort anywhere. The idea of "consent" is not recognized No it's not. Haven't you ever watched (kick)boxing or ultimate fighting?

    9. Re:What crime was committed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      theres a diff between subtle humor and just being a smug jackass

    10. Re:What crime was committed? by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      Football (soccer) and rugby (like American football but without the wussy armour)players in the UK have been convicted of criminal assault/GBH or whatever if their behaviour goes beyond normal sporting exuberance.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    11. Re:What crime was committed? by Walkiry · · Score: 1

      Yes, the difference is if the mod understood the joke or not.

      --
      ---- Take the Space Quiz!
  27. ...*cough*, a better copy by djcreamy · · Score: 0

    i was able to retrieve a part of the transcript..

    g4ngst4: uR bUt is m1nE, g0nn4 tke u rght!!!
    l0wr1d4: jUzt show ur fac4 n br0ad d4ylitE
    MICHAL47: j00 wait 'til I gEt tHru cUz i am TEH B4D, 0mG, TEH B4D 0mG!! U Kn0w it!!!!

  28. Gang warfare, geek style by AnonymousTravis · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hope I get an invite to the next one. I'm bringing my vorpal sword of slaying +3

  29. Why this fails... by AvantLegion · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The high IQ criminals are not caught, not identified as criminals, and are not counted in the IQ scores for criminals.

    1. Re:Why this fails... by Pyrion · · Score: 5, Funny

      Instead, they're elected into Congress.

      --
      "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell.
    2. Re:Why this fails... by ziggy_zero · · Score: 4, Funny

      You think they have high IQs?

      --
      I belong to the ______ generation.
    3. Re:Why this fails... by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 1

      lol. You are so right.

      Nah, I think they become the CEO/CFO of Fortune 100 companies...

      --
      There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
    4. Re:Why this fails... by dcam · · Score: 1

      I've always heard people say this. The problem with this argument is that it is impossible to prove one way or the other. If you say the really good criminals aren't caught and that they leave no trace, then how do we know they exist? Equally how do we know that they don't exist. It is like a conspiracy theory.

      Personally I think that there are far fewer of these smart criminals than we think there. It is a nice idea and Hollywood loves it, but I think reality is somewhat different. Crimes leave traces.

      --
      meh
    5. Re:Why this fails... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The real high IQ people build time machines to prevent their birth and erase them from a very fucked-up world.

      No muss, no fuss.

    6. Re:Why this fails... by Felinoid · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > Equally how do we know that they don't exist

      Actually I can explain this one logicly. And then disprove myself becouse I'm insain.

      Dumb luck/Nobodys perfict:
      There will always be at least some trace of a crime the trick is to prevent being identified not prevent the crime from being known.

      If your stuff is missing you will know that much. If someone dies you'll know it.
      The crime is recorded.

      On that token New York has some very smart murders.

      The real trick however is to insure it is never recognised as a crime.
      Don't steal or murder. Logicly speaking there is just to much eye on that.
      Don't con your trying to outsmart people eventually someone will outsmart you and you'll be in jail.

      Do something nobody thought of before. Do it well. Do it and make sure nobody sees it for what it really is.

      Here is an idea.
      Let's say you dislike cell phones. Start rummors about how cell phones cause cancer. Get some studys done. Typical school yard gosup done in the press.
      Now you have whole communitys not letting anyone set up cell phone towers.

      How about you dislike a company.
      You need a group so convence a group of people this company is evil and then get them to work with you.
      Now rotating members of this close knit group (not a bunck of dorks on the Internet but a few jerks in your local community) go interacting with the employees and try to convence then to do things the wrong way or to quit.
      Don't EVER come out and say anything just drop hints.
      (If this dose not work inside 6 months STOP. One of the people your dealing with is probably both brillent and insain. You'll be cought eventually)

      So long as there is no law covering what your doing your pritty much in the clear even if your cought.
      IANAL the preveous statement is not legal adavice don't do it.

      --
      I don't actually exist.
    7. Re:Why this fails... by mandolin · · Score: 1

      What was the name of that Agatha Christie novel where it turned out "the perfect crime" was subtly persuading others to commit the crime for you through the power of suggestion? And Peirot had to murder the perfect murderer?

    8. Re:Why this fails... by AvantLegion · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The real high IQ people build time machines to prevent their birth and erase them from a very fucked-up world.

      Aww look, a teen goth!

    9. Re:Why this fails... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They certainly have healthier bank balances than us...

    10. Re:Why this fails... by archeopterix · · Score: 1
      I've always heard people say this. The problem with this argument is that it is impossible to prove one way or the other. If you say the really good criminals aren't caught and that they leave no trace, then how do we know they exist? Equally how do we know that they don't exist. It is like a conspiracy theory.
      I agree that crimes leave traces, but there are unresolved crimes - check crime detection rates anywhere. You can get away with murder, stating otherwise just goes against the facts.

      Second, even with very conservative estimates of how much the US people spend on illegal drugs, prostitution and similar activities, one has to wonder where all this money goes. The simplest explanation is that it goes to smart criminals.

    11. Re:Why this fails... by BerntB · · Score: 1
      The high IQ criminals are not caught, not identified as criminals, and are not counted in the IQ scores for criminals.
      Let's check with the most successful criminal gang I know of -- Microsoft.

      They are well known for their crime, they earn lots of money -- and seems to have bought a presidential administration to get their court case dismissed, so they never had to pay back all the billions they earned from their crimes.

      This is hardly a unique circumstance of USA. Big monopolies tend to have some political weight because of their size.

      I'm not certain -- do people in US think of Microsoft (whose monopoly gives obscene margins and which lowers the software speed of development) as criminals?

      --
      Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
    12. Re:Why this fails... by krymsin01 · · Score: 1

      Sounds like Manson territory to me.

      --
      stuff
    13. Re:Why this fails... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Their fancy storebought diplomas say they do.

    14. Re:Why this fails... by Oliver+Defacszio · · Score: 1

      I am SO proud of you for managing to drag your computer politics into a scenario where they have no possible value on the topic being presented. It is just delightful to be presented with such killer examples of why nobody likes anti-Microsoft zealots.

      --

      -
      Inventor of the term 'pardon my French'.
    15. Re:Why this fails... by The_K4 · · Score: 1

      I agree that you can prove there are unsolved crimed, however just because a person got away with murder doesn't mean they had a hi-IQ. Some of them probably did, but some were probably just lucky. That's what makes this discussuion interesting (and never ending) is that it's impossible to know since they wern't caught.

    16. Re:Why this fails... by operagost · · Score: 1
      The real high IQ people build time machines to prevent their birth and erase them from a very fucked-up world.
      I guess that's why you're still here.
      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    17. Re:Why this fails... by operagost · · Score: 1

      Here's my idea - I hate spelling nazis, so I put a post on slashdot with lots of spelling errors on it and get modded to +5. Do this long enough and no one will be able to spell any more.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    18. Re:Why this fails... by BerntB · · Score: 1
      I am SO proud of you for managing [..] It is just delightful to be presented with such killer examples of why nobody likes anti-Microsoft zealots.

      What I commented was criminals that got away with it -- without punishment.

      I note you didn't argue against my description of Microsoft as a criminal that seems to buy their way out of punishment through buying politicians. Thus keeping their 80+% profit margins.

      So what do we have left? A flame without content. Consider what kind of people write those. (You just forgot the Anon Coward checkbox?)

      --
      Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
    19. Re:Why this fails... by dcam · · Score: 1

      I agree that crimes leave traces, but there are unresolved crimes - check crime detection rates anywhere. You can get away with murder, stating otherwise just goes against the facts.

      I don't doubt that. My problem is with the concept of the master criminals. You know the hollywood image of someone who lives the life of luxury off crime and never gets caught.

      My opinion is that while not all crimes are solved, most criminals will end up getting caught for something. That is, for many criminals crime is a lifestyle. And they only need to get caught for some of the crimes. Hence the result is that while not all crimes are solved, most criminals are caught for some of their crimes.

      The master criminal is an overrated concept.

      --
      meh
    20. Re:Why this fails... by dcam · · Score: 1

      All crime leaves a trace. That trace is noticed. Hence the criminal is noticed.

      Do something nobody thought of before. Do it well. Do it and make sure nobody sees it for what it really is.

      See above. Can you really think of a new crime?

      Your other suggestions do not describe crimes. I am talsking about crimes here, not randomly closing down cell phone towers. We leave that kind of thing to the politicians.

      --
      meh
  30. Pun by gremlins · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they used molotov cocktail's it would have been a real flame war. I know horrible pun but someone had to say it

    --
    just because your a schizophrenic doesn't mean people arn't really out to get you
    1. Re:Pun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And as soon as the first guy said "Hitler" the fight would have been over.

  31. chat-Re:Chat logs anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    chat-Does chat-anyone chat-have chat-the chat-log chat-of chat-that chat-session chat-?

  32. As the man said... by Chris+Tucker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ..."Any fool can use a computer. Many do."
    Ted Nelson

    --
    Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
  33. Online gangs by Fullmetal+Edward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Haven't they heard of Quake? what kinda (in)sane person even leaves the house to have a fight these days, we've got good enough connections to act like real men and hit each other with crowbars without having to move at all.

    --
    --- [Insert intresting Sig here]
    1. Re:Online gangs by Glonoinha · · Score: 3, Funny

      Quake? QUAKE? Why I oughta bust a cap in yo ass for suggesting such an old wimp ass program. In fact if I ever catch you in CounterStrike I'm gonna ... do exactly that. I will AWP you so hard you will have my own team-mates complaining that I'm an AWP-camping aim-bot whore.

      See, that's how real nerds 'throw down', cept I have hence moved on to UT2004. And don't think I won't use that Redeemer, cause I will - and that's when things get real ugly.

      --
      Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
    2. Re:Online gangs by SubTen · · Score: 1

      Haven't they heard of Quake? ...

      Amen.

    3. Re:Online gangs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Screw Quake.

      It's winner-take-all networked Hearts!

  34. Account for registration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Log-in with this acct. for the article: E-mail address:123@abc.com 123456

  35. Re:Communications medium was used for communicatin by DrEldarion · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Exactly, and how does this have ANYTHING to do with flash mobs? They were already established groups (gangs). The same thing could have happened because of a shouting match in the streets, a conference call, or any other form of group communication. Just because the cause of the fight happened to be on the internet doesn't make it special.

  36. who wants to troll now? by tucolino · · Score: 0

    haha... gives it a whole new meaning on how to solve trolling on slashdot.

  37. 2 things by complete+loony · · Score: 1
    1. stupid "In keeping with the rumble's high-tech origins, one participant videotaped the Garland skirmish"

    2. "I'm just wondering why the parents aren't monitoring what's going on back and forth on the Internet,", now I know the feeling of most slashdotters on this issue. Invasion of privacy, lack of trust, and for most of us our parents wouldn't have a clue what we were really doing...

    --
    09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
  38. Especially with OSX! by Ieshan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, especially if they were on IRC using OSX.

    (rimshot)

  39. WRONG by anything901 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This was NOT a flash mob. Why on Earth would you call it that? It was a pre-arranged fight, as almost all gang fights are.
    A bunch of kids argued in a chat room and then they fought.
    This story is among the worst I've ever seen here.

    1. Re:WRONG by platypibri · · Score: 1
      from www.flashmob.com What are flash mobs?
      Flash mobs are sudden gatherings of people at a predetermined location at a predetermined time.

      How is that not a flash mob?

      --
      Yeah, I guess I'm funny like that.
    2. Re:WRONG by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      Plus the number of people was much, much smaller than a flashmob.

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    3. Re:WRONG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This story is among the worst I've ever seen here.

      Sounds like you don't read this site very often.

    4. Re:WRONG by mph · · Score: 1
      Flash mobs are sudden gatherings of people at a predetermined location at a predetermined time.
      By that definition, a Dodgers game is a flash mob. So is a university commencement, a church service, or an Audubon outing.
    5. Re:WRONG by platypibri · · Score: 1

      No, there is nothing sudden about a Dodgers game a university commencement, a church service, or an Audubon outing. These things are planned out months, if not a year in advance. Mob, yes. Flash mob, no. When this thing was in fashion, times of notice were measured in hours.

      --
      Yeah, I guess I'm funny like that.
    6. Re:WRONG by mph · · Score: 1
      No, there is nothing sudden about a Dodgers game a university commencement, a church service, or an Audubon outing. These things are planned out months, if not a year in advance. Mob, yes. Flash mob, no. When this thing was in fashion, times of notice were measured in hours.
      But the gathering is sudden, which is what the definition said. If you were outside Dodger Stadium, you would see people all arriving at about the same time. It's the planning that you're saying is sudden. My point was that the definition is poor, and doesn't clearly convey what makes a flash mob.
    7. Re:WRONG by platypibri · · Score: 1

      Ok, I'll concede that the definition is poor. However, if the definition is poor, the original poster really shouldn't have flatly rejected the use of the term "flash mob" to describe this situation. Again, I concede that it might not be news worthy, however it was not inaccurate.

      --
      Yeah, I guess I'm funny like that.
  40. It's about time! by yorgasor · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Everybody talks tough on the internet. It's easy to be tough and talk some smack when your opponent is safely away in another country. As far as I'm concerned if you're gonna mock and threaten someone over the internet, you better back up them fightin' words with some real blood and knuckles. Good for them.

    --
    Looking for a computer support specialist for your small business? Check out
    1. Re:It's about time! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Everybody talks tough on the internet. It's easy to be tough and talk some smack when your opponent is safely away in another country.

      Oh yeah? Come over here and say that!

    2. Re:It's about time! by oshy · · Score: 1

      When you find two people (in diffrent chat rooms) giving you grief for nothing, get them ready for a fight and point them at each other (pretending that they are comming to meet you)

      That way, you get rid of the violent nutters and dont even get a scratch on you

    3. Re:It's about time! by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Funny
      Too bad none of this crowd were capable of using real weapons.

      Vercotti: Doug. (takes a drink) Well, I was terrified of him. Everyone was terrified of Doug. I've seen grown men pull their own heads off rather than see Doug. Even Dinsdale was frightened of Doug.

      Interviewer: What did he do?

      Vercotti: He used... sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire. He was vicious.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    4. Re:It's about time! by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      Nahh, gang members are still pretty damn dumb. most geeks would be smart enough to wait for you to walk into the open and take a nice headshot with a 30-06 hunting rifle and a good scope.

      beware the jilted and unstable man with a high enough IQ to come to a fight with the proper tools.

      and BTW, "everybody" does not talk tough on the internet, just the weenies. many are still civilized people.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    5. Re:It's about time! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      take a nice headshot with a 30-06 hunting rifle and a good scope.

      ...

      "everybody" does not talk tough on the internet, just the weenies

      <insert sound of ironic handclap here>

  41. Sounds more like a media stunt to me by andih8u · · Score: 1

    Seriously, my first thought of gangs isn't everyone sitting around on some web-based chatroom, that all of these rival gang members just happen to frequent at the same time and arrange to get into a fight...which just happens to make it into every paper / news site around. This is more the realm of 'jackass' than some great new trend in crime.

    --


    slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
  42. Brain wrasslin ... by zangdesign · · Score: 1

    match at Fourth and Main. Beat y'all with one lobe tied behind ma' back, yo.

    Oy. The humanity ...

    --
    To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
  43. Rich! by twitter · · Score: 4, Funny
    ... experts agreed. "Let's face it: Gangs already have their own alphabet, their own language, their own hand signals, so why not use the Internet?"

    I'm waiting for the gang hand sign RFC.

    Parents, not police, must take ultimate responsibility, said Lewis, a former police officer in Modesto, Calif. "I'm just wondering why the parents aren't monitoring what's going on back and forth on the Internet," he said.

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch house:

    A Roadside Oiler, filled with pride, watches his son typing away. "My son is a fucking genouis with that thing. He's always working at it. Trojans, DDoS, I got no idea what it is so it must be good."

    Sonny gets out of his chair, picks up a baseball bat and heads for the door.

    Oiler: Where you going, son?

    Sonny: Uhhh, there's a game on tonight. I won't be late.

    Oiler thinks: Night time baseball? Eh, OK, a little exercise will do him some good. I wish he'd get some sunshine.

    And so it happens.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

    1. Re:Rich! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      uh... as a computer-stuff student at a community college (gee, I wonder what OS and software they "teach"?), I have often had to use the "CS gang sign".

      Extend left hand with a "peace sign" that falls over onto its face, as you simultaneously extend your right hand with the index finger pointing downward.

      That's right....

      Ctrl+Alt+Del, h0m33z.

    2. Re:Rich! by The+Evil+Couch · · Score: 1

      dammit. and me without my mod points. if you don't get a +5 funny, something's wrong.

    3. Re:Rich! by jcuervo · · Score: 1
      I'm waiting for the gang hand sign RFC.
      Oh, god, don't give them ideas. The encapsulation over avian carrier RFC was bad enough. :P
      --
      Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
    4. Re:Rich! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "genouis" ?

    5. Re:Rich! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think most people actually use index and 3rd finger (not counting thumb) on the left hand and the middle finger (counting thumb) on the right hand for the three finger CTRL-ALT DEL salute. But your post was funny nonetheless

  44. Lets beat em' up by Hello+this+is+Linus · · Score: 0

    Lets beat up the Fark people!

    they're so dumb...

    --
    Hello, this is Linus Torvalds, and I pronounce Linux as Linux!
  45. Already done, way bigger by Asmodai · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sorry, but has already been done ages ago in the Netherlands.

    This time it was a major battle between Ajax and Feyenoord (football clubs from Amsterdam and Rotterdam respectively) supporters, to quote:

    "In March 1997 an Ajax fan died after an organised fight between hundreds of Feyenoord and Ajax hooligans in a meadow near Beverwijk."

    This lead to the death of one Ajax supporter Cario Picornie.

    They organised this fight using cellulars.

    --
    Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
    1. Re:Already done, way bigger by flokemon · · Score: 1

      That was my thoughts as I was reading the topic. Hooligans have been using the internet as a means to organise fights for years now. There's a post below about the same thing in Poland as well.

      I think this is sadly widespread amongst European hooligans these days.

    2. Re:Already done, way bigger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must be so proud.

  46. Why charge them? by SJ · · Score: 2, Funny

    The thing I can't work out why the stupid kids were charged! They all wanted to be there. There were no innocent injured bystanders.

    If these kids are flat-out dumb enough to want to fight each other for no apparent reason, then I say let them do it.

    The world is over-populated enough as it is and a bit of chlorine in the gene pool wouldn't go astray.

    1. Re:Why charge them? by lpontiac · · Score: 1

      I'm actually trying to figure out how this is different to boxing.

      Consenting people smacking the crap out of each other, either way.

    2. Re:Why charge them? by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

      Boxing makes money. Duh.

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
  47. Well, everybody wanted to fight. why arrest them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They should have done it on private ground, and got people to sign stuff saying they wanted to do it!

  48. Huh? by Ensign+Regis · · Score: 5, Funny

    "a profanity-laced Internet chat room"

    There's another kind?

    1. Re:Huh? by dodobh · · Score: 1

      A channel steeped in profanity? Not just laced with it!

      --
      I can throw myself at the ground, and miss.
  49. Just more evidence... by Dingeaux · · Score: 0

    ...that in the near future, stupidity WILL be a crime...

  50. True Name. by dameron · · Score: 1
    'Some of them actually signed in with their true names, so that helped us identify people.'"


    No shit, they should get on this stat.

    I mean, just the other day BillClinton69 was all giving me terrorist threating messages in CS, and I swear I saw GW_BUSH_BIATCH snorting a line of blow back at the rear base in Battlefield Vietnam.

    I mean, when people fucking tell you who they are, you should fucking arrest them...

    duh..

    -dameron

  51. You left out by anything901 · · Score: 1

    People in flash mobs usually perform according to a written script, then disperse quickly. Flash mobs can be for many purposes but most groups stick to having fun.

    As I said, gang fights are almost always pre-arranged, and this one is no different. WTF makes this fight worthy of posting on Slashdot?

    1. Re:You left out by platypibri · · Score: 1

      Look, I'm not trying to pick a fight. The very line you quoted implies it might not always be for fun. They used the internet to form a gang fight. It's a violent flash mob. Is it news worthy? That's another thread. But as far as I can see, it IS a flash mob.And that's all I'm saying.

      --
      Yeah, I guess I'm funny like that.
    2. Re:You left out by L7_ · · Score: 1

      your defintion isn't correct.

      a flash mob is more like a group that just spontaneously forms out of nothing, with no forshadowed meaning or purpose.

      if the flash-mob had a predetermined place and time, it would be a normal everyday-mob.

      (p.s. just because it says so on flash-mob.net doesnt mean thats the accepted definition)

    3. Re:You left out by yatest5 · · Score: 0

      Don't be an arse. Flash mobs get messages saying 'turn up up at 3pm at Stacey's and rub your head your lazy good-for-nothing student'. Forshadowed meaning and purpose.

      --
      • Mod parent up! [a] by Anonymous Coward (Score:5) Thurs, June 31, @13:37
    4. Re:You left out by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      I thought the idea of a flash-mob is that it *looks* like it is spontaneous.

      You're not realistically going to get a couple of hundred people in Santa suits or whatever actually appearing and acting in concert without some sort of planning.

      Oh, and football hooligans in the UK have been using the internet to organise fights for a while now, so this is hardly news.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    5. Re:You left out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      where are you from? here in california gang fights are almost NEVER pre-arranged, and usually just involve people who hate each other seeing each other randomly and then talking shit for a while before one decides to pull heat and the other tries to run.

  52. That would be a great addition by SteelX · · Score: 1

    to bash.org!

  53. Article Text by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dallas (AP) - Two white, suburban, jewish teenagers were arrested Friday for fighting in a local Dallas club. Interestingly enough, they were fighting over a dispute that started in a private chat room titled "tru thugz 4 lyfe" on the popular Internet service, America Online.

    Abraham Denshovitz, aka TruNigga1988, allegedly was "talking shit" about Quincy Wallingford III, aka GMoneyOuttaJail69. The two teens agreed to meet in a Dallas club to settle their dispute.

    "For the first time in the history of Internet chat rooms, someone has actually followed-through with their promise to 'beat dis bitch'z ass' after an online dispute. This brings the rate of successful real-life fights after Internet disputes to 1 in approximately 12 billion" says Steve Case, President and CEO of AOL. "This represents a sad day in the history of AOL."

    Although Mr. Case says he's glad that Darwin was right, he hopes this kind of phenomenon doesn't occur on a regular basis. "If everyone on AOL fought each other over chat-room disputes, there'd be no dipshits...uhh I mean customers...left to use AOL."

  54. Re:Communications medium was used for communicatin by wattersa · · Score: 1

    media types LOVE latching on to stuff like this: "ooh! low-tech criminals meet high tech, violence ensues, sounds like a pulitzer!" fcuking vultures.

  55. Interesting by List+of+FAILURES · · Score: 1

    This puts a whole new spin on the "If I ever meet you, I'm going to punch you in the face!" threat.

  56. FLASH MOB? WRONG DEFINITION! by Sprite+Remix · · Score: 0, Insightful

    They were just low-life gangs!

  57. Re:heh here's a log that's kind of like that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yes yes, very clever troll... thanks very much cock gobbler

  58. I saw your website. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thank you for quite a giggle.

    Please, have an ass-kicking day tomorrow.

  59. Hollywood's 'Master Criminal' Fairytales. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It falls within the same category as the general media's mythical 'Genius Hackers'...you know, those zit-faced, 14-year-old virgin 1337 h4x0rzs who constantly roam the Internet, trying to steal all your secrets by running a Visual Basic tool they got from their friend's older brother...

    You have to be a stupid loser to commit crime, no matter what crime it is.

    1. Re:Hollywood's 'Master Criminal' Fairytales. by nate+nice · · Score: 1

      You have to be a stupid loser to commit crime, no matter what crime it is.

      Actually, many smart people who would be considered winners are criminals. I'm not advocating crime, but many clever scams and conspiracys are put together by rather smart people who have found an angle and choose to exploit it for personal gain. Most crime is never caught and many types of crime are not priortized. Keep it non violant and discrete. coupled with a great plan, and you're on your way to brilliant thievry. You have to have respect for people that really could give a shit about the rules and find ways to make a living and then some by exploiting ill defined laws and policy. Wait, I hate lawers too.

      --
      "If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer ..."
  60. You know what they sing -- Reprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny


    2 nite, 2 nite,
    I'll flame ur ass 2 nite.
    For us, the n00bz will drop where they are.

    2 day
    I'll never take a shower,
    The FPS go slowly,
    And still the sky is light...

    Oh Doom, grow bright,
    Chat turns 2 day into a fight!

    - a.c.

  61. Chatty-chat-chat Re:chat-Re:Chat logs anyone? by gumpish · · Score: 1

    You took the chat-words right out of my chat-mouth.

  62. way old. way over. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No shiat. I heard about this 2 days ago on the news.

    And some asshat think's he's all smart by emphasizing the internet aspect. Now he can go brag to his dork friends that he is on the front of /.

    Woopty-fcuking-doooo. OLD FARKING NEWS!

  63. Anybody else get the feeling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...that these were probably the scrawniest, most pasty-faced Eminem wannabes to ever get laughed at by cops as they are tossed bawling into the squad cars?

    1. Re:Anybody else get the feeling... by Nick+of+NSTime · · Score: 1

      You've obviously never been to Oak Cliff or southeast Dallas.

    2. Re:Anybody else get the feeling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, let me, guess...you live there, and consider yourself really, really tough, right? You're not some skinny, pimply nerd who's watched to many em. vids, and spends hours practising his hand signs in the mirror every day.

    3. Re:Anybody else get the feeling... by Nick+of+NSTime · · Score: 1

      You're obviously a troll, but I'll still tell you a bit about how things are. I lived in southeast Dallas (specifically, Pleasant Grove) for a year. It is very much inner city, like Chicago's South Side, Bed-Sty in NYC, and Houston's Fifth Ward. Crime is rampant, people are killed on a daily basis, drug deals take place in broad daylight, and prostitutes stand in front of your car at stoplights. The people who live in those neighborhoods have no hope, are tragically addicted to crack, and turn to violence to solve their problems. Until the mid-1990s, it was overrun by Jamaican druglords who executed anyone they wanted.

      The situation is only slightly better in Oak Cliff, where white people have been gentrifying old neighborhoods. This gentrification forces out the black folks who live in those houses, further straining race relations in this city. The black people move to the only other part of town that can sustain their low income: southeast Dallas.

      So no, I don't consider myself really, really tough. I consider myself aware of a bad problem to which I have no solution.

      But like I said, you're just a troll, so I guess I'm not speaking specifically to you.

  64. Back when my anon FTP was running and free by KalvinB · · Score: 3, Interesting

    someone uploaded "If Your Mother Only Knew" which a personal site run by some Asian "gangster" picked up on. I'm assuming he was some kind of ganster because what little I could read sounded pretty rough. Who knew AOL speak could sound tough? I know about it because they hotlinked it and my bandwidth was getting sucked up.

    So I changed it to a low bit quality version of "You Are My Sunshine."

    It didn't take long for them to lose the hot link to my site. And I didn't have to say anything to them.

    I can't help but think this mob problem could have been avoided if someone had just injected the forum with some happy fun kids' songs. Too much anger and stupidity, not enough funny.

    Ben

  65. Let me guess, you're in high school by NSash · · Score: 1

    for most of us our parents wouldn't have a clue what we were really doing...

    I think you misjudge the average Slashdot reader's age.

    1. Re:Let me guess, you're in high school by complete+loony · · Score: 1

      missed a word "wouldn't have had a clue", ie when we were younger

      --
      09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
    2. Re:Let me guess, you're in high school by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      I'm sure the average (mean) would be 20-something, but I'm sure there's a large proportion of the /. population aged under 18.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  66. l4m3rs! by IntelliTubbie · · Score: 1

    Even in a real-life fight, I bet the losing gang was still whining about the lag.

    Cheers,
    IT

    --

    Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.

  67. New online concept. by Phidoux · · Score: 1

    The clash room! Oh... Silly me! That's been happening on IRC for years.

  68. Americal's smartest crimminals. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually not quite true. There's a disease that some high IQ people suffer from. It's called arrogance. Many a High-IQ crimminal has been caught because he/she arrogantly though those "dumb cops" wouldn't catch them. That their crimminal act was somehow so brillient that no one would catch on. So there's little difference between the reason the dumb crimminal got, caught, and the reason the smart crimminal got caught. Both didn't think of the one thing that tipped law enforcement off.

    1. Re:Americal's smartest crimminals. by spacecowboy420 · · Score: 1

      Well, with your spelling, I guess you don't have to worry about that problem.

      I don't recall ever having met an idiot who had a clue they were stupid. In fact, I remember how much more I thought I knew about 15-20 years ago, I guess you do feel smart when you have no idea what you don't know, which would explain your fallacy of a "high iq disease". Yes, there are arrogant smart people, but they are *usually* smart enough to know the consequences of getting caught and make sure they stay just inside the law.

      --
      ymmv
  69. Darwin by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 3, Funny
    "Some of them actually signed in with their true names, so that helped us identify people."

    Ah....Darwin works in mysterious ways sometimes....or perhaps some not so mysterious ways as found in this case.

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
    1. Re:Darwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      except they already have two or three kids each already.

  70. They got it all wrong! by OSUJoe · · Score: 2, Funny

    The proper procedure for settling online pissing contests and insult-slinging events of this nature is to play eachother in an agreed-upon First-Person Shooter.

    Come on, don't these gangs know good internet ettiquette?

  71. Nothing new by elh_inny · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Perhaps it's a shock for you American people, but here in Poland we have plenty of meetings called "ustawka" (which means "setup" or "arrangement").
    Usually, it's between football fans. They enter the opposite team's website/forum post some vulgar notes, arrange a meeting and fight.
    I've never been into such a fight because you never know what's going to happen, bunch of forty crazed people fighting each other with no rules.
    But it ain't as bad as it was in the 90's since they don't use weapons anymore. However in Ukraine, for instance, it is still the case, they use chains, bats, knives even guns.
    The general rule is: the further east you go the worse the manners.
    In contrast could you imagine, for instance, NBA fans fighting each other over a lost game? I envy you US and Canadian citizens for living in a civilised country.

    1. Re:Nothing new by foniksonik · · Score: 1

      Why yes, we can imagine NBA fans fighting each other over a lost game... in fact, several riots broke out in LA one year, 2000 to be exact it did happen..

      here's a 'mellow' account of what happened:

      http://www.canoe.ca/NBAPlayoffs00/jun21_nba.html

      " LOS ANGELES -- Conclusions arrived late Monday night after authorities locked reporters into the Staples Center for their own protection from overindulgent, so-called "fans:"

      1) Post-game statistical breakdown: Helicopters covering the breaking -- as in glass -- story of the riot after the NBA final outnumbered torched vehicles 8-5. The police lost two squad cars to the flames.

      2) In the midst of a riot, one does not know whether to turn from, or to, nervous police wielding truncheons and wearing full riot gear, although it should be said that every Los Angeles police officer who was encountered during one reporter's nervous post-game dash to his rental car was polite, helpful and respectful.

      3) The Indiana Pacers, a team full of heart and pluck, lost the championship series to the Los Angeles Lakers not necessarily because of Shaquille O'Neal's scoring, but because they were not able to control the Lakers' offensive rebounding. "

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  72. my emoticons vs your emoticons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    raspberry beats angry face
    clown beats grunt
    and so on...

    hello we need angrycons from now on.

  73. A real reason to fight by derphilipp · · Score: 2, Funny

    I bet the reason was a discussion about
    Vi vs Emacs ...

    --
    Spelling mistakes: My is english spoken not tongue of mother.
  74. Re:Communications medium was used for communicatin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What would've been impressive is if the gang members were from 4 different countries in 2 different continents. Now that would be something where internet can be useful, bringing, um, gangsters from all over the world together.

  75. Parental control? by troon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For goodness sake, these are kids aged 14-21. The policeman asked why the parents weren't keeping an eye on their internet usage: but what about keeping an eye on why your 14-year-old kid is going out at night with a baseball bat?!

    --
    Ydco co ,df C erb-y go. a Ekrpat t.fxrapev
    1. Re:Parental control? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but what about keeping an eye on why your 14-year-old kid is going out at night with a baseball bat?!

      To play baseball?

    2. Re:Parental control? by Illserve · · Score: 1

      How dumb were you as a kid that you couldn't sneak a baseball bat out of the house without your parents catching you?

  76. Tru Names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    'Some of them actually signed in with their true names, so that helped us identify people.'

    Officer: Will the real_slim_shady_35789 please stand up!

  77. So what were they fighting over? by murr · · Score: 1

    Emacs vs. vi?
    Red Hat vs. Debian?
    Linux vs. *BSD?

  78. I'm still waiting for the .torrent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The gang members were later identified and arrested with the aid of a digital video tape of the brawl.

    C'mon IRC mobs! Gimme infotainment!! Where is the .torrent?

  79. video games by mduke · · Score: 1

    Well obviously video games are the cause because well it involved that there "intarweb" thing and these new fangled computers and then some good old violence in real life and therefore by the age old equation Internet + Violence = Blame goes to video games

    --
    Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither
  80. so you're a compassionate cynic then? by Roman_(ajvvs) · · Score: 1
    I'll bite.

    The realists (and just about everyone but the most hardcore bleeding-hearts) will consider it good riddance

    Based on your statements in this thread you don't seem to have any level of "bleeding heart", so I'd contest your authority to declare what such a person would consider. I also wonder about your definition of "realist". A realist, from my understanding would not have the amount of animosity inferrable from "good riddance". A realist would more likely be more tolerant to both the presence of these acts and the manner of their resolution. Personally, I'd say far too many cynics think they're being realistic. But then seeing the honest reality tends to make people cynical, so it's a bit of a vicious circle there...

    When I say we'd do better off letting them kill one another, I say so because of compassion for my fellow humans, not out of a lack thereof.

    What makes those involved in the violence any less a fellow human than your family and friends? Compassion shouldn't be limited to those you care about, since those relationships revolve around other human qualities. Proper compassion involves exactly those who you would otherwise ignore, detest or disassociate yourself with. A compassionate act requires involvement, when not acting is worse in an ethical and/or emotional sense. Not doing something is more easily described as apathetic than compassionate. As such, you're really being apathetic, while trying to convince yourself it's compassion.

    --
    click-clack, front and back. I'm not moving this car otherwise.
    1. Re:so you're a compassionate cynic then? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What makes those involved in the violence any less a fellow human than your family and friends?

      Perhaps that they are involved in recreational attempted murder if not actual murder?

  81. Re:Communications medium was used for communicatin by youknowmewell · · Score: 1

    Just because the cause of the fight happened to be on the internet doesn't make it special.

    It does to us nerds, you insensitive clod!

  82. Re:Well, everybody wanted to fight. why arrest the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's called boxing.

    Hey, sanction gang boxing matches!

  83. Re:Communications medium was used for communicatin by RollingThunder · · Score: 1

    What would make it Internet notable, to my mind, is if they didn't actually coordinate to get together and rumble, but if one group managed to track down the other via the internet, and brought the fight to the other guy's doorstep.

  84. WHY IS THIS INSIGHTFUL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful
    We have enough violence in the world today. The last thing we need is to teach kids that violence is an acceptable means to resolve conflict. The world has enough "tough guys." We don't need anymore of them.

    Which is why I'm amazed that anyone would mod this as insightful. Advocating violence is insightful? While the world copes with the gruesome death of Mr. Berg we've got people advocating further violence and people thinking it's insightful? WTF?

  85. finally by tabby · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ok once and for all.
    All the emacs & vi people behind the mall at 8.
    There can be only one!!!

    --
    I've experiments to run, there is research to be done on the people who are still alive.
  86. My bet on what started all of this... by antic · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Vi vs Emacs

    --
    'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
  87. Ah, my nemesis... by pluvia · · Score: 1

    ... the gang of the two handed salute. Puny man. We only need one hand to... errr... salute; for we are Vulcans. Prepare to be reset.

  88. Patriot Act by zbuffered · · Score: 1

    According to one officer, 'Some of them actually signed in with their true names, so that helped us identify people.'"

    And, of the ones that didn't, getting those names was no problem. They didn't even need a warrant.

    --
    Synergy is your friend
  89. Obligatory Futurama Quote by darkitecture · · Score: 1


    Gary Gygax: "Here, take my +1 mace!"

  90. this is news?!? by radja · · Score: 1

    hooligans have been doing this kind of thing for years..

    --

    No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
    --Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
  91. Article has it all wrong. by andr0meda · · Score: 1


    The article mentionned this is the first time 'gang members use the internet' to fight their wars. How odd. I think it would be rather unique to have street gangs use profane and religious grounds to go out and have a fight with eachother. Not that religious wars are anything new, of course, but streetgangs in profane chat channels cursing at each other? That's just too much.

    Blah anyway.. anyone uses the net for anything the se days, so why not gangwars. A bit like Guildwars but without the fancy graphics, right. Not really the big /. gold nugget of news I would say.

    --
    With great power comes great electricity bills.
  92. Natural Selection In Action. by pandrijeczko · · Score: 2, Funny
    Any member of the male species that has to be a member of a gang and carry a baseball bat around with him obviously has a personality issue due to possessing miniscule genitalia.

    It follows that such males cannot therefore contribute easily to the human reproductive cycle and therefore the continuation of the species - so I say let them get on with it, it's just natural selection in action.

    Just give the last man standing a mop and a trashcan and let him clear up all the bits afterwards...

    --
    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
  93. Imagine.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...a Beowulf cluster of those.

  94. Re:Communications medium was used for communicatin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    football hooligans here in the uk have been using the net to arrange fights for ages. As have some of the `ned` gangs in Glasgow.

    One of my work mates was on the jury of a murder trial recently where some of the evidence was bragging in a yahoo chat room.

  95. British Football Hooligans by perky · · Score: 1

    They've been doing this for years. Good to see that the UK is on the global forefront of technologically assisted pugilism.

    --
    "The new wave is not value-added; it's garbage-subtracted" - Esther Dyson, Dec 1994
  96. Predictable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The first post seen on any Slashdot story is predictably rated:

    Score:5 Funny

  97. Donald Duck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Donald Duck wants to troll now. Right now, he's having a SCREAMING ORGASM as he floats in a sea of Daisy Dcuk pr0n. Donald Duck challenges you to a fight with his whacker.

  98. Football Hooligans in the UK are already doing it. by gadders · · Score: 1

    See here or here.

    Which reminds me of my new money-spinning idea ( © Me on Slashdot) - a cross between fight club and Gaydar. People sign a disclaimer, and can then contact people who match their profile but instead of doing something rude with them they get to fight each other. As it's all among consenting adults, I'm sure it would be legal.... :-)

  99. blockwars by martin · · Score: 1

    So where's Judge Dredd when you need him...

    I guess with perps not exactly hiding their identities it makes it a bit easier.

    " Don't tell him you name Pike" - Capt. Mainwaring from Dad Army.

  100. Anyone want a piece of this? by jago25_98 · · Score: 1

    What a **** article you ****, come and get some you piece of ****

    I'm glad FightClub managed to say what needs to be said on this; life is too safe for some people.

    Give them knives and put them in a cage, or similar;
    http://www.ufc.tv/

    [ wink ;) ]

  101. Thats a load of crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There were 7 people involved, dumbass reporter adding to the story, there might of been a dozen people watching. I live 6 miles away from where it happened. Reporters = dumbasses

  102. It's like an MMORPG... by vudufixit · · Score: 1

    Only it's in real life! Kewl!

    1. Re:It's like an MMORPG... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So... LAMMORPG?

  103. Mob points by rishistar · · Score: 2, Funny

    If only they'd have had mod points. Negative mod points are far worse than baseball bats to a true geek.

    --
    Professor Karmadillo Songs of Science
  104. Lucky they werent Highlander fans by Marrow · · Score: 2, Funny

    There can be only one!

  105. Random Comments from an Allumi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I went to one of those Highschools, both schools are 'rivals' of each other, so no doubt there were definate sides to the battle.

    However I've wondered why there are rivals? Why do they get a kick outta beating the other in football or other sports? Or emense joy from spray painting "Garland Sucks" on a brick wall of the school.

    Even if I remember right, South Garland was responsible for a fire that burned part of Garland back in the 80s.

    And it's not like the teachers help in curbing these tendacies. Some of them are allumi returned to teach. They too hated the other back in the 60s. "Please don't spray paint the other's schools, we're watching!" No they aren't. Even I know that school patrols only come around once every 2 or so hours.

    In the end, more stuff like this is bound to happen. Group chat boards invaded by enemies nearby. Drive down to the nearby park and duel out your agressions.

    ~Kitzira

  106. crowbar ? by mbennis · · Score: 0

    crowbar ??? You're so 90's, I don't want to loose my halflife beating him, I prefer the chainsaw :-)

  107. Why is this even illegal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Two consenting parties meet with intention to do violence on one another, sounds like boxing or martial arts or amateur wrestling or any other contact sport to me... is it only illegal because these guys failed to pay off the Texas athletic commission for a license so the State could profit from it?

    How does it make the streets safer for average individuals to pull "criminals" off the streets who did not use force against anyone without that other party's consent?

    1. Re:Why is this even illegal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are liability issues, the government is tasked with keeping public places safe. An angry group of combatants might easily injure a person in the wrong place at the wrong time. If they hadn't intervened and someone (not there with the intent of being involved in the fighting) had gotten hurt some government official would have been in trouble.

      And no, the fact that it happened and nobody was in the wrong place at the wrong time does not make it all good and legal.

  108. Football Hooligans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    This is not really news at all. English football (Soccer for you yanks) hooligans have been pre-arranging fights for years. From what I hear from friends involved in that scene it's all very polite too. People meet in pubs before the game and exchange phone numbers. After the match teams of scouts seek out a suitably sized area away from the massive police presence the big "Category A" games attract and report their findings. The bosses phone each other and meet up for a big fight.

    These meetings have adjusted to bring in new technology, many 'firms', as these groups call themselves, now have their own bulletin board with bosses exchanging URLS over SMS before the match in order to orgainse the fight online.

    Admittedly these things don't break out from a flame war, these are far more premeditiated, but using the 'net to organise a fight is old news.

    Oh, the best thing about these boards was how the members would list their "Battle honours" after each post.

    Milwall '87
    Cardiff '92
    etc.

  109. SSR by RogL · · Score: 1

    As a reference to back up your statement, cite Harry Harrison's "Stainless Steel Rat" novels.

  110. "Kids" != 14-21 by RogL · · Score: 1

    Sorry, I'd consider (at least) the 19-21yr olds to be NOT "kids" anymore....

    1. Re:"Kids" != 14-21 by R.Caley · · Score: 1
      Sorry, I'd consider (at least) the 19-21yr olds to be NOT "kids" anymore....

      You must be very young:-).

      As a guide I think it a reasonable rule of thumb to say that human males are kids up to about 25, females up to 20. Of course, it varies between individuals. Eg Donald Rumsfeld is still too emotionally immature to be trusted out on his own in his 70s.

      --
      _O_
      .|<
      The named which can be named is not the true named
    2. Re:"Kids" != 14-21 by Warlok · · Score: 1
      As a guide I think it a reasonable rule of thumb to say that human males are kids up to about 25, females up to 20


      What a load of unfiltered fertilizer. Setting general sterotypes on when human beings become mature enough to handle themselves on their own is the type of thinking that keeps our kids locked up in sterile little rooms 6 hours a day, moving around to the sound of bells in some grand homage to 19th century Prussian class society, until the kid is 18 and has proven he can receite back the false facts spoon fed to him by his government controllers since he was six.


      100 years ago, before the widespread indocrination of America's youth in government run propaganda camps (known as public schools), "kids" as young as 14 left school to tend to the family farm or business, apprentice themselves to tradesmen, start families, and live their lives. (And we were better educated and more peaceful as well - read de Tocqueville for first-hand comments to that effect). Only in our modern "progressive" society have we seen our youths turning to this kind of outlet for their normal pubescent changes, in the absence of anything else to which to channel their youthful energies (ever notice why it's mostly American kids who do this? Ever here of aboriginals in Australia or South America doing this? That's because men help raise young boys, which is a rarity in America today).


      Is there a solution? Sure, but no one will even contemplate it - stop funding public schools. They don't need to be reformed or fixed - they're doing exactly what they're meant to do, feminizing young men and turning our kids in docile TV watching fools with no more sense of questioning facts fed them by the government than a cow questions it's fate on it's way to the slaughterhouse. If you've got kids, don't put them in public schools - home-school them, teach them your values and morals instead of the state's values and morals.

      --
      ...and you run and you run and you can't stop what's been done...
    3. Re:"Kids" != 14-21 by R.Caley · · Score: 1
      If you've got kids, don't put them in public schools - home-school them

      So, you want to totally infantalise them by tieing them to their parents?

      One of the most important aspects of rites of passage into adulthood in traditional societies is that the child is taken away from their parents and comes back a notional man or woman.

      As for `channelling yourthful energies', you make my point. It is their need to have someone else provide a channel which defines them as not yet adult. Take a look at the road accident or violent crime statistics.

      Traditionally, societies have needed a steady supply of physically mature, but emotionally undeveloped people. Who else can you get to go and beat up the tribe next door (or abuse people in jails in Iraq, or become suicide bombers).

      --
      _O_
      .|<
      The named which can be named is not the true named
  111. someone needs a crash course in logic by proj_2501 · · Score: 1

    hey diddle diddle, distribute the middle! :)

  112. Huh? by SageMadHatter · · Score: 1

    What does Flash mobs have anything to do with the gang violence article? The gangs spoken of in the article, are not "flash mobs", but simply street gangs who use the internet.

    I think the poster used Jeff Goldblum's character, David Levinson logic, from Independence Day

    "Gangs who use the internet.... gangs... a mob is a sort of gang. Mobs... mobs... hey, there are flash mobs, which is in an internet thing. Aha! Extra! Extra! Flash mobs become violent!"

  113. My Favorite comment by Like2Byte · · Score: 1

    From the PDF:

    FEEDBACK: Tactile with mechanical snap

    I'm sure the fellas would feel some mechanical snap when hit with this keyboard.

  114. Fight by wizard992 · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is hilarious. Myself and my friends around Dallas had been talking about this fight all week, about how dumb it was in general, how stupid people were to let someone videotape it (that's how they identified the participants), and how surprised we were at the lack of knives and guns, and that most of the fights were one-on-one instead of the normal "gang up on one person" kind of fight you see around here. There has been a lot of video of the fight on local TV as well. It is amazing to see it show up on the Slashdot homepage, world colliding kind of strange.

    And no, these kids were not "computer nerds". In fact, that part of Garland is considered a low-wealth, blue collar area; these are just punk kids who happen to use computers.

  115. Re:Communications medium was used for communicatin by wizard992 · · Score: 1

    Actually, they are not "gangs" in the legal sense, they are all just kids who happened to know each other. The two groups are kids who went to different high schools, they had not been identified as gangs previously. Just the local media doing a little of it's own FUD and slapping a label on them.

  116. "dogging": flash mob sex by peter303 · · Score: 1

    I saw this article a few weeks ago about flash mob kiss-ins or orgies called "dogging".

  117. Re:Communications medium was used for communicatin by telstar · · Score: 1
    "This is not newsworthy. People traded insults and got into a fight. So it happened over the internet - so what?"
    • Eh, give it a couple days. They'd find out that some of the kids had video games on their computers, and there'll be a congressman blaming the whole thing on Pokemon.

  118. Way to demonstrate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...your total ignorance of Charles Darwin's famous theory, your ignorance as to the point of the "Darwin Awards" and your ignorance as regards human nature, violence and 'Darwinism' in general.

    But hey, some other winners thought you were 'Funny', so run with it...

  119. Sadly, the police intervened... by Lodragandraoidh · · Score: 1

    Hopefully some of these people will grow up before becoming adults and taking on the responsibilities of life.

    Sadly, the police intervened before they could do much damage. How do you protect someone from their own stupidity?

    --

    Lodragan Draoidh
    The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
  120. Our BBS had a gang war ages ago by carn1fex · · Score: 1

    I guess im just a light year ahead of the times because we had a full on BBS war about 10 years ago. We were the local evil warez/porn/phr3aking board and some assfuck who ran the local baseball scores/bible info board dissed our shit and we had to throw!!! But he backed down and we threw stuff at his house and peeled out on his lawn.. Tru thug life! Then we annonymously sent him a hacked copy of Wacky Wheels that deletes your command.com.. B000YA!!

    --

    ---------

    No matter how thin you slice it, its still baloney.

  121. Reminds me of a story by phorm · · Score: 1

    I can't remember enough of the actual details to quote verbatim, but basically it was about how "Mr. Smith" encountered two individuals that were real asshats and dealt with them quite nicely.

    Basically, after encountering asshat #1, he managed to get a phone # and started calling the guy about 2-3 times a week (on a calling-card or something equally difficult to track) and stating "you're an @sshole" before hanging up.

    After a few months of this, it was starting to get boring - until Mr. Smith ran into a second asshat.

    At this point, he got the number for asshat #2 and starting calling him in the same way. After about another month of this, he called asshat #1 again, but this time stayed on the line. The expected response was of course "who the f*** is this if I ever meet you I'm going to kick your ass."

    To this, Mr. Smith responded "My name is (name of person #2), you're an a-hole, and I'll be at Central Park. If you're a man, show up and I'll kick your ass."

    After hanging up on asshat #2, he then placed a call to asshat #2. After making the same statements, he had asshat #2 also ready for a rumble in the park

    Call #3 was to the police a little while later, where he reported that a gang fight was arising in Central Park in about 5 minutes.

    Can't remember where I heard this before, but it strikes me as a great way to get revenge. You could do the same to two groups in chatrooms, since the anonymity factor would be able the same.

  122. Re:Communications medium was used for communicatin by ElaborateCalculator · · Score: 1
    The same thing could have happened because of a shouting match in the streets, a conference call,


    Am I the only reader seeing an image of gangmembers standing round in three piece suits and bandanas saying,
    "I'll get my homies to speak to your homies and we'll arrange a conference call..."?
    --
    --darren
  123. This world is fucked up... by cr0sh · · Score: 1
    No, I did not just come to this conclusion - I am merely restating what most of us already know...

    Why is it that these "mobs" of people can "come together", promoting violence, hatred, and fighting - amongst apparently (mostly) consenting adults (and disturbingly, children) - for what appear to be absolutely no reason at all! At best (in the cases of hooligans), it is over who's sports team is better!

    Meanwhile, in the supposedly real world, we have people of all sorts (everywhere!), who are "arranging" their own sorts of "flash mobs" to kill each other over who knows what reason (is it oil? is it terrorism? is it entertainment?) - but no one is organizing "flash mobs" of protestors to stand against these attrocities against civilization!

    We are living in a world of hate, anger, war and terror - yet I would bet that if you could poll each country's citizenry, likely 99% would say "yeah, I want peace, no fighting, just leave us alone, we'll leave you alone, and if you come visit, we can enjoy a brew down at the pub together"...

    A sane society would each see the madmen for who they are, and get rid of them quickly and effectively, rather than letting them supposedly "lead" each other into conflicts that the majority don't really want.

    You can't say to me that people really want war. You can't say to me that people really want body bags, sons and daughters missing limbs coming home, haunted looks in their eyes. You can't say to me people want to see each other blown up in a spray of bloody particles. Yet we continue to do what only a mad society would do.

    Damnit! If only "The Day After Tommorow" wasn't a movie - we need a good cleaning to remind us of what is truely important (that, or just to show us, to our faces, what animals we really are - as if the current state of affairs can't do that)...

    --
    Reason is the Path to God - Anon
  124. Stupid Criminals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These guys were do dumb they must have been AOL users.

  125. flash buzz by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    Just because some people schedule a meeting (for coffee, fists, or whatever) with email, it's not necessarily a flashmob. A flashmob is organized by email, IM, SMS, or other P2P group messaging systems, to a group of people unknown to each other other than a "mutual friend", inviting a one-time group, doing something (shouting a word, throwing some punches), then immediately dispersing. This gang meetup features persistent groups and no dispersal. It's more like an IBM board meeting than a flashmob.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  126. The nice thing about goths by the_mad_poster · · Score: 1

    is that they hate themselves for you. It's very convenient, actually.

    --
    Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
  127. The Sterling FlashMob. by Daunting*Alligheri · · Score: 1

    If you read the beginning of Distraction, you'll see something simlar. A great and frightening concept.

    --
    Witty quotes suck.
  128. thank god for cops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gee whiz, it is a good thing that cops stopped a group of thugs who were willingly beating on each other. Golly, it sure is a good thing that they aren't wasting their time preventing other thugs from beating up unwilling victims?

  129. Re: Baseball bat by Bernie+Fsckinner · · Score: 1

    What if the kid told his parents he was going to a baseball game?

  130. old news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nothing new.. Here in our great little Holland football hooligans have been arranging battles with bats, chains & pepperspray through the internet for years now... people have already died during these..