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Flash Mob Gang Warfare

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bloods-and-chips dept.

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.'"

8 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. With or without computers.... by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 4, Insightful
    criminals are always stupid.

    (This is why cops can catch them).

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

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

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

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    Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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?!

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  8. 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?