Flash mob forms after 4th of July celebration

**Kodiak** · July 5th, 2010, 09:12 AM

For most people, it really was a great celebration. For others, the night ended very badly.

It was around midnight, south of City Hall on South Broad Street, when innocent bystanders got caught up in a spontaneous crowd, that's called a "flash mob."

It was another beautiful 4th of July on the Parkway, with a spectacular display of fireworks high above the Art Museum. First, The Roots took the stage, then The Goo Goo Dolls performed.

Throughout the day thousands came to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to celebrate our nation's freedom and the place where it all began. And when it ended, the cleanup got underway - crews went to work up and down the Parkway.

As the crowds cleared for the night, a chaotic scene erupted on South Broad Street, near City Hall. Viewer video, obtained exclusively by Action News, shows an unruly crowd of young people flooded into the streets. Police rushed to the scene.

Jay Ingersoll captured the home video. Jay explains to Action News, "We left the fireworks probably not even five minutes into [the show]... and we left and we walked down Chestnut Street. And we got to 15th and Chestnut and we heard 'Flash mob, flash mob, flash mob!'"

He said he saw fights breaking out, people getting punched as police moved in to try and make arrests.

These flash mobs are something that police and prosecutors have worked very hard to crack down on. There were a couple of them along Market Street during the school year. Now, it's happened again.

Link

Looks like the zoo let out a little late.

**ByblosHex** · July 5th, 2010, 09:38 AM

I was down there at that time, I heard and saw the police and ambulances, but didnt actually see any voilence or anything... didnt get out of center city until after 1 because of the traffic.

**new_shooter** · July 5th, 2010, 10:05 AM

This was not a flashmob. This was a riot.

See this for a good description:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob

These are generally operated for prank and/or artistic values. Generally organized via technological communications, generally executed so that all participants converge on an area simultaneously, perform some odd action for a minute or two, then disperse.

It is a subset of 'smart mobs', a term also applied to technologically organized events, but which includes longer lasting events and/or acts of protest or disobedience.

The people in this case, running in the streets yelling 'flashmob' and starting fights, aren't a flash mob. They are morons inciting a riot and giving a bad name to an otherwise harmless activity.

**Bravo Whiskey** · July 5th, 2010, 10:39 AM

Always seems to be the same mob of gangsta types. I agree that it is not a Flash mob as it was a miniriot.

**JonEMTP** · July 11th, 2010, 12:36 PM

I was driving past Love Park as the fireworks were going... and I also heard what I assume was 2 M-80's go off as I passed. Then I saw the PPD and PFD*EMS hauling down Broad Street.

I didn't get out of the city until 0130, and I took Rt. 3 west, rather than the parking lot of I-76.