Rod Dreher

Elizabeth Wurtzel Has Only Been To Me

Flash Mob Idiocy, Round 2

By Rod Dreher • January 8, 2013, 11:53 AM

The youthful urban geniuses behind the disastrous Mall Of Louisiana flash mob that did so much for Baton Rouge’s peace of mind, economic climate, and race relations last weekend, are reportedly planning for round two this coming weekend:

WAFB is told the incident last Saturday night was supposed to be one big gathering for a group picture. Deputies say several small fights occurred in various parts of the mall with the largest fight occurring in the food court area.

While there were an estimated 200 juveniles in the area at the time, it was unclear how many people took part in the altercations. Some say round two is the attempt to do what they were intending to do at the mall, to take a huge group picture. But this time it is supposed to take place at the former Don Carter’s, which is now the All Star Lanes Bowling Alley.

The Bowling alley is taking no chances and they are increasing their officer presence for the upcoming weekend.

Anybody want to go bowling this weekend? Anybody want to send their teenagers to a place that’s planning to “increase its officer presence” this weekend? How confident does that make you?

Can’t imagine why people would not want to be anywhere you boys and girls are. Good work, kids. Good work, parents of these kids. Parent. Whatevs.

Posted in Crime and Punishment, Culture, Race. Tagged crime, culture, flash mob, Mall of Louisiana, race.

14 Responses to Flash Mob Idiocy, Round 2

JonF says:

January 8, 2013 at 12:11 pm

The police in Baton Rouge need to crack down this good and hard.
I mentioned that trouble of this sort doomed a mall (Rolling Hills?) near Akron OH shortly after I moved there. Earlier, in the 90s (before most people had cell phones by the way– they are hardly needed for young toughs to cause trouble) there was similar trouble at Fairlawn Mall in Dearborn MI. However that was the metro area’s premier mall, close to noteworthy tourist stuff: the airport, Ford Motor HQ, Greenfield Village. After a bit of dawdling during which sales at the mall fell off alarmingly the Dearborn police got in there are cleaned the place out. Among other things a curfew was instituted such that minors were not allowed in the place without parents after 6pm or on weekends. Yes, there were howls about discrimination, but it did the trick.
Mr. Patrick says:

January 8, 2013 at 1:54 pm

Take the flash mob bowling, take them bowling.
KSW says:

January 8, 2013 at 2:22 pm

I suppose I’m going to date myself, but I remember when adults were just plain nervous and afraid of teenagers period. Race didn’t come into it.

I’ve not come across any reports where it is claimed that there were weapons involved or that the ruckus involved anyone other than the six teens arrested. In other words, not really a physical threat to anyone. I imagine a large part of the panic was because of the amount of gun violence in public areas (in the news) lately. I know that I would have practiced duck-and-cover if I had been there.

It’s unfortunate that six teenagers, children actually (ages 13 to 15), behaved in a manner that required the shutdown of an entire mall. I’m with Jon F in thinking that it’s time they learned one of life’s more frustrating lessons: a few bad apples spoil things for everyone (think shoe bomber). It’s time for the mall operators and store owners to decide on instituting a curfew for teens at the mall.

[Note from Rod: No, that's not true. Cops have arrested juveniles they believe instigated the thing, but the event involved around 200 kids rampaging through the mall scaring people to death. It was a physical threat to all involved, especially because the genesis of it was fights at the food court. -- RD]
W.E.B. Dupree says:

January 8, 2013 at 2:35 pm

@ Mr. Patrick: Last night was there was a flash mob on your lawn?
Gerard says:

January 8, 2013 at 2:37 pm

Partly parental and largely cultural.

Overheard this part of a recent phone conversation my Korean-American wife had with her brother regarding one of his kids:

“How did Christopher’s recital go? I thought he had his tutoring yesterday [he's a straight-A student]? Oh, so that’s separate from his SAT prep course? When do you guys go on the Boy Scout trip?”
pjsmoov says:

January 8, 2013 at 2:54 pm

Caught this story on the news last night and shook my head. I’m about equal distance from New Orleans and Baton Rouge and there are stores and restaurants in both cities that I enjoy going to. But I don’t visit either city that often and I don’t regret it.
Scott says:

January 8, 2013 at 3:06 pm

You need parents who care and have the where-with-all to stay involved in their kids lives and keep them active in productive things. we have a crisis of an underclass from both races, but most notably in the black community, of kids who do what they want and have no respect for anything, including themselves. i cannot think of any solution.
JonF says:

January 8, 2013 at 3:15 pm

Rod, color me skeptical about the number “200″. These things always get exaggerated– understandably because our brains aren’t set up to instantly process numbers on sight much beyond 10-12. Crowds are almost always overestimated in size, and in a threatening or terrible situation that gets worse (hence the wild inflation of battle and disaster casualties in most historical and even some modern sources). I recall a particularly wild teenage party in my neighborhood (when I was not quite old enough to join in). That turned into “hundreds of kids” too in neighborhood gossip. In reality our houses could not have held that many– at most there were probably three dozen out-of-control kids there.

And again: it sounds like it’s time for a curfew on teens.
KSW says:

January 8, 2013 at 3:22 pm

Rod, could you please point me at an article about 200 teenagers rampaging through the mall? I’ve read the Times Picayune (New Orleans) and The Advocate (Baton Rouge), but haven’t seen anything about all those teens rampaging through the mall. I read that some of the teens got into a fight and there was a panic, but not that a large number of the teens that met for the Instagram meet and greet were involved.
Frank OConnor says:

January 8, 2013 at 3:31 pm

As one of my friends in the Massachusetts Welfare Department says, there are no fathers anymore, just sperm donors. Once the sperm has been deposited, all paternal responsibilities have been considered to have beeen met.
cka2nd says:

January 8, 2013 at 3:40 pm

I remember reading once that the one thing guarenteed to drive young people out of a mall was piped in Bing Crosby. They’ll put up with the worst Muzak, but the Bingster was just too much for them.
Nick K. says:

January 8, 2013 at 3:59 pm

“Parenting” is not the underlying independent variable here, it is an intermediate one. Something that we can euphemistically call “culture” is the deeper cause of the social pathology which leads to these flash mobs, and other anti-social behavior from the “urban youth” demographic.
RB says:

January 8, 2013 at 7:28 pm

cka2nd, I’ve heard the same thing, except it was country music at 7-11s.
Jeffersonian says:

January 8, 2013 at 10:13 pm

I remember reading once that the one thing guarenteed to drive young people out of a mall was piped in Bing Crosby. They’ll put up with the worst Muzak, but the Bingster was just too much for them.

The McDonald’s near our downtown plays Beethoven very loudly at high loitering times every so often. The place clears out in a hurry.