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LAS VEGAS - Caught on camera, a mob of young people bombarded the City Stop convenience store on Sunset Road and Pecos Road and stole $600 in merchandise.

"It became a feeding frenzy," said City Stop owner Jon Athey. "They were in the store for three minutes and 30 seconds… It's a pretty scary thing."

Athey says the crowd darted in and snatched numerous items from the store. "Beer to jerky to candy bars to soda, whatever hit their fancy… potato chips," he said.

Athey says this tactic is known as a "swarm". After 42 years in the convenience store business, Athey says this crime stands out.

"This is the biggest one I've ever seen," he said.

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Originally posted by tenderfootsquest:
They figure they're entitled. F*ckin' democrats.

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"There is almost artistic vulgarity in Gingrich's unrepented role as a hired larynx for interests profiting from such government follies as ethanol and cheap mortgages" -- George Will

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I was struck by what Tonia Rush said after her son, Dvonte Sykes, was arrested and charged with robbing a Thai man in a violent “flash mob.”

Rush said she believed her son’s $250,000 bail would have been lower if the crimes were on the South or West sides.

“If it’s black-on-black crime, nobody cares,” she said.

Obviously, somebody cares.

But Rush makes an unpleasant point. If this kind of violent behavior had occurred in a predominantly black neighborhood, it wouldn’t have even made the nightly news.

But everybody’s talking about the “flash mobs.”

That’s because tourists and residents in the city’s wealthiest ZIP codes are getting a taste of what residents in poorer areas have lived with for years.

Thus far, five men — none of them black — have been beaten and robbed of their iPhones, iPods, cell phones and wallets in flash-mob attacks.

As far as I can tell, all of the participants in the attacks were black. Unfortunately, the black community has long had to deal with roving mobs of black youth.

Expensive gym shoes and brand-name gear used to be the desired booty.

And while Mag Mile merchants were recently hit by mobs of thieves, that’s not new either.

In some areas, rowdy groups of kids on their way to school would bum-rush small gas-station convenience stores and snatch up chips, candy and gum before rushing for the doors.

Many store owners tried to stop the mayhem by allowing only two students at a time into their stores.

Today, wayward teens are snatching electronic equipment right out of an unsuspecting person’s hand. Shameful.

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Ottawa police have yet to make an arrest in what is believed to be one of the first cases of a "flash rob" in the city.

Police suspect instant messaging played a role in organizing the July 16 looting of a local convenience store, in which a large group schemed on the Internet to steal items at the same time.

And now the Internet might also play a role in helping police catch the looters.

In a video that was posted on the Internet, more than 40 young men enter the store on Parkdale Avenue in the city's west end at the same time. They grab soft drinks, chocolate bars and bags of chips before making a quick exit without paying for any of it. They seem unconcerned that their faces appear on the overhead monitor — or that their crime is being captured on videotape.

The video has already received tens of thousands of hits.

"It's crazy. It's organized, right?" said Terry Chun, interviewed outside the store.

Criminologists worry that the flash rob is the start of a disturbing trend, given that there have been a rash of similar lootings recently in the United States.

"If you look at the U.S. events, these have resulted in people getting hurt, so I think we're lucky to have an event where no one was physically hurt, but I think it means we have to look at what we're doing and how to stop it," said Irwin Waller, a criminologist at the University of Ottawa.

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Gov. Scott Walker has ordered the Wisconsin State Patrol to provide additional law enforcement help at the Wisconsin State Fair after several incidents involving rampaging youths broke out on the fairgrounds and on the streets outside Thursday night.

Cullen Werwie, Walker's spokesman, said the governor made the decision after reviewing the events from Thursday night, in which at least 24 people were arrested.

"We will continue to evaluate the situation and make any adjustments necessary to ensure a successful and safe event. We will be doing everything in our power to ensure that parents feel that it is safe to bring their children to the world's best fair," Werwie said in a statement.

Also, Rick Frenette, CEO of the fair, announced that, because of the violence overnight, the fair would immediately implement a policy in which no youths under 18 years of age would be allowed onto the grounds after 5 p.m. without a parent or guardian who is at least 21 years of age. There will be no changes at the Midway.

Frenette, a veteran of 40 years in the fair management business, said he had never implemented such a policy before. The International Association of Fairs and Expositions said there is only one other fair in the country - the South Carolina State Fair - that has such a policy.

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About 50 people simultaneously shoplifted from a Silver Spring, Md., 7-Eleven Saturday night.

Officers arriving at the store in the 12200 block of Tech Road after 11:20 p.m. saw several people gathered in surrounding parking lots and on side streets, police said. They began to disperse when police arrived.

The shoplifters -- described as teens and young adults -- took items including snacks and drinks, police said

Police stopped a group of six people ages 16-18 near Tech Road and Broadbirch Drive. Each had items from the 7-Eleven but no receipts, police said.