Flash mob causes havoc at Walmart
 

I guess some would say, they are just kids having fun. We would not have even thought of this kind of stuff when I was young. These kids evidently have no values at all. Just imagine scenes like this when the economy breaks down. And they are armed and hungry.

Flash mob causes havoc at Walmart | News - Home

Pretty generous to call this something other than robbery. The news even called it robbery. Also pretty interesting the absence of white faces in this mob. I saw less than 1% (white).

Remington (model 870) would be a respectable solution.:)

You can't say something like that. It is racist.
Everyone knows the children would never do something like that.
Photo shopped, thats it. Has to be.

The lack of white faces isn't at all interesting.. Jacksonville has a large AA population.
When I lived in the city, there were parts of town where you would never see a white face. No one white lived anywhere around. And there were stores etc.. closer to the white areas. Why would they drive out of their way to shop at a different Wal-Mart?
I (white) lived in such a neighborhood. I was the only one for over a mile in any direction.

Wonder why no white people lived in the area?

Putting the race issue aside... 300 plus teenagers (all under 18), thought this was fun..... THAT is a problem

Allegedly they came from "a party down the road"... when the police broke that up, they obviously didn't stick around to make sure they all dispersed.

It's all criminal mischief...but what they don't tell you, WalMart's security cameras may have been damaged at the end... but the RECORD EVERYTHING!

I wonder how much effort will be put into finding and prosecuting these juvenile deliquents (or soon to become such). If they don't, the kids will learn that this action has no consequences and keep pushing.

That's not a flash mob that's a gang.

I wonder how effective the police would have been at handling a riot like that since it was in a large Walmart. The next question that comes to mind is, if this is a trend, what does the future hold for us? I don't recall mobs throwing merchandise before. We had a post in the past about a man being killed with a baseball bat the attacker picked up in the store.

With this, the widespread publicity, and probably an upcoming demonstration of police ineffectiveness, what's next? It's disturbing that this occurred in a store with as many cameras as a Walmart. That shows a mental atitude that leaves me dumbfounded. I can understand herd behavior. People will do things in a group they wouldn't do by themselves. But this is an ugly escalation in mobbing behavior in businesses.

No,no. I did not say anything racist. I only used the word white. Now I did suggest the Remington Mod.870 might be useful. Six employees all with the above shotgun fully loaded with blanks and only shooting into the ceiling, would have cleared the area pretty fast.:D

Really?
I would have thought you were more versed in how the world works (and has worked for thousands of years)
For one, birds of a feather. People with similar or cultural similarities prefer to live with others that share those similarities.
Quite often, the church is central to any particular communities as the church is the cultural base and a common space for gatherings.
Work places are also a common point. For instance, the mill towns of old. If you worked at the mill, it was logical that you lived nearby. Or if your village fished, it would make sense that you all would live near the sea.

Economics play a part as well. Quite often as people move up within the work force, they would like to live closer to the job and they would like to have a bigger yard, a better school etc.. or it is expected that one would maintain a certain illusion of fitting in with others within the company or type of job.

As to why people flock together..? People that are Italian may have grown up in an Italian based community as a child and have returned there upon reaching adulthood. The neighbors may be the same as from childhood and the other Italians in the neighborhood would share similar memories of certain foods or celebrations and lifestyle types.
Same for a Jewsih community, a black community etc..

The key would is community. A shared history.

AA Population? Does that mean that they don't drink any more?:D

Hopefully nothing. This sounds like kids blowing-off steam. It's also more of a case of vandalism than a robbery, since merchandise was used in a food fight rather than removed from the store.

I don't think a repeat offense is likely.

Yup, to me a "flash mob" is a bunch of people doing carefully staged choreography to make people smile. I am not sure why this phrase was adopted for thugs engaging in thuggery.

The door greeter should have stopped all this. They are well trained and effective. They have checked my paperwork and marked it with a hilighter many times. That made it legal-n-right-n-all, Not much different than writing a ticket.

Door greeters are in good shape. Some of them are in the shape of two people. It's all good.

They are mature. As a matter of fact some of them are older than some kinds of dirt. Still they should be able to do as well as the cops do. They work inside where it is air conditioned, and they are proficient at protecting themselves with carts.

Three hundred or so, unruly young people should have been a piece of cake for a good door person.

Just these same youngsters will be voting in a couple of years, They can register at school if they stay in school that long.

""You've got a large number of people going and coming at the same time they are throwing produce," said Jefferson. "They are stealing items, they are all over the store. You can imagine how fearful the customers were who were in there at that particular time."


Flash mob causes havoc at Walmart

.

And here's another instance of the little darlings doing what they do best, that would be destroying and stealing other peoples property. But I'm sure some liberals will say that they did it because they're economically disadvantaged and really had a right to do what they did. Obama would probably say that they had the right to steal and terrorize the customers/employees because, afterall, the little thugs probably helped build the store.

"A flash mob targeted a Troutdale store last weekend and investigators are trying to identify the suspects.

Investigators said as many as 40 kids entered the Albertsons store at 25691 SE Stark Street at the same time late Saturday night and started stealing things."

'Flash rob' targets Troutdale Albertsons

.

Back circa 1990, this amateur Fatboy Slim video was on MTV. This was the first I ever saw a flash mob, not sure it was even called flash mob back then. The guy in the striped shirt is hilarious and the crowd enjoyed it and actually boos when the man in the suit tries to interfere.

The kids in the OP's video up top were simply criminal vandals with no direction or purpose in life.

Yes, I know how it works. The same thing has happened to a couple of cities near here. Thousands of empty houses now stand where families used to live. People just walked off from their paid for homes just to get out of the area.

I sometimes think we should bring back involuntary sterilization. The only reason it went away was because it was being done to innocent people.

Maybe Walmart needs to hire kids like the one that got busted and then acquited for carrying a loaded Garand in public. Have them patrol the parking lot. Is Florida an open carry state?

Nope! http://www.petitiononline.com/FLOC2A/petition.html

There is no right or wrong.
Follow your heart.
Do what feels right.
Go with your gut.
Have a good time.
You deserve a good time.
You have earned a good time.
Nobody got hurt, no blood no foul.
Walmart sucks anyway.
What I do with my life is none of your business.
There are no absolutes.
Mind your own business
Who are you to judge.
This is *my* family.
It's not my fault.
I am not responsible I had a bad childhood.

Shall I go on?

Who do we thank for such things like what we see in this video?
I mean really........who do we thank for such a promising group of young people?

You can thank their parents, youth culture/media and society for teaching them that destructive, negative attention is super funny and rewarded. These same kids probably beat up the smart kids that get good grades and try to make something out of their life.

Anyone hand me any kind of gun with blanks is going to get his head smacked with the stock . If you think these people are afraid of real lead you better think again . :runforhills:

So as a practical matter, what are some of things that could be done to evacuate the area should you be caught inside a big store like this during one of these criminal events?

I'm not overly familiar with walmarts layout as we only go there a few times each year but I believe there is a garden center that allows access to exit the building? Of course this is probably only open certain months of the year and I'm not sure how they handle all the exit doors during the late night hours.

There are probably fire codes that require all the doors to be unlocked during business hours so if one can find a door that exits to the exterior you should be able to get out of the building? I think walmarts often have auto service centers which might be another escape avenue. Also, there may be package pick-up area where you pick up the ship-to-store items and this counter is likely just outside the back-room warehouse section of the building and that may be another exit option. Or it might be as simple as going to the opposite entry doors from the one that the crowd entered.

I suppose you could retreat to the sporting goods section, arm up (if you aren't already), and wait it out until the crowd dissipates.

First the way it sounds i wouldn't be near there .Second if i lived there i would move . Even here if a store even looks like many are there i go home . :D


Me if i saw them coming in i would take the opposite door out or be working that way . If i was caught i would get my hand on my gun and if forced to use it do it well :angel:

Or maybe if one of the motorized carts is available grab it and fill the front basket with oranges, then return produce fire drive-by style. :)

I didn't catch what time this happened. How late at night were these kids out?? If it is 8 oclock at night versus 2 am, it somewhat changes how I judge the parents.

It could have been a lot worse. They were just throwing stuff around and taking video with their phones to show off later. But with the "mob mentality" in play, if it would have turned violent it could have been real bad with so many in the mob. If anybody tried to be a hero and take a couple of those kids by the collar I bet they would have gotten beaten to a pulp.

If these kids did come from a party broken up nearby, who in the world was having a party with over 300 people in attendance? And if the cops came and broke it up, why didn't they see that the kids didn't head home but to Wal Mart? More questions than answers for me.

If I would have been in that store, I would have looked for an exit and left, like thru lawn and garden or the back of the store "employees only" area if need be. Call the cops once I was in the clear, such as a block away in my car.

Our walmarts and most of the grocery stores with double doors lock down all but the main door after a certain hour. I believe midnight for walmart they only have the grocery side open and lock the garden and other door. Hyvee in one town says 9pm the secondary door by the alcohol section gets locked. They are only required to keep one door unlocked during business hours.

Most of our greeters can't even walk around and are often sitting in those powered carts in case they need to move around. They'd be the first ones beaten up by a mob if they were worth bothering with in the first place.

Kids having fun?

No, hoodlums thinking they are above the law simply because they are part of a mob.

1. Alone or with my kids......we are Aholes and Elbows to sporting goods IF it is closer than the nearest exit away from the crowd.
2. Assuming sporting goods is closer.....arm up, lock and load. If I have to break the glass case to do it, so be it, I will pay to replace it when the riot is over.
3. ONCE I have armed up, ammoed up, I am heading for the closest exit the furthest from the mob.
4. ONCE I am CLEAR of the building and any immediate threat.....if the kids are with me, they will be on the phone to 911......if I am alone, I will find a secure spot where I can use my phone and call for help.

God help the poor fool that tries to pull something stupid when my kids are with me. Don't no one wana wake that sleeping giant. Gloves off, game on...come at me bro!

lolol! :pound:

The man that died in that Lakewood Ca. Walmart was my friend, Dave Oakleaf! He refused to give his killer any money and was brutaly beaton by a black man, much bigger than Dave, with a baseball bat the killer took from the sporting goods section. It only takes a second for your life to change!

As soon as this started, the managers of Walmart should have called 911 and then put the store in lockdown - trapping all the "We just wanted to have fun" hoodlums inside. Once the police were there (with the State police behind them) ONE door could be unlocked to let the police in and then the police could have arrested everyone inside.

I doubt it would take long to separate the hoodlums from real customers.

As many cameras as there are in a Walmart, they should be able to have enough video to find alot of the culprits.

I'm still waiting for the liberals who haunt this site to explain they were "provoked".

IMHO these people are nothing more than a gang of bullies. They enjoy terrorizing the ones they consider weak. Really don't care if the feel provoked, disenfranchised or any of the other buzz words in an attempt to play down this action.

If someone had tried to stop them it would have ended badly with the person either beat down or dead. There need to be consequences for these bullies and their terrorizing of others. How would you have felt if you were shopping in that store with small children?

EVERY public store has emergency exits.. some of the exits are in the backroom. Next time you are in a Walmart or Target or some such store, walk the perimeter of the store, you will find an exit door on every outside wall. They have what is called a "push bar" alarm on them, push the bar and the door opens and an alarm sounds.. You are now out of the building. Even though the backrooms have "locked" bay doors all of the regular size doors will open from the inside.

Again, you will set off an alarm, but in a riot type of environment that doesn't matter.

One should always know where the exits are and look for them every time they enter a building, restaurant, store, stadium etc.

Mr. Smith, as a former Walmart manager I can tell you that they probably did call 911 within moments of this starting, policy and procedure dictates that they not get into a fight. "merchandise can be replaced, lives can not". They will discipline workers chasing shoplifters into parking lots to make that point (enough people have been killed in the parking lots doing that).

If it was after 10pm there were probably only 60-70 employees in the building and about the same or less number of shoppers.. against 300 teenagers??

I guess every now&then the tribal mentality comes rushing out.

Isn't it funny how we have come up with euphemisms because we don't want to say the harsh truths anymore.

This isn't 'vandalism'. This is a mob that is destroying other people's property. The scary thing is they weren't hiding it, and they knew there were cameras.

All it would have taken is for one person, one of the mob, to decide to attack someone - or someone attempt to stop the mob and someone would have been hurt.

No, this isn't just a childhood prank - they know it - and we all know it.

I'd be interested to know if they have done an inventory to see what might have gotten stolen, other than groceries, while some of these 'exurberant children' were holding everyone's attention. I wonder if they do find out they did, in fact, steal will we ever hear it?

I agree but,
I would be armed long before I walk in the door. It is just a way of life. I don't walk outside my door unarmed.