Are “flash mobs” returning to Magnificent Mile?
Posted by loyolastudentdispatch on August 27, 2012
Chicago police are warning people who live, work and visit the Gold Coast and the Magnificent Mile to be alert for rowdy youth that accost and sometimes injure pedestrians.
In the past two years, these so-called “flash mobs” have robbed and beaten pedestrians on numerous occasions.
The latest attacks occurred Saturday near Loyola University Chicago’s Water Tower Campus.
Here is a portion of the story from the Chicago Tribune:
Two dozen young people were arrested after causing disturbances near and on the Magnificent Mile Saturday afternoon, Chicago police said.
Of those arrested, 20 were juveniles and four were adults after the incidents Saturday evening, police said. Most were cited or charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct.
No injuries were reported though scores of police officers criss-crossed the city’s Near North Side, including on the Gold Coast, responding to numerous calls regarding rowdy teens pushing aside pedestrians and darting into traffic along North Michigan Avenue near Chicago Avenue, according to witnesses and police.
Those arrested were involved in incidents at several locations, including the northeast and southeast corners of Michigan and Chicago Avenues and near State Street and Chicago Avenue. When officers assigned to a North Michigan Avenue detail tried to arrest several of them, they darted out in front of moving cars to try to evade arrest on Michigan Avenue.
In one related incident, a 14-year-old girl was arrested at 8 p.m. after throwing tea on a security guard at a McDonald’s at 20 E. Chicago Avenue, police said.
In the end, officers took about two-dozen youth into custody, charging most of them as juveniles with reckless conduct, said Officer Ronald Gaines, a police spokesman.
