The Long Hot Summer

Flash mobs can be quite effective when multiple people turn up in one place to attract attention to a just cause by simultaneously wearing comic clothing or mass break-dancing.

They can, however, be terrifying when they're violent and unnecessary, as we have seen in "the city of brotherly love", as Philly likes to be known.

Marauding teenagers have been damaging street furniture, dragging at least one man from his vehicle, punching innocent passers-by and robbing shops, all in the blink-of-an-eye, before moving on to be destructive somewhere else nearby.

Police say the gangs use social media to co-ordinate their activities.

But most seriously for a tourist town like Philadelphia is that tourists themselves have been harassed - and no city can afford that.

[...]

Mayor Nutter blamed the violence on what he called a small number of knuckleheads and brought in the 9pm curfew for anyone under 18.

  alJazeera

Mayor Nutter? Street furniture?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.