Flash Mob

After online rumors stoked fears yesterday of yet another potential flash mob - this time at 40th and Market Streets - police told businesses there to close, parked cruisers in the middle of street, and stationed officers at each corner. No large, destructive group of teenagers materialized. Still, the mobilization showed the city's heightened sensitivity to the phenomenon of flash mobs, which have struck Center City and South Street four times since December, fueling worries that the gatherings are harming businesses and the city's image.

This is the summer "flash mob" turned into "flash rob. " Flash mobs were born in 2003 as spontaneous get-togethers, with large groups alerted to an event via text message, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media. Witness April's insta-opera at Reading Terminal, a video of which went viral on YouTube. This summer, says Margaret Rock, editor at Multimedia.com in Chicago, "I don't know why, but what started out as something used for good has shown its dark side. " That dark side now shadows social media, raising issues of law enforcement and constitutional rights.

A 20-year-old man was held for trial Tuesday in connection with an alleged "flash mob" attack in Bella Vista. A Common Pleas Court judge had dismissed charges against Jimmy McCaskill in June, saying a store's surveillance video wasn't conclusive evidence. But the District Attorney's Office refiled charges against McCaskill for his alleged part in the March 18 mayhem in the store at Eighth and Catharine Streets, and Common Pleas Court Judge Frank Palumbo cited the video in holding McCaskill for trial.

Thomas Fitzgerald never knew what hit him. One minute he was riding home from his night-shift job and stopping his bike at Broad and South Streets to watch a mob scene that appeared to be getting out of control. The next, he told a Philadelphia judge yesterday, he was waking up four days later from a medically induced coma, with his hearing impaired and his memory scrambled. Two other witnesses yesterday helped piece together Fitzgerald's lost minutes as they described how, about 11:30 p.m. May 30, the 53-year-old bicyclist was set upon by eight young males, beaten, and left unconscious and in the middle of a violent seizure.

WHEN YOU look at the flash mob, you realize it's the black teens doing all of this. (I'm a black person myself.) The white kids aren't doing this, they're busy playing sports, or after-school activities. It's terrible how our community has to always have bad apples, rotten to the core. But I don't think police and the city should hold parents accountable for what these kids do. These kids are hardheaded, rude and ignorant. If you lock up the parents, how are they going to pay their bills?

As Jean Smith, 63, arrived at 30th Street Station on a train from Wilmington Thursday evening, she and other commuters were warned that there was a large gathering of young people inside the station. Some "Facebook thing," they were told. Oh, no. A South Street-style "flash mob," she thought. "I watched the faces of the people getting off the train," said Smith, of Blackwood. "They were shocked. " But what they found was not a riot, but people standing around as if time had stopped.

The South Street flash mob March 20 resulted in injuries to a 13-year-old boy and a police officer, according to a review of police reports that were filed after the unruly crowd briefly took over the streets. The new information brings to four the number of injured people who filed reports. It's likely, officials acknowledged, that others were hurt but did not file reports. Two other victims were Chalfont waitress Anna Taylor and her boyfriend, John Kemp, both punched in the head.

The Upper Darby Police Department is seeking stiff penalties against the flash mob that descended on the Sears store on 69th Street June 23. Investigators submitted case material to the Delaware County District Attorney's Office on Friday to charge the youths with retail theft and conspiracy to commit robbery for the combined value of the items stolen. Police said they recovered several hundred dollars' worth of merchandise from the youths who were arrested. That means the 15 juvenile suspects will face misdemeanor rather than summary charges - and more serious penalties if convicted.

While assault victim Thomas Fitzgerald lay in a coma last spring, Stephen Lyde used two of Fitzgerald's credit cards to go on a spending spree, according to testimony at Lyde's preliminary hearing in Common Pleas Court yesterday. After a witness put Lyde, 21, at the scene of the May 30 "flash mob" beating of Fitzgerald, and a detective detailed how Lyde had gone online and used the victim's plastic to charge more than $5,000 at high-end retailers, including Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren and Neiman Marcus, a Philadelphia Municipal Court judge ordered him to stand trial.

At 5:33 p.m. yesterday, hordes of people in sunglasses and hats suddenly swarmed into two Philadelphia bookstores in search of Aaron, or perhaps Erin, Beige. In both places, the invaders cheered for 30 seconds, greeted strangers, hugged, applauded, and left. It was over in four minutes. Philadelphia had its first flash mobs. The bizarre summer trend, like goldfish-swallowing and streaking in decades past, is growing popular with the young. Some mobbers say they are spoofing the herd-like behavior of modern life.

Upwards of a dozen shoppers at a time swarmed into Dovetail Artisans in Glenside on Saturday, giving the small gift store sales receipts reminiscent of a December rush. Such "cash mobs" have been springing up nationwide to send a jolt to the economy through small, local businesses. And this was one of the first in the Philadelphia region. Cash Mob Philly was organized by Shahrzad Kojouri of Ardmore, who said, with concern: "I'm hoping people don't hear 'flash mob' when they hear 'cash mob.' " Kojouri encourages friends, acquaintances, and Facebook followers to head to a designated shop and spend at least $20. She and Dovetail Artisans owner Elayne Aion met at a previous cash mob event.

Upwards of a dozen shoppers at a time swarmed into Dovetail Artisans in Glenside on Saturday, giving the small handcrafted gift store sales receipts reminiscent of a December rush. Such "cash mobs" have been springing up nationwide to send a jolt to the economy through small, local businesses. And this was one of the first in the Philadelphia region. Cash Mob Philly has been organized by Shahrzad Kojouri, who said, with concern: "I'm hoping people don't hear 'flash mob' when they hear 'cash mob.' " The mobs are set up by Kojouri, who encourages friends, acquaintances and Facebook followers to head to the designated shop and spend at least $20. Kojouri and Dovetail Artisans owner Elayne Aion met at a previous cash mob event.

E VEN AS Joey Merlino was settling into a South Florida halfway house last summer after 12 years in prison, the FBI issued a confidential alert warning law-enforcement officials that the former Philadelphia mob boss might try to set up shop in the Miami area with some of his old associates. The memo was contained in the first batch of some five million emails being released by the anti-secrecy group Wikileaks - including several FBI alerts obtained by a Texas-based private-intelligence firm on topics ranging from biker gangs to al Qaeda's English-language website.

'I T WAS MY BUDDY, my goofy and loving and hilarious friend. He was being kicked. He probably had never harmed anyone in his life and he was curled in the little ball and a mob of kids were kicking him and laughing. " I was at Boys' Latin of Philadelphia Charter School last week listening to a group of high-schoolers say these words, Greek chorus-style, during a rehearsal of their original show, "PHLash: A Mob Story. " They will perform it tonight through Saturday. My heart beat faster and my palms got clammy.

If only Philadelphia's flash mobs could be as joyous and fun as the New Yorkers who boogied down a loosely organized Soul Train line in tribute to creator Don Cornelius over the weekend in Times Square. But, no. Random group attacks by Philadelphia teens in recent years have given the name "flash mob" an entirely different meaning. Here, flash mobs erupt in acts of violence and violation. It's a collective crime that has "black kids" smeared all over it. Mayor Nutter told them as much.

JUST BECAUSE Overbrook and West Philadelphia long ago waved bye-bye to elite basketball status, don't think those archrivals can't produce a major memory-maker. Somewhere above right now, Wilt Chamberlain is calling Marquize Speight his new favorite player. Yesterday in the championship game of the first West Side Holiday Classic, held in the impressive gym in West's new building at 49th and Chestnut, Speight accepted Kevin Wallace's inbound pass from the opposite baseline, used a dribble to advance within a step of halfcourt and, from just in front of the scorers' table, banked home a threeball to lift 'Brook over the Speedboys, 65-64.

It's that time of year, when spiders beat a path to my door. I know. Still got it. As soon I open my front door, big wolf spiders come from God-knows-where to run inside my house. Of course I can't bring myself to kill them. Spiders are good bugs, even if they're scary and creepy, so I turn a glass upside-down over them, slide a paper underneath, then flip the entire assembly right-side up and throw the spider back outside. But lately, I'm finding problems with my method.

A Philadelphia man who organized a "flash mob" that descended on a Delaware County store in June and stole merchandise has pleaded guilty to his role. Kyree Marsh, 19, was the only adult to raid the Sears store on 69th Street in Upper Darby on June 23. A group of 15 juveniles, the youngest of them 11, was also charged. Marsh pleaded guilty Thursday to retail theft and conspiracy, both misdemeanors. He was sentenced to two years probation and 24 hours of community service. He is also forbidden to return to the store, according to court officials.