FLASH MOBS

Every week in class we learn more and more about developments in social media and its effects on the world around us. Social media and it’s rapidly developing state has an impact on more than just what the newest cell phone can do, or which celebrity tweeted what. In fact, in Dallas this past September law enforcement from around the country came together to discuss social media and its effects on doing their jobs. According to the NPR report by Mhari Saito, “law enforcement is really struggling with the rapidity with which social media has come into the forefront of communications.” The article also discusses how there is an increase in “youth responding to online calls to cause havoc.” Law enforcement struggles to regulate and track online crimes as well as crime being organized online. Due to this, according to the article, the New York Police Department opened a social media unit to help track down criminals. The article also specifically discussed ‘flash mobs’ as an issue. While some are fun and created to bring a smile to people’s faces or used as advertisements, some can be harmful. “Some spontaneous gatherings organized online have grown unruly and led to crime,” police say in the article. Some cities, like Philadelphia and Milwaukee, have even gone as far as imposing curfews to deal with flash crowds forming. This was an interesting tid-bit in the article, since today in class we discussed some of the flash mobs dark sides. In this law-enforcement conference in Dallas flash mobs were a whole section and topic of discussion.

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/14/140465162/police-learn-new-beats-to-stop-flash-mobs-gone-bad