We saw something similar in many neighborhoods in Chicago last summer; groups of teenage boys mostly randomly attacking people out for a walk, or simply minding their own business.
It was in the mid-50s yesterday and the warmer weather brought the ruffians to the Gold Coast and Magnificent Mile shopping districts in the Loop. There were dozens of arrests and several shoppers were assaulted, along with a mounted policeman.
CBS 2 is learning about multiple incidents in at least four different locations along the Magnificent Mile and in the Gold Coast, yielding a slew of arrests.
Things got pretty bad, very quickly with many innocent shoppers and tourists caught in the middle of a very chaotic situation.
Hundreds of teens littered Michigan Avenue and State Street near Chicago.
Things started to go bad around 6:00 p.m. Saturday, with teens purposely bumping into people, and causing fights among themselves.
Fifteen juveniles and two adults were arrested and charged with Reckless Conduct— a misdemeanor.
Community activist, Andrew Holmes witnessed some of the problems, while shopping with his family.“You had a group of teens, close to maybe 500. They assaulted a Chicago police officer that was on a mounted on a horse and all of a sudden they assaulted a citizen walking the streets, just a normal citizen shopping and enjoying the weather,” said Holmes.
Later that night, a man was attacked around 10:45 p.m. while walking near Chicago and Dearborn. Sources tell us he was jumped and punched in the face by a group of teens. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
In a separate incident, a group of woman say they were attacked by a mob of girls on the CTA Red Line. The women reported a robbery once they got off the train at the State and Monroe station. Eleven females were arrested—10 juveniles and one adult—and charged with battery. Two of the teens were charged with strong- armed robbery.
This does not bode well for the coming months. With youth unemployment among blacks at historic levels, kids are going to be left with little to do except see what kind of trouble they can get in. Most of these kids were not gangbangers (500 gangbangers in downtown Chicago would have caused a lot more violence). But once they gather, mob psychology takes over and trouble follows.
Last summer it was “flash mobs” — groups of 10-20 kids roaming around looking for targets who were mostly white. If this is an escalation, police are going to have their hands full and residents will probably stay indoors.
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