Do you remember the lawless flash mobs in Philadelphia? On
Aug. 9, 2011 a flash mob gathered on South Street in Philadelphia. You can see
the crimes being committed in the videos below. For example, a group of deviants are kicking
and punching someone on the ground next to a car. Assault is a crime and flash
mobs committing them are a community issue that is deplorable in our society,
and cannot be taken lightly. It’s also against the law to attack people. Moreover,
you can see in this first video how fast a counter culture is formed with
modern technology. Case in point, this group of teenagers are going against
main stream culture, and committing crimes of assault. In addition, this video
also shows the bystander effect happening. For example, it is when a crime takes
place and, because a large group of people are there standing around and watching;
they don’t call for help or call the police. They think that someone else will
call for assistance. As a result, no one helps the victim. Additionally, the
Mayor of Philadelphia was initially subjected to ethnocentrism, and the crowd
not calling for help was exposed to the bystander effect. These sociological
effects are unknowingly exposed in the below video.
Mayor Michael Nutter was originally in denial about the
Philadelphia flash mobs as something not deviant or criminal, because the group
that formed was of his own ethnicity. Furthermore, my above video is a perfect
example of this. It is called ethnocentrism and it is cause by one’s shared
culture. Our Mayor, Mr. Michael Nutter says, “Not a whole lot happen.” Meanwhile,
the video shows the criminal activity and clear evidence of two assaults that
took place on South Street. The first assault was a man that was interviewed
and you can see his bruises. In addition, the news reported that a woman was attacked
for no reason. Our Mayor indirectly says in the video, that he blames his
misunderstanding of the crimes that were committed by the flash mob on the wrong
official facts being reported, but not the news media. This is just another
example of ethnocentrism- when one cannot see something from a world view,
because it is happening from within one’s own group.
Furthermore, I also think that ethnocentrism and the
bystander effect are unjust and wrong. It’s also a shame that people sometime
suffer from these sociological effects. For example, ethnocentrism is that one
may be close-mined to reality, and the bystander effect is when a large group
of people witness a crime and nobody steps in to help the victim. In my opinion, these
sociological effects are also criminal.
To conclude, I agree with the police commissar, Chief
Charles Ramsey in the second video above. He says, “It’s no joke, and if you do
think it is, you have another thing coming. It is serious crime(s) being
committed.” Criminal or deviant behavior, such as, attacking another human
being is unacceptable in our society. As a result, these juvenile delinquents
deserve to be held accountable for their crimes and actions, and are lucky no
victims were killed.
