In Harm's Way

The swarming of an Ottawa store resulted in about $800 dollars of lost merchandise.

Teen-age goons at it again. The incidents of "flashmobs" appearing at various public places to cause problems, advising one another beforehand, with the use of social media seems to have developed another kind of mass phenomenon: "flashrobs". Anything to amuse small minds with nasty attitudes toward law and order and societally acceptable behaviour.

It wouldn't be considered humane, of course, to round up these social mischief-makers and maintain them in human zoos, feeding them as required, and teaching them how to entertain the greater public with their juvenile antics, much as primates do. Surely what is humane for humankind's little brothers is humane enough for teens in a perpetual state of arrested adolescence?

Idle stupidity that results in disregard and contempt for reasonable social behaviour should result in some kind of penalty, after all. Respect for others in society and for private property appears in too many instances, to have been overlooked in their home settings. So now that school is out for the summer holidays those nasty little temperaments require thrills to keep them from having at one another.

Police seem stumped as far as identifying the 40-or-so teens who converted on a Quickie convenience store in mid-July The store security camera has footage of the teens dashing into the store at the corner of Parkdale Avenue and Scott Street, but thus far no one has made any identification in assistance of police efforts.

They did commit a crime, pilfering an estimated $800 worth of goods on the store shelves.

The police are aware that this event and one other may represent the birth of a new type of 'social event' in the busy calender of teens looking for something to do to relieve the boredom of their long summer days. Local store owners may have nightmares about the possibility of being a victim of one of these events. And they're being advised to just stand back, not to attempt to restrain the jolly fun-seekers.

"Don't get in harm's way or anything like that" is the advice of Police spokesperson, Constable Marc Soucy.