Every once in a while you see one of these stories in a major city, roving bands of kids running around beating people up at random, but somehow they never make the leap to national news. Not sure why…
The warmest day of the year so far brought hundreds of mischievous teens to Michigan Avenue on Saturday. Police were calling it “mob action.”
CBS 2 has learned about multiple incidents in at least four different locations along the Magnificent Mile and in the Gold Coast, yielding a slew of arrests. In all, 25 juveniles and three adults were charged…
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 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 said he was jumped and punched in the face by a group of teens.
That sure is mischievous, isn’t it? And the Chicago Tribune adds:
A 27-year-old woman said she was returning home with her mother Saturday night on the Red Line after a dim sum dinner when a group of girls got on the train at the Monroe station and appeared to want to pick a fight.
“This girl started blowing smoke in my face, and she flicked her cigarette ashes at me,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified. “I said: ‘You need to put that out,’ and the next thing I know there’s all these girls that jumped on top of us.”
They began punching her face and then went for her hair. She believes their attackers had knives or box cutters and padlocks possibly placed inside socks.
“I put my head down between my legs so they would stop beating me in the face, but they were trying to pull my face up and hit me more,” she said. “They ripped out chunks of my hair, and I’ve got a black eye and bruises on my face, and all over my back and shoulder.”
It’s a good thing Chicago has such strict gun laws, or one of these playful scamps might get hurt.
Hat tip to the mighty Iowahawk, who notes:
I love how Chicago TV calls 500 thugs attacking tourists and police “teen mischief.” Oh, those impish kids and their wacky hijinks!
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) April 1, 2013