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Groups of young people in urban environments, generally black and male, are coordinating their illegal activities via social media been in the news quite often over the last few years, and increasingly so over the last several months.

Young minorities are able to harness the power of Twitter to microcoordinate their activities and overwhelm spaces and places, allowing them to shoplift, rob, or commit other deviant acts. Image from: http://celebpromoter.com/instead-of-a-flash-mob-these-people-did-a-%E2%80%9Cflash-rob%E2%80%9D-at-convenience-store-video/

On one summer day in late July of 2011 in Chicago, five people were attacked and robbed in what were called “flash mob robberies”.  The teens, working in small groups, surrounded their victims, physically assaulted them, and stole their valuables.  IPads, bikes and wallets were stolen.  There was some redemption for the victims, as they were able to identify some of the attackers when police placed suspects in a line-up.  The attacks on that day were only one of several.  The month before four people were attacked within minutes in Chicago’s tony Streetervile area.

Further, these coordinated deviant activities are not unique to Chicago.  Several urban areas such as Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.  These flash robberies had become such a public concern that officials in Montgomery County, a country in Maryland north of Washington D.C. proposed a bill that would impose tougher penalties on those involved in flash mob robberies. But arguably the most attention has come from the flash mob robberies in Philadelphia.  There, the size of flash mobs have been steadily becoming larger, and more brazen.  In 2009, police rushed to stop what they called “a rampage by more than 100 who blocked traffic, pounded on cars, stole merchandise, and assaulted several people” in an upscale area of Philadelphia.  By March of the following year, officials were considering an early youth curfew as thousands of youth swarmed the streets.  By early August 2011, Philadelphia had enacted an early curfew, and anyone under 18 in select areas of the city in which flash mob violence was rampant.

Public discussions about flash mobs revolve around why they are occurring and how to stop them.  The why question has been quite touchy, with most discussions revolving around whether or not the mobs should be described in racial terms and how much is race a factor.  Public officials have been more aggressive in tackling the question of how to stop the flash mobs.  Police officers have stepped up their presence in areas prone to flash mob attacks, and curfews have been imposed to get teenagers off the street.

But I believe that there is a tremendous upside to the awareness that these young minorities are coordinating their activities.  And I think it all starts with acknowledging that poor black males in urban environments are usually doing the flash mobbing.    Let me explain.

I am currently working on a book length manuscript where I discuss the benefits of academics and public leaders starting with the assumption that the digital divide is a chimera.  In reality, there is no divide, but instead enclaves of digital practice, where some groups decide to adopt new technology if it provides a benefit to their direct daily experiences.  That means looking at how, for example, low income immigrants to the United States use a combination of pre-paid mobile phones and phone cards to keep in contact with people in their home country, or how single mothers and extended families use text messaging as “tethers” to keep in constant contact with family members.

Nowhere is this idea of digital practice more evident than in the flash mob (or flash rob) phenomenon.  Look at how this supposedly disadvantaged group has done something that the most supposedly advantaged groups catch hell trying to do: organize a group of people to agree upon a common goal, agree upon how to accomplish the goal, and then coordinate everyone to implement that goal.  I have sat in a few faculty meetings at Rhode Island College, and I can assure the reader, those kids were able to conduct coordinated robberies more easily than an department head could coordinate a routine faculty meeting!  In order to recognize this as digital practice, we must first embrace the idea that it is young black males adopting this particular form of digital practice.

So while I certainly do not condone the flash robberies, I believe that community leaders wishing to help some of those kids may find ways to harness the power of social media.  Just of the top of my head, I can think of a few ways:

• As college football recruiters have known for some time, using Twitter and Facebook is a way to connect with five star recruits.  I can’t see why guidance counselors, community leaders, and other interested adults can’t do the same thing.
• I’ve always thought that many kids may want to finish high school and go on to college, but peer pressure from the ne’er do wells is overwhelming and they are led astray.  Why not connect potentially successful kids within and across schools?  They might be able to withstand that peer pressure better if they are a part of group.

Public officials would do well to divert some of the resources they are spending on preventing flash robberies to finding ways to use the digital practices of young black males in urban environments positively.