The flash mob phenomenon began innocuously enough. Choirs seemingly spontaneously forming in shopping malls or human sculptures in train stations.

Inevitably, stunts intended simply for fun or publicity have morphed into political statements.
But the method of the flash mob suits less frivolous ends as well. Gangs of teens in various cities have taken over the method to commit mayhem
The epidemic has become so bad in Chicago, that the police have been forced to react.

CHICAGO (CBS) — The teenage robbery mobs are at it again on North Michigan Avenue.
Some 50 young people barged into a Walgreens at Michigan and Chicago on the Magnificent Mile on Tuesday afternoon. They took bottled drinks and sandwiches off the shelves, then ran off, CBS 2′s Suzanne Le Mignot reports.

Chicago Police officers, some of them undercover, have been stationed at downtown CTA stations and other “choke points” to stop large groups of unruly young people intent on causing trouble, officials said Wednesday.
The change in tactics — and a “marginal addition” to police resources downtown that have so far triggered 29 arrests — are City Hall’s latest response to the flash mobs and wildings that, one alderman acknowledged are “giving our city a real bad name.”

Hopefully, the authorities will exercise some sense in divining groups truly intent on causing trouble and groups that may merely be troubling to the authorities:

But being a bit jaundiced regarding the ability of authorities to act reasonably, I don’t expect future pro-life flash mobs to avoid the heavy hand of the state.
But that may be the least of their worries. What is more troublesome is the violent turn some of these mobs are taking:

As forces for Good bravely take their message of hope to the streets,

forces of darkness and despair will not yield willingly.

I shudder to think what will happen when these worlds collide.