Mob Psychology
This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvZ8EqbHY_4 is the background for this article.
What is a mob? A mob is a group of people who are usually disorderly, destructive, in a rage, angry, ready for chaos and violence, willing to break the law, and all the while feeling justified. A mob is irrational, dangerous, and unpredictable. A mob does its evil not in the dark; instead, they want to be seen wreaking havoc upon their perceived enemies.
The video taught us that the event occurred in Compton, CA, at about 2:30 AM. In another news report, it is said that the white vehicle used to batter the door down earlier in the night had been involved in a police pursuit. The event followed a street takeover in the area. I had to look up what a street takeover is. When a mob blocks the street and drives their cars to create doughnut markings on the road, do drift maneuvers, etc., the actions are called street takeovers. They are illegal, defy the police, and are seldom interrupted by police. No one was arrested on site in this mob action, and law enforcement is tracking the vehicle’s owner. Hopefully, the perpetrators can be found, arrested, tried, and given just punishment.
Understanding the mindset of a mob must be a challenge for a psychologist. I’m concerned more about the hearts of people (usually young people) willing to break into a store and steal in full view of cameras. I’m more concerned about a godless culture that produces such behaviors. When God dies, a culture rots, decency and decorum decline, and mob violence escalates. Who in culture gives permission for such mob action?
I have other questions. Did any of these criminals ever attend a Christian church? Did their parents ever teach them that you are a thief if you steal? Were they drunk? Were they high on drugs? Were they stealing out of need or just for the kicks of it? How did 100 people come together and agree to commit this crime without an instigator? The event was obviously planned and coordinated. Someone picked the store, probably announced it on social media, and the mob waited for the door to be crushed at the precise time, and they rushed in and looted the store.
Did they think what they were doing was a crime? If they felt justified, what rationality would have allowed their actions? Had they been so indoctrinated about economic injustice that they saw themselves as the oppressed, the business owner as the oppressor, and thus felt justified demonstrating their anger and vengeance on his business? Did the parents teach these ideas to their children? Political leftists are either intentionally or unintentionally teaching a whole generation that they are oppressed because of their skin color. They identify everyone else as oppressors. It is a dangerous thing to do. High schools, Universities, corporations, non-government organizations, and others are implementing DEI policies of wokeism into their policies and employment practices. Could the break-in and mob looting of the bakery in Compton, CA, be the results of this cultural change? Will we see more of it?
Somehow, all restraint was lost in the exhilaration of the moment and the tacit approval of their co-conspirators and their immediate culture. Mob actions are never a good idea.
Videos of ‘flash mob’ thefts are everywhere, but are the incidents increasing?
With lax law enforcement, no-cost bail, reduced charging, and no prosecution of juveniles in some jurisdictions, I fear we can expect more of this.
The culture is not well served by political and cultural leaders who encourage or permit this to happen.
A few simple lessons from the Ten Commandments at an early age could be the medicine to prevent this disease.
Are flash mobs and mob break-ins like the one in Compton, CA, a result of a culture running wild because it has become atheistic? That’s my explanation. If you have a better one, please let me click the reply button and share it.
Where there is no understanding of the Word of the Lord, the people do whatever they want to, but happy is he who keeps the law. Proverbs 29:18 NLV