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Plan Being Drawn To Quell Twitter Tweaked Mobs

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-895753.mp3

Kansas City, Mo. – Stampedes, fights and a general melee in the County Club Plaza District Saturday night have Kansas City Police plotting strategy against next weekend and beyond.

Police now estimate as many as a thousand teenagers, and some even younger, went rampant through the Plaza. It took multiple canisters of pepper spray and arrests to disperse the 'flash mob' thrown together by use of Twitter and Facebook communiques.

Punches were thrown, a girl in a prom dress was shoved into a fountain, a woman was jumped, attacked, her purse stolen. Captain Rich Lockhart says more police will be around, by careful design, in coming weekends. "That's part of it," says Lockhart. "You have a police presence down there and you have a very good plan in place so that if something should happen, you're able to have the resources there to respond to it in a way that keeps it a safe place."

The melee happened before the midnight curfew for minors. Plaza Security has turned over video to police.

 

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