Last summer, Matt Davis reported on the trend of youth “mobs” partying in the streets, sometimes leaving property damage in their wake.

Neighbors in Montavilla reported a similar situation last Friday night, December 22. One neighbor posted this account to Montavilla’s email list:

I live just off 82nd and Mill. At around 11 pm on the 22nd I heard the number 72 bus stop in front of Ah Fongs. Not even a minute later I heard this loud noise of people yelling and screaming in front of my house. I looked out my front window and there must have been about 50 people (late teens to early twenty’s mostly men and some women) moving about to the west and jumping on parked cars. The roofs and front windshields of at least 2 cars were smashed. They were extremely upset at something and I assume that there must have been some kind of altercation on the 72 that spilled out onto the street.

The cops later gave us the official story: ” It was a juvenile party with about 100 kids. Officers shepherded them down to the MAX and onto buses and watched them disperse. There were no arrests or use of force. One officer wrote a report but it was for a drunk guy who got off a bus into the middle of this crowd of kids. The officer gave him a ride home,” according to police spokesperson Sgt. Brian Schmautz.

Now, Tom Peavey with the city’s Office of Youth Violence Prevention, says that the December 22 incident, plus incidents around Lloyd Center on December 26 and 27, indicate ” the continuance of ‘Flash Mob’ youth gathering behavior from this last spring and summer.”

On December 26, police “responded to Lloyd Center due to a disturbance, and a large number of youth were contacted by responding police.” The following evening, a young guy was was stabbed twice near Holladay Park between 7 and 8 pm, and ran across the street Lloyd Center for help. “Previous to the stabbing,” Peavey reports, “a large group of youth (30 to 50) had been involved in 2 different disturbances (fights) in Holladay between 6:15 pm and the time of the stabbing.”

Sounds to me like Portland’s youth are bored.