A Chicago suburb was forced to cancel a family-themed carnival honoring the military after a mob of teenagers ran wild at the event Saturday night.
Sunday’s final day of the Armed Forces Weekend Carnival was canceled “due to safety concerns stemming from a flash mob incident at Saturday’s event,” the Village of Tinley Park Public Safety posted on Facebook.
The post said that “a group of about 400 teenagers who were responding to a call on social media to form a flash mob gathered at the carnival Saturday evening and began running through the parking lot and fighting with each other in an attempt to cause chaos and disrupt the event.”
The post said one police officer was injured, but was released from a local hospital after treatment.
WARNING: The following videos contain vulgar language and graphic violence that some viewers may find offensive.
A teenager trying to fight off two police officers! pic.twitter.com/2JzhnoGpf0
— Arab chicago (@ArabChicago) May 21, 2023
“Police released most of the teenagers back into the custody of their parents, but five were issued citations for fighting in public. No shots were fired during the incident,” the post said
“The kids were just acting a fool,” said Michael Salerno of Windy City Amusements, according to WFLD-TV. “It’s a shame. Everyone was enjoying themselves.”
Allyssa Carpenter, bar manager at Union Bar & Grill, said, “They basically all just came running over here, hundreds of them running in the street.”
More of these, Zero manners! Someone would ask: where are the parents?! ? pic.twitter.com/pGZw80bS3J
— Arab chicago (@ArabChicago) May 21, 2023
Park Village Manager Pat Carr said village officials believed Sunday’s closing day of the carnival had been targeted, according to WMAQ-TV.
“We found something on social media that asked people to do the same thing as it did last night, and we’re not going to put the residents at risk,” Carr said.
Carr said that the village will not give up holding events such as the carnival in the future.
“We do scour through social media but there are so many social media sites out there and we were prepared for something like that to happen, but unfortunately you don’t get everything. We will continue to have these festivals and deal with these individuals if they come to our town,” Carr said.
All that was little comfort to Taniyla Smith, who never got to go on the rides when her family showed up on Sunday only to find the day’s fun was canceled.
“I feel very mad because I wanted to go to the carnival, and they passed out tickets to my whole school,” she said, according to CBS.
Taneria Smith, Taniyla’s mother, said her children and others like them were the big losers.
“I’m very disappointed. We just don’t have anything to do or anywhere to go just for them to have fun. We don’t want to take them back home,” she said.
Fayth Mudada wanted to send a message to those whose actions led to the cancellation.
“Do better because you caused everyone who came here to not have fun,” Mudada said.
CORRECTION, May 25, 2023: The Village of Tinley Park Public Safety Facebook account posted about the cancellation of the Armed Forces Weekend Carnival. An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the account..
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.