With the unemployment rate for young Americans mimicking that of the United Kingdom and the nations' youth also sharing a sense of boredom and disenfranchisement, the question for academics and some in law enforcement isn't whether rioting flash mobs like those in England could erupt here, but why they haven't already in large numbers.
A number of analysts at the Colorado Information Analysis Center are trained and dedicated to monitoring social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, for information about both peaceful events and protests that could potentially spiral out of control, said Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety.
Analysts will notify law enforcement agencies about events that

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are planned and discussed on the Internet, often within minutes of the comments being posted. "It's like shouting in a dark room. You don't always know who is there," Clem said. "Because we know people organize this way, we're listening."
The center started monitoring the sites in preparation for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, helping keep that event largely peaceful.
The system is not designed to prevent crowds from forming, but it does give law enforcement a chance to prepare for the worst.
"The signs show up long before the people do," Clem said. "People will describe online, or in some of the chatter that they send back and forth, indicating what they will do."
And, as has been seen in England, the line between peaceful protest and store-burning riot can be very narrow.
Young people who connect on social media sites, often feel they are aligning along a commonality, said Allison M. Cotton, who teaches criminology at Metropolitan State College of Denver.While these groups may appear docile on the Internet, emotions often run high when they meet in person, and it only takes one small disagreement to turn a protest violent.
"You might get a lot of people who get upset about an issue very quickly and willing to do something with it in a moments notice," Cotton said.
In recent months, flash mobs — originally designed as groups of people who organize on the Internet and then perform in public places — have turned violent in multiple U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, where several people were injured in an event organized through social media that became a robbery spree.
"It's on our radar," said Detective John White, a spokesman for the Denver Police Department.
While flash mobs have not turned violent in Denver, the police are aware of the situations in other states, White said.
According to Britain's Office of National Statistics, the unemployment rate for people 16 to 24 years old is 20 percent — only 2.3 percentage points higher than the unemployment rate for the same age group in the United States.
Social media sites provide a place where young people can unite behind both a common cause and anonymity, said Shawn Worthy, who teaches human services at Metro State.
"In many ways, social media adds to the probability of violence," Worthy said. "It's less personal, which is also a problem that occurs in a large mob. You lose your own identity in the group."
The anonymity social media offers its young users and the ability to disappear in a crowd can be a volatile combination, Worthy said.
But the situation seldom gets that far, Clem said. Most groups will implode while trying to organize an event or protest on the Internet, Clem said.
"Sometimes they do themselves their own harm," Clem said. "People who intend on doing things violently are going to find that their efforts are known to the world when they do it on social media."
Flash mobs started in New York City in 2003, said Eric Rosenberg, the president of Denver Flash Mob. Since the Denver group was founded in November 2010, Rosenberg has organized about a dozen flash mobs across the city — all of them peaceful.
"They keep getting bigger," Rosenberg said.
The largest local mob he ever assembled was last Saturday, when a group of about 150 people did a choreographed dance to support same-sex marriage. The dance was supposed to take place in front of Coors Field, but Denver police asked the group to move before they started, Rosenberg said.
Denver police have contacted the group twice about safety during the flash mob, something Rosenberg said he welcomes.
"With 150 people around, I'd rather have police there," Rosenberg said. "You cannot control everybody."