One of the dangers posed by a mob is that those within it get swept up in the feverish impulses of the loudest, most-violent members of the group and become parties to depravity and lawlessness they wouldn't commit on their own.
Such attitudes were displayed in a smaller but toxic form five months ago when a 14-year-old girl inflicted a savage beating on a 13-year-old in the cafeteria of a middle school in Bayside, Queens: when she held her arms above her head in triumph, the other students cheered.
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