A bill before the Maryland legislature aimed at preventing “flash mob” robberies like those that occurred at 7-Eleven stores in Silver Spring and Germantown last year has been killed in committee.
The bill targeted specifically those crimes perpetrated by a large group of people by holding each individual involved responsible for the full value of the stolen merchandise.
Under current law, each participant in a theft is only responsible for those items he took, so if 50 people each take items worth less than $10, each person would get a slap on the wrist, Montgomery County Councilman Craig Rice, D-Germantown, told The Washington Examiner in December. Rice worked with Del. Jeffrey Waldstreicher, D-Silver Spring/Kensington and a member of the committee, to introduce the bill.
However the measure was not able to secure the necessary votes in the House of Delegates’ judiciary committee, meaning it won’t make it to a vote on the House floor this year.
The committee thought the bill would be unnecessary since the crimes it targets can be prosecuted under existing laws, Waldstreicher said.
Although the bill had bipartisan support, it wasn’t enough to overcome the internal legal debate, he said.
Rice said he is concerned about the flash mob trend growing.
“While this might not be here locally, there was an incident that just happened in January in Texas,” he said. “With everything being viral on the web, my concern is that this becomes a national thing.”
