Baltimore Purge: Flyers Imitating ‘The Purge’ Reportedly Called For Violence, Contributed To Riots

As Baltimore erupts in riots on Monday, police are saying that some of the violence may come from a flyer calling for “The Purge” in the city.

The flyer is a take off the 2013 movie in which there are no laws for a single night, allowing people to do whatever they please. In the movie, the 24-hour-long purge leads to widespread violence and looting, just as the city of Baltimore has experienced on Monday.

The Baltimore purge flyers called for students to gather at Mondawmin Mall starting at 3 p.m. and for them to then move toward downtown.

It appears the Baltimore purge flyers have played a large part in the escalation of violence there.

Breitbart reported the following.

“UPDATE: 5:04 PM: Police has sustained broken bones after black Baltimore high schoolers calling for ‘The Purge’ struck them with heavy bricks, rocks, and pipes. One officer is unconscious, non-responsive. The city’s transportation has been crippled by the raging violence and residents are urged by city officials to avoid several, out-of-control areas.”

This is not the first time that the movie The Purge has led to threats of violence. Flyers like the one distributed in Baltimore this week have turned up in other cities, claiming that so-called purges were happening in those cities.

The latest hoax took place late last year in Windsor, Connecticut, which called for a purge on Halloween night. The threat led to an increase in security for the town.

“We were told they were going to have BB guns and possibly even paintball guns,” said Windsor Police Captain Tom LePore. “They were going to do property damage; vandalize cars, buildings; and possibly even shoot at people that were trick-or-treating.”

Like in Baltimore, the Windsor purge appeared to start with high school students. The Windsor school district stepped in to squash the plans for vandalism.

“Windsor Police and Windsor Public Schools have been partnering together since this information was developed and are working quickly to prevent these intended acts of delinquency. We will be meeting with students identified as participating in such discussions to determine the validity of such plans and to very emphatically communicate both school and police expectations.”

But the Baltimore purge flyers appeared to have been a major contributing factor in the rioting. Much of the conflict started near Mondawmin, where the paper told rioters to meet. It was there that police engaged in some of the most violent clashes with the mostly school-age crowd, and where a photojournalist was also assaulted.

[Image via Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla]