I’d almost expect something like this in a Third World country, but not here.

A recent string of robberies on BART trains took a frightening turn when dozens of juveniles swarmed an Oakland station over the weekend and commandeered a train car, forcing passengers to hand over bags and cell phones and leaving at least two with head injuries, witnesses told the transit agency.

The incident — the first of its kind in recent memory — occurred around 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Coliseum Station.

According to a police summary, witnesses said 50 to 60 juveniles flooded the station, jumped the fare gates and rushed to the second-story train platform. Some of the robbers apparently held open the doors of a Dublin-bound train car while others streamed inside, confronting and robbing and in some cases beating riders.

The juveniles “committed multiple strong-arm robberies of bags and cell phones,” said the summary. “At least two victims suffered head/facial injuries requiring medical attention.” Police did not say if any of the suspects were armed, or describe exactly how the passengers were wounded.

“Unarmed” or not, a violent mob committing attacks of this magnitude  create such a disparity of collective force that the situation would almost certainly justify the use of deadly force to stop this criminal assault, especially since two victims were beaten severely enough to require medical attention.

Perhaps if Californians had “shall issue” concealed carry instead of “may issue” restrictions that leave residents in many counties virtually unable to obtain a carry permit then nonsense like this wouldn’t happen… at least not twice. I have to think that someone skillfully using a compact semi-automatic such as a Glock 19 would have been able to take down enough of these vermin to see the others scampering back to their holes empty-handed.