Inflammatory Words

Two police officers were viciously attacked for asking a girl to pick up (her? The article doesn't say, but it doesn't make sense that they'd ask some random person to pick up some random piece of) litter.

That was after she picked it up, carried it over, and dropped it in front of them.

So... what would you call a rabid group of 30 people?

“Whilst we would never use the word 'mob' which is an inflammatory word, we can confirm that eye witnesses have described their initial fear that officers were going to be seriously injured or killed.”

How ridiculous is that? There's a reason the word "mob" is inflammatory - it describes an inflamed, irrational mass of what would otherwise be considered human beings. One officer had BITE MARKS on his shoulder. "Mob" is the least offensive term I can think of for the attackers.

Wonder when they'll re-term a group of crows in the UK ... "murder" is such an inflammatory word... and the crows haven't even hurt anyone.