( CNN ) In a sobering example of life imitating art , the chaos sweeping the streets of Baltimore may have been partly inspired by a series of action-horror movies . Baltimore police said rioting at a shopping mall and elsewhere Monday afternoon started amid rumors , spread on social media , of a `` purge '' led by large groups of marauding high school students . The term appears to be a reference to 2013 's `` The Purge '' and its sequel , last year 's `` The Purge : Anarchy , '' about a dystopian future America where on one day each year , all laws are suspended for a 12-hour period and all crimes , including murder , become temporarily legal . In the movies , set in Los Angeles , people barricade themselves in their homes at night while gangs of violent `` purgers '' roam the streets . The government markets the sanctioned mayhem as a catharsis that reduces crime on the other 364 days of the year -- when in fact it 's really a means of population control , mostly against people living in poor urban neighborhoods . Both `` Purge '' movies were box-office hits and a third installment , `` The Purge : Vengeance , '' is planned for 2016 . The Baltimore Sun reported that a flier circulated widely among city school students via social media touted a `` purge '' to begin Monday at 3 p.m. at Mondawmin Mall and end downtown . The flier included an image of protesters smashing the windshield of a police car in Baltimore on Saturday , the Sun said . How Baltimore police , protesters battle on Twitter . Maryland 's largest city has been on edge since an African-American man , Freddie Gray , died April 19 from a spinal cord injury he suffered while in police custody . Peaceful protests gave way to violence Saturday night and again Monday , as agitators threw bricks at police , looted stores and set fire to cars and buildings . Scattered references to # purge and # ThePurge began appearing in Twitter and Instagram posts Monday about the unrest in Baltimore .
Some of Baltimore 's unrest may have been inspired by the `` The Baltimore Sun '' movies . Movies are about a dystopian America where all crime is temporarily legal .