SOMEBODY SHOULD’VE SHOT THEM: Suspects wielding hammers and batons attack diners at Tinley Park restaurant.

It was the middle of the lunch rush Saturday, and Mike Winston was working in the kitchen of his Tinley Park restaurant, the Ashford House, when a waitress screamed a fight had broken out in the dining room.

Police call the melee at the restaurant a targeted assault by a mob that Winston said wielded metal batons and hammers. Ten diners were hurt in the attack, and three of those were hospitalized.

Tinley Park police had five suspected assailants in custody, and Winston said 18 young men, all wearing hooded jackets and obscuring their faces with scarves and other coverings, stormed into the restaurant.

Seriously, people like this should expect to be shot. And in a civilized polity — which Chicagoland isn’t — they would have been.

UPDATE: Reader David McCune writes: “For truth-in-advertising purposes, the attackers really should have been using hammers and sickles.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Steven Den Beste forwards this story claiming that those beaten were white supremacists: “A law enforcement source Sunday said the group beaten at a Tinley Park restaurant Saturday was made up of white supremacists, and those who assaulted them were protesters attacking their beliefs.”

Not clear how they know that, but, well . . . They told me if I voted Republican people would be beaten by hooded thugs for their beliefs — and they were right!

I mean, I hate Illinois Nazis too, but I wouldn’t beat ’em just for their beliefs.

Plus this: “Mike Winston, who owns the restaurant, is facing $10,000 to $15,000 in damage to his business, as well as a loss of revenue as customers keep their distance.”

MORE: Reader DRJ writes: “The local edition of the Chicago Sun Times has a lot more detail than the link from Stephen Den Beste. Maybe they were white supremacists but they registered their lunch party as an Irish heritage group.”

And Moe Lane writes: “From my reading of the article, those asses at ARAG started up on bystanders after they finished whaling on their targets. I personally don’t give much of a sh*t if Illinois Nazis get pounded; but actual innocents were also apparently targeted, and that’s a big issue right there.”

Yes, note this:

The attack wasn’t a random act of violence, police said. But the attack apparently spilled over to others in the restaurant.

“Once they attacked the table, they went and started hitting random people,” Winston said. “Four or five people got knocked over the head pretty good, enough to require stitches,” he said.

He chased after one of the attackers “and had him on the ground, then five guys got out of a car and started kicking the (crap) out of me,” Winston said.

Winston said he was kicked in the back of the head and suffered several bruises, but he was the only restaurant employee who was hurt.

“They did a whole lot of damage,” he said. “They flipped over tables, they broke half the dishes.”

Like I say, somebody should’ve shot ’em.