With my latest trip to Baltimore, every major city I have lived in has experienced riots while I was there. Thus far, this is nothing major, but my combined experiences have made me leery of crowds and places where social rules tend to break down. Focus: Even been in a riot? Tell us the tales of when you have seen society break down. I like most white guys saw people lose their shit at a sporting event. I tailgated a Clemson game in 8th grade with a youth leader. At around 4 pm, we witnessed about 30 male students collectively beat a group of five students damn near to death. Police were called, EMS carried three people on stretchers. It looked like one guy had been in a motorcycle accident. I remember this swarm of cursing, sweaty men mobbing these people and was disgusted and terrified. Alt Focus: The Baltimore protests and riots.
I added the alt focus. Lets keep it constructive and not have a complete rehash of the Mike Brown/Trayvon Martin threads. Those discussions have been had a few times. As for the Focus- I was at UConn when the men and women won NCAA tournaments the same year (the first time). This Daily Show clip sums it up pretty well: http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/of1deq/intro---street-rioting
I was at UConn when the riots broke out at Spring Weekend. They don't allow the parties like they used to be at UConn anymore. I was in an area twice that was hit by the pepper spray canisters from police. The first time some people set a tree on fire with a bunch of garbage at the base and they were clearing out the crowd for the fire truck. The police were in full riot gear with police dogs for all of the weekend. Two parties broke down with people throwing bottles at police and overturning cars.
I haven't been in any riots. I lived in Chicago when the Bulls won and a few cars got flipped and burned but nothing bad. All I can say in regards to Baltimore is when shit comes to the Crips and Bloods, calling truces, peacekeeping and making joint statements in the news? Shit has gone too far.
I've found myself in some large crowds, (NYE in NYC, bowl game crowd in New Orleans, etc) but the closest I've ever felt myself in potential danger was a night in London during the 2012 anti-US Protests. The hotel I stayed at happened to sit on the opposite end of Grosvenor Sq from the US embassy. I didn't have a clue I was that close to the embassy until I came out of the underground station to the echos of 'yankee go home'. Thankfully, I was able to take a circular route to the hotel and arrived without incident. Alt Focus: From what I can tell, the Baltimore protests were relatively calm until the protest crowd ran into the Orioles-Red Sox game crowd. To me it looks like the assholes in each group found each other and it went downhill from there.
When the Rodney King riots were going on, I was working in Jersey City. They were obviously worst in L.A., but spread to most major cities to one degree or another. I was on a construction site one afternoon when things started to go haywire in various parts of Jersey City. We weren't sure what to do until a woman who lived next door came outside and said "They're rioting downtown and its getting worse. You boys should probably leave now." We did. No sense wasting good advice.
Thats been overplayed, especially when you read further and realize that they just prevented people from looting African American-owned businesses and instead encouraged looting Asian and Middle Eastern owned establishments.
My Facebook feed reads like the minutes of a Klan meeting. Ostensibly rational, some college educated, white folks howling about "thugs" and "welfare recipients" acting like "animals". Then these same people have the balls to say institutional racism does not exist anymore in this country. Remove social safety nets. Defund education and extended learning programs. National headlines of police brutality targeting a specific segment of the population. Disproportionate numbers incarcerated, not graduating highschool, and not graduating college. Yeah, no reason for any pent up resentment and violence. We may be 50 years into The Civil Rights Act, but let's face it, it's only been the last few decades where I've noticed workplaces have truly been integrated. Even that is just my own qualifier, I can't speak for elsewhere. Further, the south has tried its best (succeeding wildly in some places) to ignore that legislation was even passed. I'll get off my soapbox now. Damn, honkies.
People talking about it also ignore how bad the violence, increased police presence and curfew are for gang business. Your run of the mill blood or crip may be a fucking idiot, but the guys in charge typically aren't.
Alt-Focus: We all know who caused the riots, and the answer is morons. Because only morons vandalize, torch and loot. They don't seem to be focusing on who caused the protests enough. The police is now systematically America's greatest embarrassment. It echos on a daily basis America's worst stereotypes: power mad, racist, violent, and fat. And it's probably not going to change, because they're not going to suddenly give up that power and all the cool gear and shit.
My strange theory on all this is that the protests aren't violent enough. If people were firebombing police stations and shooting at cops on sight, my reaction would be "holy fuck, these people are fed up, and are literally willing to go to war over it." If you're just ransacking 7-11's though, you just want some free slush puppies.
That's the thing. Most of these people aren't fed up, and they definitely aren't going to war. There might have been a small group at the start who were so fucking pissed that they felt compelled to lash out, but they were quickly overwhelmed by the people who saw a chance to act like savages and get away with it. I think you hit on a valid point. It sucks to be a black person in inner city America, but not enough for most of them to do anything about it. They've still got it pretty damn good in the grand scheme of things, and they're nowhere near the breaking point. Things would have to get a lot worse before violence could make them better, and things have been getting slowly but noticeably better for about a century.
Never said they turned into saints. Baby steps. Mic.com was reporting that the looting/vandalism started with about 200 highschool students who were talking about some Purge shit. It is ridiculous. This entire situation is just so full of fuck. What's crazy is that the Orioles and White Sox are going to play baseball in a COMPLETELY empty stadium. I want to know what the fuck that feels like.
What I'm starting to notice is that white Americans are starting to fear the police and as a result, starting to sympathize more with police abuse/brutality claims, and maybe as a consequence of this, these riots occur more frequently. It use to be white America heard this claims and possibly assumed they were exaggerated or the person deserved it. Now, possibly in the last year, there have been some seemingly clear cases where abuse was video taped and the police narrative of what happened just hasn't made sense. It used to be people who look like me didn't feel threatened by the police but I'm thinking thats changing. In Denver, DPD has had a series of abuse cases and as a result, I know if I come in contact with them, I almost have nothing protecting me. If they make a claim, they can arrest me and pretty much do whatever they like and I have no recourse. I'd like to know if I were ever to be arrested, they'd have to provide proof of a crime and do some sort of investigation before sending me to the jail instead of the current system where they arrest you then look later. Fundamentally, it seems the police force in the US has become too militant. There used to be a day when there were riots the national guard was called in. Now the police just suit up and go. The militarization and the abuse of power are serious issues that concern even white Americans. I think the police force needs more oversight, and everyday encounters with police need to be more even handed. Its shocking to think the cops can make a claim against you, arrest you, and overnight your world is forever changed. Short of some sort of violent crime, there needs to be more due process for these things
I was wondering the same thing. Which is more effective in making the "fed up" point? Ultraviolence, or the 99% Occupy Wall Street demonstrations? I'm not asking because I'm trying to make a point either way - I'm asking because I honestly don't know and hate sociology.
What are the violent rioters fed up with though? Baltimore is 63% black. The Mayor is black. The Police Chief is black. 9 out of 15 City Council members are black. Based on that I just don't see a justification for a violent uprising, if that is what it's about. When shit goes down people like to riot, period. I'd argue white people are way more likely to riot in less controversial circumstances. It's just a weird social condition more than anything, regardless of race.
I didn't think I'd be able to find an article about it, but I did: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...064_1_moshood-abiola-military-death-one-month I worked for the State Dept back then and was in Lagos on a business trip to the US embassy when this happened (we were not the US officials mentioned in the article, I have no idea who they were). We were already planning to leave the next day to go home. Apparently one embassy car that had gone to the airport that morning was shot at (embassy vehicles have bulletproof glass). We were definitely nervous when it was our turn, and fortunately there was no action on our trip - no shots, no violence. There were a LOT of people out on the streets. I have a picture I took, if I remember when I get home I will scan it.
Rioting I think is largely grouped into the incredibly stupid Mob Rule mentality. They're doing it: so I'll do it. Rioting however is not protesting and thanks to the idiot media people often group the two together. There is a very deep line in the sand separating those two.
Really don't think the violence is about race given there were peaceful protests for awhile. Then highschoolers started it getting out of pocket, then dumbasses (who are everywhere), saw an opportunity to get that new TV or whatever else the wanted. Also, doesn't matter if all the higher ups are Turkish, Nigerian or Indonesian. If the police who actually killed the person are white, then that's it. Now, there still isn't a reason for a violent uprising, but peaceful protests sure. I mean the President is HALF black, but that doesn't mean everyone underneath him falls into line perfectly.