i dont get RIOTING..ever been at one?
 

call me naive..

is it the safety in numbers? "mob mentality" is something we just throw around..i dont care how many times i read, Lord of the Flies..i just dont get it.

so we win the world series..we riot..today..halloween + Giant's parade = me taking the long way home.

i dont understand how a riot starts..a single person? that big plate window with the TV behind it, just to tempting? the euphoria of winning just take over?

i'm not so sure everyone is immuned.. it happens all over the world.

has anyone here ever been in a riot? i mean, not help turn over a flaming bus, but been in one..seen it firsthand? see one start?

I've been in a panty raid back in college, sort of like a riot.

My wife was attending a confrence in Denver when the Broncos won the Super Bowl.

From our downtown hotel room, we watched it begin. Bottom line? A mix of adrenaline and alcohol. Fans walked out of the downtown bars, and started tipping over garbage cans, busting up light poles, and setting mailboxes on fire.

Lots of energy from your team winning, and the brained not working right due to alcohol is not a good combination.

I was at one when I was about 14... Purely by accident. It happened just after an open air concert finished. I'm not sure why but the crowd turned on the cops that were there.

The cops retreated to the station and the mob attacked. Lots of violence. Throwing glass bottles and rocks at the station etc. The cops were in real trouble that day. I stayed well back with some friends I was with. We just watched the events unfold in relative safety. I'll never forget seeing two cops get beaten to a pulp. No one in the crowd tried to help them. Eventually the cops inside the station ran out and dragged them back into the station. The were pelted with rocks and bottles but somehow managed to get back in... Then things went quiet for a while until some more cops turned up from the city station in a big bus. They were in full riot gear and the mob didn't stand a chance. They lined up like Roman soldiers and walked into the crowd bashing anyone who was in front of them with their sticks. Sickening site. It was at that point we decided to leave. I would estimate about 300 to 400 rioters were involved and about 8 cops before the other cops turned up.

What I remover the most is seeing what I would have thought were good people behaving like animals. There's no other way to describe it.

closest for me was the 89 earthquake. i was in college and we were ushered to the baseball field and kept there. hours and hours..my friend came to me in tears..she was suffering "her time of the month" and was needing an update in gear. i lifted her over the fence and we went to my jeep. i drove thru the aftermaths of a riot. (for the locals, it was Clement st) . busted out windows..garbage fires.

we got to my cousins, and got set up..and snuck back to the baseball field.

We humans wear a very thin veil of civility.

People riot because they know no one will stop them. Cops aren't even allowed to use force to stop property damage. They certainly can't use deadly force. Idiots know this and are encouraged by it. Once there are more than a handful of bad actors, they know they'll be free to run ramapant. Nowadays only the surveillance cameras can help get them later. This used to happen a lot in College Park, MD when the Terps won a championship. Then U of MD starting catching them later and expelling them and that has calmed it down a little. But I don't think anyone ever goes to jail for more than a day for this stuff.

I used to love attending riots when I was in college. The loud music thumping away as bleary eyed chicks, wearing barely anything at all, would dance around with you and grind away. You could almost always score at a good warehouse riot. Just be sure and bring lots of water.

Our rave parties were a riot, but they weren't 'riots'. They were fun. Lots and lots of illegal fun.

Cedar fest at Michigan State was certainly a riot. When people have stacked up furniture and mopeds 10 ft high and are burning them in the parking lot, you've got yourself a riot. I was there 88-89. Youth, alcohol and stupidity = riot.

Wiki article says it was shut down in 1987. Ummmm.....yeah, I assure you that was not the case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_Fest

Sure, some of the race riots in the east bay late 60s. Black Panthers with guns, knives, chains would show up at jr high eventually escorted off the school grounds by Hells Angels. School would sometimes be closed for a couple of weeks at a time yet the local newspaper would not report or say that nothing happened. Most of it seemed stupid to me I did not understand why the same guys that I grew up with playing baseball would not talk to me or even look at me. Very stressful times that ultimately were purposeful.

People riot because they want free stuff..

Many riot out of desperation. Because the institutions and political process are corrupt. Because there is no justice or respect or human rights. Because they are hungry.

I've seen serious riots in Asia and South America and in Greece.

Riots can be a positive force for change. Civil disobedience is sometimes the only option. Remember the Boston Tea Party? Remember how the anti-war movement finally killed the political will to continue the pointless slaughter in Vietnam?

Quite Riot

See my post on the World Series thread. I was in SF Sunday night after the win. It's hard to believe that winning a sporting event should lead to mayhem. We saw the streets starting to get edgy & hid in our hotel with my well-stocked bar. ;)

Ian

In the early 2000's there was a out one big Riot a year in Boulder, CO. there was one down the street from my house where they were burning all sorts of schit in the street and flipping over cars. CU is such a cesspool it's unbelievable.

because of the "mob mentality"... which I suspect is like a feeding frenzy in sharks

chimps have some fun times en masse also

i was there for rodney king, north ridge, and the 2000 dnc.

your explanation is the best for what i saw.

Deep... and so very true.

April 26th (29th) 1992, there were riots in the streets tell me where were you...

Speedy:)