A
riot is a form of
civil disorder characterized by disorganized
groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of
violence against people or property. While
individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, riots are
typically chaotic and exhibit
herd
behavior.
Riots often occur in reaction to a perceived
grievance or out of
dissent. Historically, riots have occurred due to
poor working or
living conditions,
government oppression,
taxation or
conscription, conflicts between
races, food
supply or
religions (see
race riot,
sectarian
violence and
pogrom), the outcome of a
sporting event or frustration with legal
channels through which to air grievances.
Riots typically involve vandalism and the destruction of private
and public property. The specific property to be targeted varies
depending on the cause of the riot and the inclinations of those
involved. Targets can include shops, cars, restaurants, state-owned
institutions, and religious buildings.
Some rioters have become quite sophisticated at understanding and
withstanding the tactics used by police in such situations. Manuals
for successful rioting are available on the internet. These manuals
also encourage rioters to get the press involved, as there is more
safety with the cameras rolling. There is also more attention.
Citizens with
video cameras may also
have an effect on both rioters and police.
Dealing with riots is often difficult task for police departments,
and police officers sent to deal with riots are usually armed with
ballistic shields and
riot shotguns, mainly because of the larger
spread of the shorter barrels. Police may also use
tear gas and
CS gas to stop
rioters. Most riot police have moved to using
less-than-lethal methods to control riots,
such as shotguns that fire rubber slugs and
flexible baton rounds to injure or
otherwise incapacitate rioters for easy arrest.
Types of riots
Hooliganism
Hooliganism refers to unruly and destructive behaviour associated
with sports fans, particularly supporters of professional football
and university sports. Some sports rioters have become
semi-professionals, travelling to the sites of likely riots. These
rioters are known as
firms and
are particularly noted in
sports-related
riots in
Europe.
Police Riot
A "police riot" is a term for the alleged wrongful,
disproportionate, unlawful and illegitimate use of force by a group
of police against a group of civilians. A police riot commonly
describes a situation where police attack a group of peaceful
civilians and/or provoke previously peaceful civilians into
violence.
Prison Riot
A prison riot is a type of large scale, temporary act of concerted
defiance or disorder by a group of prisoners against the prison
administrators, prison officers, or other groups of prisoners in
attempt to force change or express a grievance.
Race Riot
"Race riot" is a term describing a riot in which race or ethnicity
is a key factor.
The term had entered the English language in
the United
States
by the 1890s. Early use of the term
in the United
States referred to race riots which were often a mob
action by members of the majority racial group against people of
other perceived races.
Religious Riot
"Religious riot" is a term describing a riot in which
religion is a key factor. The rioting mob targets
people and properties of a specific religion.
Student Riot
Student riots are riots precipitated by students, often in higher
education, such as a college/university. Student riots in the US
and Western Europe in the 1960s and the 1970s were often political
in nature, although student riots can occur as a result of peaceful
demonstration oppressed by the authorities and after sporting
events (see
hooliganism). Students may
constitute an active political force in a given country, and
student riots may occur in the context of wider political or social
grievances.
Urban Riots
Urban riots are those riots identified as taking place in the
context of urban conditions associated with urban decay, such as
discrimination, poverty, high unemployment, poor schools, poor
healthcare, housing inadequacy and police brutality and bias. Urban
riots are closely associated with
race
riots and
police riots. In India,
for instance,
caste riots have tended to be
limited to rural theatres while religious riots centred around
urban agglomerations.
Food and bread riots
This type of riot is caused by
harvest
failures, incompetent food storage, hoarding, poisoning of food, or
attacks by pests like
locusts. When the
public becomes too desperate in such conditions, they attack shops,
farms, homes, or government buildings to attain bread or other
staple foods like grain or salt, as in the
1977 Egyptian Bread Riots.
Political implications
Many governments and political systems have fallen after food
riots, including-
Riot History
Asia
The
1984 Anti-Sikh Riots was a
3-4 day period of communal violence against Sikhs. These riots were
started in retaliation of the assassination of Prime minister
Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh
bodyguards (in revenge for
Operation
Bluestar). It is estimated that about 2,000 Sikhs were killed
in the riots across India.
The
Tiananmen
Square protests of 1989
were a series of demonstrations led by students,
intellectuals and labour activists in the People's
Republic of China
between April 15, 1989 and June 4, 1989.
The
demonstrations centred on Tiananmen Square
in Beijing.
Government retaliation was often violent and riots broke out in
affected regions.
In 2005,
the Chinese government admitted to 87,000 demonstrations and riots
across China.
The
Jakarta riots of May 1998
were a series of riots against ethnic Chinese Indonesians in Jakarta
and Surakarta
, Indonesia
.There were also hundreds of documented accounts of
ethnic Chinese women being raped, tortured and killed. Human
Rights groups have determined that the Indonesian military was
involved in the riots, which degenerated into a
pogrom.
The
Partition of India was a
traumatic event in South Asian history that followed the
independence of the region from British colonial rule. The ensuing
riots resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Hindus and
Muslims.
In 2006, there were nationwide riots in Pakistan and numerous other
areas over the
Jyllands-Posten
Muhammad cartoons controversy.
In 2008, several citizens, mainly native Tibetans, in Tibet have
rioted against the Chinese
government months before the
2008 Beijing Olympics, in response to
the detainment of 300 lamaist monks. In addition to the riots,
other Tibetan citizens and other anti-Chinese organizations outside
of China, attempted to disrupt the Olympic torch relay prior to the
riots as well as several other issues by harassing the torch
bearers by attempting to remove to torch. In response, the torch
bearers had to be
escorted by
security to prevent further conflicts with protesters.
Australia
The
Sydney Riot
of 1879
, is one of the earliest riots at an international
cricket match. Riots have become major news generators,
including Aboriginal riots in response to the death of an
Aboriginal boy, and most recently the 2005 summer
race riots
. These riots took place on the beaches of
the eastern Sydney suburbs and directly downtown, most prominently
Cronulla.
Europe
Europe has historically seen a diverse range
of riots, ranging from
hooliganism to
May Day riots. Recent riots have taken place
in a political context (escalation of political
demonstrations), rioting to prevent
the eviction of social centres and/or
squats,
and racial tensions in the broader context of
urban decay.
Riots
broke out in the city of Gothenburg
, Sweden
from the
14th to the 16th of June 2001. A total of 53 police officers
and 90 vandals and demonstrators were hurt during the many riots
that were going on between these days.
The reasons for the
riot were the EU summit that took place in Gothenburg and the visit of USA's President George W Bush.
The
Nørrebro riots followed the selling of Ungdomshuset
in Copenhagen in Denmark. People from Sweden, Germany
and the United Kingdom
participated in the riots. In total 750
people were arrested during the fighting; 140 of these
foreigners.
In October 2005 and again in November 2007, immigrant youth rioted
in the poor Paris suburbs of Clichy-sous-Bois and Villiers-le-Bel,
respectively, each time in reaction to the deaths of North African
youth at the hands of police.
Another similar incident in Greece, involving the death of a
15-year-old student, who was fatally shot by a police officer,
resulted to widespread rioting throughout the country.
United States
The worst riots in United States history with respect to lives lost
took place during the
Civil War
when immigrant factory workers forcibly resisted the federal
government's military draft, the
New York Draft Riots. These riots were
graphically depicted in the movie
Gangs of New York with a disputable
level of accuracy.
Since the 1950s the US has seen a series of
race riots in the context of the
civil rights movement and
urban decay. Over the first nine months of 1967,
128 American cities suffered 164 riots. The
1967 Newark riots became, per capita, one
of deadliest civil disturbances of the 1960s. The long and short
term causes of the riots are explored in depth in the documentary
film
Revolution '67. The
assassination of civil
rights leader
Martin Luther
King, Jr. triggered riots across numerous American cities. The
1992 Los Angeles riots,
triggered by the
Rodney King Trial were
regarded as the worst in recent U.S. history with deaths estimated
at 54 people and nearly a billion dollars in damage caused.
The
1968 Democratic
National Convention, however, saw the most well-remembered
riots in recent US history and were a strong influence towards the
eventual American withdrawal from Vietnam
at the end of the Vietnam
War. The
2000
Democratic National Convention protest activity made headlines,
including the Lakers riot. There was also a
riot in Cincinnati in 2001. In the
last decade the US has also seen a number of
anti-globalization protests, most notable
the Seattle protests of the
WTO Ministerial Conference of
1999, also known as the "Battle of Seattle", and the
2005 Toledo Riot.
Police response
Riots are typically dealt with by the police (
riot control), although methods differ from
country to country. Tactics and weapons used can include
attack dogs,
water
cannons,
plastic bullets,
rubber bullets,
pepper spray,
flexible baton rounds, and
snatch squads . Many police forces, such as the
London
Metropolitan Police
Service, have dedicated divisions to deal with public order
situations (see
Territorial
Support Group,
Special Patrol
Group,
Compagnies
Républicaines de Sécurité,
Mobiele
Eenheid).
The policing of riots has been marred by incidents in which police
have been accused of instigating or provoking rioting or crowd
violence (see
Police riot); also, while
the weapons described above are officially designated as
non-lethal, a number of people have allegedly
died or been injured as a result of their use.
National laws against riots
Riot laws:
Riot Act,
Black Act
England and Wales
Under
English law, a riot is defined by
the
Public Order Act 1986 as
twelve or more persons who "together use or threaten unlawful
violence for a common purpose and the conduct of them (taken
together) is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness
present at the scene to fear for his personal safety". A single
person can be liable for an offense of riot when they
use
violence provided that it can be shown there were at least twelve
present using
or threatening violence. The violence can be
against the person or against property. This carries the
possibility of a fine and a sentence of up to ten years'
imprisonment.
If there are fewer than twelve people present, the lesser offense
of "Violent Disorder" is charged, for which there is a requirement
for at least three persons to use or threaten unlawful violence
together. This is defined similarly to riot, but no common purpose
is required.
In the past, The
Riot Act had to be read by
an official - with the wording exactly correct - before any
policing action could take place. If the group did not disperse
after the act was read, lethal force could legally be used against
the crowd.
In recent times nobody has been charged with a Section 1 offense
(Riot) in England and Wales. This is because if a Section 1 offense
takes place the local police service are regarded as having failed
and are liable to pay compensation. The best known example of this
is the
Poll tax
demonstrations of 1990 where nobody was charged with Section 1.
All were charged as though a collection of Section 2 (
violent disorder involving 3 people) acts
had just happened to take place in one location.
Current English law
Cars are sometimes set on fire during
riots
In English Law
Riot forms part of the
Public Order Act 1986 under section
1.
The Public Order Act 1986 s.1 states:
1) Where twelve or more persons who are present together use or
threaten unlawful violence for a common purpose and the conduct of
them (taken together) is such as would cause a person of reasonable
firmness present at the scene to fear for his personal safety, each
of the persons using unlawful violence for the common purpose is
guilty of riot.
2) It is immaterial whether or not the twelve or more use or
threaten unlawful violence simultaneously.
3) The common purpose may be inferred from conduct.
4) No person of reasonable firmness need actually be, or be likely
to be, present at the scene.
5) Riot may be committed in private as well as in public
places.
Ramifications
- In the case of riot connected to football hooliganism, the
offender may be banned from football grounds for a set or
indeterminate period of time and may have to surrender their
passport to the police for a period of time in the event of a club
or international match, or international tournament, connected with
the offence. This prevents travelling to the match or tournament in
question. The measures were brought in as the Football Act 2000 after rioting
of England fans at Euro 2000.
United States
Under
United States federal
law, a riot is defined as
A public disturbance involving
(1) an act or acts of violence by one or more persons part of an
assemblage of three or more persons, which act or acts shall
constitute a clear and present danger of, or shall result in,
damage or injury to the property of any other person or to the
person of any other individual or (2) a threat or threats of the
commission of an act or acts of violence by one or more persons
part of an assemblage of three or more persons having, individually
or collectively, the ability of immediate execution of such threat
or threats, where the performance of the threatened act or acts of
violence would constitute a clear and present danger of, or would
result in, damage or injury to the property of any other person or
to the person of any other individual. .
As every
state in the United
States has its own laws (subject to the Supremacy Clause), each has its own
definition of 'riot.' In New York State
, for example, the term 'riot' is not defined
explicitly, but under § 240.08 of the N.Y. Penal Law,
A
person is guilty of inciting to riot when he urges ten or more
persons to engage in tumultuous and violent conduct of a kind
likely to create public alarm.
See also
References
- [1]
- In Face of Rural Unrest, China Rolls Out Reforms -
washingtonpost.com
- 1998 Human Rights Report - Indonesia
- INDONESIA: Five years after May 1998 rights, those
responsible for the atrocities remain at large
- Western businesses burn in Pakistan riots | World
news | The Guardian
- Why Did America Explode in Riots in 1967?, by
Joshua Zeitz, AmericanHeritage.com, July 23, 2007
-
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1986/pdf/ukpga_19860064_en.pdf
-
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/en/ukpgaen_20000025_en_1
- Blackstones Police Manual Volume 4 General police duties,
Fraser Simpson (2006). pp. 245. Oxford University Press. ISBN
0-19-928522-5
Reading List
External links
- Revolution '67 - Documentary about the Newark,
New Jersey race riots of 1967
- Anthropologie du présent [22524]
,
,
(bread and
salt riots hastened the withdraw in 1947).
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