What turns protests into riots?
“Riots, as Haddock and Polby argue, ‘are apt to be a more or less recurrent, if unpredictable, feature of social life,’ not because of persistent injustice but because of the perverse incentives of rioters and poor public policy” - Acton
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Haddock and Polby… “It is odd that our law enforcement apparatus seems to be designed for a world in which riots do not occur at all. With some imagination, public administrators could ensure that these destructive episodes become rare indeed.”
I wish the post author had included a sample or two of what H&P think would constitute “some imagination.” If it were that simple, the problem would have been solved long ago. Lots of people have been trying to find effective prevention and response strategies for a very long time. (The fact that H&P wrote their paper in 1994 underscores my point. I don’t think they had it figured out.)
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Is that for the past couple of decades—really the time since Haddock and Polby wrote—big city politicians have fallen into a pattern of only intermittently making arrests of looters and those practicing violence, arrests which only rarely result in serious convictions. If you want to put the kibosh on people victimizing their fellow man by looting, destroying property, and the like, there has got to be a consequence for bad behavior.
Might not be a huge deal among poor minorities, but in the “Antifa” crowd, I’m guessing a lot of young punks would reconsider if a few of their friends got a felony conviction and started getting “sorry, but we cannot consider you” from HR, accreditation associations, and the like.
And conversely, there must also be some movement to suggest to would-be rioters that they can do other things that would help out more. At one level, there might be a certain glee among some populations to “sticking it to the man”, as well as perhaps some memory of “somebody at least tried to help after the 1968 riots”. If there’s anything to that, it needs to be countered with “here’s a new way forward that will help you even more.”
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
We have a cultural tradition of blurring the lines between nonviolent protest and destruction of property, with nonviolent civil disobedience kind of in the middle.
Too many see breaking laws and wrecking stuff as a human right.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Sincere idealists trying to change what they perceive to be wrong
Bored unemployed who see an opportunity to do something outside
People frustrated by restrictions/lockdowns who see a convenient way to express anger at gov’t
Ethnic groups who want more money from gov’t & business (Financial Reparations for past injustice only a matter of time)
Anarchists who promote violence and chaos for political goals
President Trump opposition who are using protests and riots to weaken Republicans for November elections
Media trying to increase ratings by nonstop coverage/discussion
Businesses who sincerely believe in the racial agenda
Businesses who feel pressured to say/do something or face social media condemnation
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
We’ll probably find out eventually, but I use “we” loosely. FBI and LAPD and others are investigating, but if they find lots of criminal elements involved in instigating violence, etc, at these events, many news outlets are not going to mention it… or only quietly, if they do.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
It’s also worth mentioning that very many criminals have been released from prison due to COVID-19. I can imagine some of them getting into the thick of all this.
Dr. Paul Henebury
I am Founder of Telos Ministries, and Senior Pastor at Agape Bible Church in N. Ca.
Well, the criminal/opportunist angle is already out, turns out… with a bit of spin.
U.S. assessment finds opportunists drive protest violence, not extremists
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Dr. Carl Ellis Jr’s voice is one that I think will help this conversation. Here is an article that Ellis wrote on his blog that was later picked up by Christianity Today in response to the rioting in Ferguson 5 years ago. Although he categorized the black rioters in 3 groups (opportunists, criminals, and nihilists), this new set of rioters, with so many white folks rioting as well (in my city GR, about 80-90% of the rioters and looters were white), these categories fit for them as well. By the way, Dr. Ellis marched with MLK as a college student in the late 1960s, studied with Francis Schaeffer at L’Abri in the early 1970s, and is now one of the vice presidents of Reformed Theological Seminary. https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2014/august/its-time-to-lis…
Interesting article Joel, thanks. I’ve been doing some reading in early black literature (particularly regarding “race” issues) and it’s been pretty enlightening. I think everyone would do well to read some of the major thinkers in black history and how their particular (and sometimes contradictory) philosophies contributed to modern African American thought.
On another note, Tacoma Washington just released the autopsy of a black man that died in custody after a struggle with the police in March. He died of asphyxiation and also said he couldn’t breathe. No way to know if race was an issue but it’s certainly a tragedy. I do have to wonder about the timing. I couldn’t think of a worse time to release it given it happened back in March. Still, truth should prevail.
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