WHY DO PEOPLE RIOT?
Those were the very first words I typed into my computer this morning. Of course, Google working the way Google does I was met with some of the more recent analyses of rioting in the United States that took place in Ferguson, Missouri. Most of these articles are more concerned with the “who” rather than the “why.”
But the second link in this post poses an interesting question regarding the why. Were the riots in Ferguson about the perceived social injustice of a white cop not being indicted, or, were the riots an offshoot of people wanting to be a part of something larger than themselves? These are good questions because they offer a counterpoint to the notion being spread by conservative bloggers that looting and rioting are events in American society caused only by minorities in recent times.
In Hindsight
Over the next few hours I am going to examine the reasons people riot and see if there is any common ground between events in recent history in America that can clarify the question asked by the title of this post. As for Ferguson [and I would add Watts, LA in 1992, Newark and other civil rights riots in this group] I believe the root cause of the rioting was opportunism to strike back at a capitalist culture that rewards greed and power held by a monochromatic few. Often times, ironically, people who riot, no matter their color do more damage to people of their own ethnic and racial background than they do to those whom they feel have oppressed them. This fact has been used as a club by conservatives, some with humorous relish over the past seven decades. By the end of this series I hope we will all have learned something about what drives people to act as a mob.
Pax Terra!
Fredrick Schwartz, D.S.V.J., CS, O.Q.H [Journ.]
Managing Editor—Research
The Dis Brimstone-Daily Pitchfork
73 Melnar 3 AS
Editorials from Hell's Leading Daily Newspaper 
18/12/2014 at 09:19
Narrative Neo, it is all about the narrative. Those that cry about “social injustice” are the ones who put the laws into place to cause it.
This is progtardism claiming to want to fix problems that progtardism caused. Nothing more and nothing less. Arguing facts with some people is pointless. If it does not fit the narrative.
BUSH LIED!!! YEAH!!! YAY!!! What courage you possess for voicing that truth to power!!
Proving that W lied is a whole different kettle of fish.
All for the cause, the cause is all.
18/12/2014 at 10:08
I would love to disagree with you Tim but your statements don’t seem to make any sense. I don’t have a narrative here except to try to unravel that knot on what makes people engage in civil unrest. That’s what I’m doing here nothing more.
18/12/2014 at 13:28
It is simple.
If I walk into an area that is poor. I tell the poor that the roads in the next neighborhood are paved with Gold. I tell the poor that the Gold has been taken from them. They want to believe because they are poor. They want to believe that the Gold has been wrongfully taken from them. They want to believe that the Gold is their Gold.
The only way they can the Gold back is to rip up the streets in the other neighborhood. The only way they can rip the streets up is to threaten violence against anyone who would stop them from ripping the streets up.
Examples must be made. “The man” must understand that they will have to give up the Gold.
If the Gold is not given up the poor will “burn this mother fucker to the ground”
The only thing you have to do is substitute which group has the grievance and which group has the Gold.
Along come the hustlers who see opportunity $$$. Say hi to je$$e and $harptounge.
18/12/2014 at 15:45
[…] after, I cracked my first beer of the day, I read the comment made by Tim on the previous post “Why do people riot?” Tim […]