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What makes a riot?
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| By: Matt Neznanski, Staff Writer |
April 24, 2004 |
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Group violence like Veishea riot follows trends
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Warm spring weather, scores of out-of-town revelers, and alcohol combine to create perfect conditions for a riot - not just in Ames but nationwide.
Violent outbursts by mobs of revelers aren't so much a question of if they will occur, but when, according to an Iowa State University professor who studies such behavior.
"It would be a monumental task for a community to avoid something like that," said Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science. "We have degenerated into a society in which vandalism and rowdy behavior is a common phenomenon."
In the aftermath of Sunday's Campustown riot and during any deliberation to keep or toss the Veishea celebration, Schmidt suggests comparing similar events to get the best picture of what to do. Such events aren't rare.
Schmidt said he grew up in South America, where civil unrest was common, and witnessed several large student riots in college in the 1960s and 1970s.
Susan Cross, an ISU associate professor of psychology, was a student at Ohio State in the 1980s when National Guard troops were called out to quell violence.
"It's really not that unusual, it's not that new and not that surprising," she said.
During mass demonstrations, two groups of people may react very differently to similar circumstances. That's what makes containing a mob a touchy and delicate affair.
Research suggests that people involved in group violence lose themselves in the crowd and that such demonstrations follow trends, no matter where they occur.
Recipe for trouble
Temperature, a sense of injustice, and heightened emotions - good or bad - are factors that contribute to riots, Schmidt said.
Warm weather encourages people to get together outside, often resulting in police attention, which can heat up emotions. When the interaction becomes more intense and people see members of their group being threatened, people become angry and self-righteous.
Alcohol can intensify aggressive behavior, but the absence of it doesn't mean mob violence won't occur. Schmidt said riots happen in the Middle East where alcohol is banned.
However they begin, once the threshold is crossed riots take on a life of their own, like a brushfire. Small episodes play out in a series of events that affect other incidents. During a riot, events that happened a half-hour ago have a great effect on what's happening now.
Meanwhile, people inside the mob contribute to the event's "story" as they become more a part of the crowd than they are single entities.
"Groups actually take on a personality," Schmidt said. "It's not just a bunch of individuals."
While groups are made up of individuals, each person tends to lose his or her own sense of responsibility through a process known as deindividuation, said Cross.
"When these kinds of events break out, we tend to go along with them. The larger the group, the more powerful they are," she said.
Acting as a group and at night, people feel anonymous. Cross said the idea is similar to that of the Ku Klux Klan, which cover the faces of its members and terrorizes people under cover of darkness.
Taming the beast
"The one thing you never do when dealing with this kind of situation is get many different people with many different opinions together and allow a group to merge into too large of a group to handle," Schmidt said.
His research into riots surrounding World Bank meetings and anti-globalization rallies suggests that the most effective method to calm a crowd is to infiltrate the crowd and break it up from the inside.
In that strategy, plainclothes officers "swarm" the crowd by moving within it, arresting prominent leaders and removing instigators from the scene.
Police in Seattle weren't prepared for anti-globalization protests. Police in riot gear formed walls and pushed protesters through the streets, and property damage was high.
When a similar event occurred in Washington D.C., Schmidt said, riot police quietly infiltrated the crowd and arrested ringleaders before anything happened.
"I would never presume to judge whether law enforcement in this town did the right thing or not. I wasn't there," Schmidt said.
But considering that nobody was killed and injuries to both parties were minimal, he said this year's Veishea riot has a happy ending if both the university and city look into what could have been done differently.
When the smoke clears
Following a riot, people start looking for explanations, Cross said.
"As Americans, we tend to make self-serving attributions that make us feel better," she said. Rioters blame police for being too aggressive, and police point to the drunken crowd for going too far.
Meanwhile, those outside the scene often jump to conclusions without knowing the whole story, she said.
"They say, 'Students can't hold their liquor or they don't appreciate people's property,'" she said.
Ultimately, ISU will decide whether or not to continue with the student-run festival. Schmidt said canceling Veishea, however, may not be the simple answer to stopping violence.
"On a spring weekend, you're still going to get a number of large parties," he said. Plus, a cancelation could incite students to react next year in memory of the traditional event.
"Whether Veishea produces riots is up for discussion," he said. "We need to be careful. For our purposes, the best learning occurs when we compare events in similar settings."
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©Ames Tribune 2004
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