Police riot

A police riot is a term used for the wrongful, disproportionate, unlawful, and illegitimate use of force by a group of police against a group of civilians.

In recent incidents, the term often describes a situation where police, clad in riot gear such as armor, helmets, knee and elbow protectors, and face shields, encounter a group of civilians, such as a protest group, not engaged in violent behavior but deemed by police or police supervisors to pose a threat to public safety, is attacked by police.

Such violence, perpetrated or provoked by police or other military and security force personnel, may run the gamut from simple assault, battery, assault with a deadly weapon, mayhem, even homicide. If the riot is caused by or incited by police action, it may be labeled a police riot. This term is considered somewhat provocative, as it is normally the job of the police and similar authorities to be keepers of the peace and not inciters of riots.

Police, whose duty it is to enforce the law and prevent violent conflict, are subject to the same crowd psychology as any other group of armed men and women when in large confrontational groups, in encounters whose outcome is uncertain, and when in the grip of fear, anger, or other strong emotion. However, they are also provided with deadly weapons, and so have a special responsibility to keep their fear, anger, and similar emotions under control.

History

United States

During the early years of labor union organizing, police violence was frequently used in efforts to quell protesting workers. One notable incident took place in May 1884, when police killed four striking workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. in Chicago. The following day, a peaceful demonstration in Haymarket Square erupted in violence when a bomb was thrown, killing eight policemen — an event known as the Haymarket Riot. Fifty years later, in July 1934, police in San Francisco were involved in several encounters with striking longshore workers. After two picketers were killed, the other area unions joined together and called a general strike of all workers (the "Big Strike"). Subsequent criticism of the police was probably the occasion for the coining of the term "police riot." [cite book|last=Walker|first=Samuel|Title=A Critical History of Police Reform: The Emergence of Professionalism|publisher=Lexington Books|location=Lexington, Massachusetts|date=1977|pages=147|id= ISBN 978-0669012927 ]

During the Vietnam War, anti-war demonstrators were routinely attacked by police using billy clubs and tear gas. The most notorious of these assaults, which was shown on television and which included national television reporters in the mayhem, took place during the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which was the scene of massive anti-war street protests. The actions of the police were later described as a police riot by the Walker Report to the US National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.

In August 1988, a riot erupted in Tompkins Square Park in the Lower East Side New York when police, some mounted on horseback, brutally attempted to enforce a newly passed curfew for the park, put in place during a period of rapid gentrification, primarily to keep homeless people from continuing to camp there. The park had for the better part of a century been a site of marches, political activity, encampments, and late night, often ad hoc, popular concerts. Bystanders, artists, residents, homeless people, reporters, and political activists were caught up in the police action that took place during the night of August 6-7. Videotape evidence, provided by onlookers and participants, showed seemingly unprovoked violent acts by the police, as well as the fact that a number of officers were shown to have covered up their badge numbers and their names, or removed them entirely. The footage was broadcast on local television, resulting in widespread knowledge about the incident. In an editorial The New York Times dubbed the incident a "police riot." ["Yes, a Police Riot," editorial of The New York Times, August 26, 1988, Section A; Page 30, Column 1; Editorial Desk] The incident became known as the Tompkins Square Park Police Riot.

There have also been cases in which a police riot involved only factions of the police. One recorded incident was the 1857 clash, during the mayoral administration of Fernando Wood, between the New York City Police Department and 300 police workers occupying City Hall in a protest in which 52 police officers were injured. Another "near riot" supposedly occurred in a well-known incident during the mayoral campaign of Rudolph Giuliani, who has been accused of inciting a crowd of police officers demanding more support from City Hall.

See also

*Black Act
*Demonstration
*Police
*Police brutality
*Black bloc
*Hooliganism
*Street fighting
*Stonewall riots
*WTO Protests
*

External links

* [http://members.aol.com/SFPDRiot/sweep.html account of a police riot]
* [http://home.austin.rr.com/apdhallofshame/Cedar.htm Cedar Avenue Valentines Police Riot]
* [http://www.skullthump.com Riot Video from around the World]

References