Riots Crowd Psychology

1. Riots Crowd Psychology John C. Flood Cascadia Community College College 101 College Strategies CONVENTIONAL EXPRESSIVE CROWDS HOSTILE SIGHTSEER

2. CROWD PSYCHOLOGY • The purpose of this discussion is to understand the various types of crowds and the psychology behind them.

3. Topics of Discussion • CROWDS • MOBS • Demonstration-Civil Disobedience • RIOTS • Student Revolt

4. CROWDS • A crowd is a large number of persons collected into a close body without order.

5. Characteristics of a Crowd • An outstanding characteristic of a crowd is its awareness of the law and willingness to respect the principles of law and order, resulting from the individual member’s ingrained respect for the law. • Unorganized • Without leadership • Hesitant • Ruled by reason

6. Types of Crowds • Physical Crowd - A physical crowd is a casual or temporary collection of people showing no cohesive group behavior but merely crowded closely together. • Psychological Crowd - A psychological crowd is an assemblage of people who have a sustained common intent or respond emotionally to the same stimuli. Examples: Ball Games, Political Speech Audiences, Parades, Fires, Accidents and Disturbances.

7. Types of Psychological Crowds • Conventional Crowd • Expressive Crowd • Sightseer Crowd • Hostile or Aggressive Crowd

8. CONVENTIONAL CROWD • A conventional crowd is one that assembles for a deliberate and appointed purpose, such as witnessing a ball game. They have no dependence on each other. They understand rules and regulations and are controlled by them. It is possible for this crowd to become unruly and aggressive. POP BOTTLE THROWN, FIGHT IN THE STANDS.

9. EXPRESSIVE CROWD • An expressive crowd is so named because its members are involved in some kind of expressive behavior such as dancing, singing or worshipping. Such a crowd is not aggressive, nor is its energy directed toward a damaging objective. It is far wiser to permit such activity to continue and to permit the group to so express itself if there is no serious breach of the peace.

10. SIGHTSEER CROWD • A sightseer crowd is one that gathers from nowhere at the scene of an accident, fire or disaster.

11. HOSTILE OR AGGRESSIVE CROWD • A hostile or aggressive crowd is an unorganized large group of people willing to be led into lawlessness, but hesitant because it lacks organization courage and unity of purpose. It is composed of a few determined leaders, active participants and a number of spectators. It is noisy, threatening and will taunt and harass the police. So long as it is controlled, it remains a crowd; but if control is lost, it will evolve into a mob.

12. MOBS • A mob is a crowd whose members, under the stimulus of intense excitement or agitation, lose their sense of reason and respect for law and follow leaders in lawless acts.

13. General Characteristics of a Mob • Organization • Leadership • Common Motive for Action • Ruled by Emotion

14. TYPES OF MOBS • AGGRESSIVE • ESCAPE • ACQUISITIVE

15. AGGRESSIVE MOB • An aggressive mob attacks, riots and terrorizes, as in the case of race riots, lynching, political riots and prison riots. The action is one-sided. The mob’s aim is the destruction of persons and property.

16. ESCAPE MOB • An escape mob is in a state of fright, attempting to secure safety by flight.

17. ACQUISITIVE MOB • An acquisitive mob is motivated by a desire to acquire something. The mobs in food riots and looting.

18. PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A MOB • Observable Characteristics • Sameness - Members share common attitudes and opinions, common dissatisfactions, frustrations and conflicts. The mob is not made up of individuals but parts of a “group mind”. • Emotion - Mobs consist of the high degree of emotional tension and excitement maintained by participants. Emotions like anger and fear, seldom stay at the same level or drop off, it continuously increases. • Irrational - The panic behavior that releases existing tension. The mob collectively perceives only one course of action and rushes for the exit. The lynch mob doesn’t consider and weigh various alternatives. The childish mob reacts to frustrations of dissatisfactions through immediate, unsophisticated, usually violence.

19. PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A MOB • Hidden Characteristics • Anonymity - Members of mob have so lost their conscious identity of themselves that they presume themselves to retain anonymity, generally with good reason because of the difficulty of identifying and apprehending the lawbreakers. • Universality - “Everyone is doing it”

20. PERSONALITY TYPES IN MOBS • PROFESSIONAL AGITATOR • LEADERS • YOUNG LEADERS • ACTIVISTS • CRIMINAL ELEMENTS • PSYCHOPATHIC INDIVIDUALS • SUGGESTIBLE PERSONS • CAUTIOUS INDIVIDUALS • SUPPORTING INDIVIDUALS • BYSTANDERS • RESISTERS

21. The Mob’s Tactics and Violence • TACTICS - Embarrass the Police, Weaken Police Line, Disrupt Police Supply Lines, Disrupt Communications, Looting, Outflank and Envelop, Seizing and Holding Buildings and Ambushing. • VIOLENCE - Verbal Abuse, Written Abuse, Noise, Attacks on Police Officers, Attacks on Equipment, Throwing Objects, Rolling Vehicles or Objects Against Troops, Hand Weapons, Guns, Fire and Explosives.

22. DEMONSTRATION - CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE • A demonstration is a legal assembly by lawful means that is organized with leadership. It is disciplined, orderly and non-violent. • Civil disobedience is deliberate public violation of the law. Depending upon the behavior or passive/resistant arrestees, varying amounts of force may be necessary in order to gain compliance. Crowd actions include clenching fists and placing hands and arms inside outer clothing in order to prevent conventional wrist locks from being effective; locking arms, crossing legs, kneeling to prevent movement of the arrestees by police; going limp, forcing officers to use pain compliance holds or physically carrying arrestees in order to complete the arrest process.

23. RIOT • What is a Riot? There are no words to adequately define it, for mere words can never convey the terror and horror of such an event, unless you have lived through it for yourself. • Definition - Riot is a great disturbance of the peace. Persons assembling of their own authority, executing in a violent and turbulent manner to the terror of the people.

24. TYPES OF RIOTS • Conventional Mob Riot • Race Riot • Spontaneous Destructive Riot • Organized - Planned Riot • Guerrilla Riots

25. Conventional Mob Riot • Violence which is caused by a rampage of a spontaneously formed mob.

26. Race Riot • Open warfare between those of different ethnic or religious groups.

27. Spontaneous Destructive Riot • The first element needed is a minority, which is, or believes it is, disadvantaged - mistreated, deprived and despised. In a word it is frustrated. Next condition is a widespread disobedience of, and lack of respect for, law and order. A hostile crowd assembles. It taunts or attacks the police. Control breaks down and the population recognizes a temporary opportunity for looting and destruction.

28. Organized - Planned Riot • The mob is deliberately assembled and incited.

29. Guerrilla Riots • Terrorists - Guns - Weapons - Grenades.

30. STUDENT REVOLT • Nihilist - constitute a very small but dangerous segment of society that refuse to recognize traditional concepts of good and evil. They don’t want reasonable solutions, progress and social reform. • Strategy - is to cause as much disruption as possible.