Police Response To Riots: Case Studies From France, London, Ferguson, And Baltimore

294 Pages·2020·4.235 MB·English

by  Garth den Heyer

Garth den Heyer
Police
Response
to Riots
Case Studies from France, London,
Ferguson, and Baltimore
Police Response to Riots
Garth den Heyer
Police Response to Riots
Case Studies from France, London, Ferguson,
and Baltimore
Garth den Heyer
Arizona State University
Phoenix, AZ, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-31809-3 ISBN 978-3-030-31810-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31810-9
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Introduction to Case Studies
This second section presents four case studies of riots: one from France, one from
the United Kingdom and two from the United States of America. All four case stud-
ies are based on controversial violent public disorder events that occurred over a
number of days, involved a large number of violent individuals, an extensive amount
of vandalism and the looting of businesses. They were also triggered by one flash-
point event: the actions of the police.
The French and the United Kingdom case studies each include a section on the
background and the context of the rioting in their respective countries, and this
forms the foundation for the discussion of the riot and the police response. The
background and context for the two riots in the United States of America are
described subsequently to this introduction.
The case study section presents a study of the 2005 riots that took place in France,
followed by an examination of the riots that took place in London in 2011. The two
riots that took place in the United States of America are then presented starting with
the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri, riots followed by the 2015 Baltimore riots.
The Background and Context of Rioting in the United States
of America
The United States of America has suffered innumerable riots in its short history,
with the first riot—known as Shays’ Rebellion—involving more than 4,000 rebels
in an insurrection against perceived economic and civil rights injustices, which took
place in Springfield, Massachusetts, from 31 August 1786 to June 1787 (Richards,
2003). This rebellion was the first in a number of riots and violent confrontations
that took place owing to injustices, slavery, civil rights, food shortages and local
body corruption.
According to Waddington (2007), the United States of America has experienced
two contrasting forms of riots and urban violence. The first form of riot is based on
v
vi Introduction to Case Studies
the conflict between the two main ethnic groups (African Americans and Caucasians)
involving contested geographical areas (Janowitz, 1969). The second form of riot
also involved the two main ethnic groups but usually involved attacks by African
Americans “on white-owned properties and symbols of public authority, notably the
police” (Waddington, 2007, p. 61). Waddington (2007), claimed that the occurrence
of riots in the United States of America and the police response “is inseparable from
wider class and ethnic conflicts” (p. 195).
The response taken by the police to the riots that occurred in the United States of
America was often severe and brutal (Stark, 1972; Fernandez, 2009), but by the
1970s, following community pressure and the recommendations of the National
Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (known as the Kerner Report), the police
changed their response to a more tolerant approach (Fernandez, 2009). The National
Advisory Commission had been established following large, urban riots that took
place in a number of cities across the country. The function of the Commission was
to answer three questions: what happened, why did it happen and what can be done
to prevent it from happening again (The National Advisory Commission on Civil
Disorders, 1968, p. 1).
The element of ethnicity in rioting in the United States of America was clearly a
factor in the riots in the 1960s and was a factor again in the riots in Miami in 19801,
in Los Angeles in 19922, and more recently in Oakland, California, in 2010,
Ferguson in 2014 and Baltimore in 2015.
This section presents case studies that have examined the riots that occurred in
Ferguson and Baltimore. The Baltimore riots, in particular, were the worst violent
protests that the United States of America had experienced in decades and, accord-
ing to Minteh (2016), are the result of underlying grievances that are rooted in the
decades-long, strained relationship between the police and African American com-
munities, such as those in Ferguson and Baltimore.
More than 50 riots took place in the United States of America between 1980 and
2015. Table 1 presents 38 of these riots, which have been identified as being either
ethnicity based, triggered by a police incident, involving large numbers of rioters or
people arrested, or resulted in extensive damage to property. As can be seen from
the table, riots have occurred in various cities across the country, but only a few cit-
ies have experienced riots more than once during this 35-year period.
1 These riots followed the acquittal of four police officers who were involved in the arrest of an
African American man after a high-speed car pursuit. The man died from injuries sustained during
the arrest.
2 These riots also followed the acquittal of police officers. The four police officers had been filmed
beating an African American man following a car chase.
Introduction to Case Studies vii
Table 1 Riots in the United States of America from 1980 to 2015
Number Number Damage
Number of Number of death/ cost (US Race Police
Year Location of days rioters arrested injured dollars) based incident
1 1980 Miami, 3 5,000 600 18/400 100 Yes Yes
Florida million
2 1984 Lawrence, 2 300 N/K N/K N/K Yes No
Massachusetts
3 1988 Perth Amboy, 2 200 19 0/5 N/K Yes Yes
New Jersey
4 1988 Tompkins 1 200 13 0/44 N/K No Yes
Square,
New York
5 1988 Shreveport, 2 1,000 4 N/K N/K Yes No
Louisiana
6 1989 Vineland, New 1 200 30 0/1 100,000 Yes Yes
Jersey
7 1990 Miami, 1 200+ 15 Nil 2.5 Yes Yes
Florida million
8 1991 Washington, 2 600 33+ N/K N/K Yes Yes
DC
9 1991 Brooklyn, 3 N/K 129 2/180 1 million Yes No
New York
10 1992 Los Angeles, 6 N/K 11,000+ 55/ 1 billion Yes Yes
California 2,000+
11 1992 Manhattan, 4 N/K 11 3/15 N/K Yes Yes
New York
12 1993 Portland, 1 N/K 31 0/0 N/K No No
Oregon
13 1994 Lexington, 1 500 N/K 0/1 N/K Yes Yes
Kentucky
14 1996 St. Petersburg, 2 200 20+ 0/11 N/K Yes Yes
Florida
15 1999 Seattle, 2 40,000+ 500+ N/K 20 No No
Washington million
16 1999 East Lansing, 1 5,000+ 132 N/K 250,000+ No No
Michigan
17 2000 Miami, 1 N/K 180 N/K N/K No Yes
Florida
18 2001 Cincinnati, 5 200+ 958 N/K 5.1 Yes Yes
Ohio million
19 2002 Worcester, N/K N/K 404 N/K N/K Yes No
Massachusetts
20 2002 Minneapolis, 1 N/K N/K N/K N/K Yes Yes
Minnesota
21 2003 Benton 2 N/K N/K N/K N/K Yes Yes
Harbor,
Michigan
viii Introduction to Case Studies
Number Number Damage
Number of Number of death/ cost (US Race Police
Year Location of days rioters arrested injured dollars) based incident
22 2003 Miami, 3 N/K 250 0/100+ N/K No No
Florida
23 2004 Boston, 1 N/K 39 N/K N/K No Yes
Massachusetts
24 2005 Toledo, Ohio 1 500+ 20+ 0/12 N/K Yes No
25 2006 San 1 1,500 12+ 0/6 N/K Yes No
Bernardino,
California
26 2007 Los Angeles, 1 N/K 5 0/36 N/K Yes Yes
California
27 2009 Oakland, 1 N/K 105 N/K N/K Yes Yes
California
28 2009 Pittsburgh, 2 4,500 190 N/K 50,000 No No
Pennsylvania
29 2010 Harrisonburg, 1 8,000 30+ 0/30+ N/K No Yes
Virginia
30 2010 Santa Cruz, 1 250 2 N/K 100,000 No No
California
31 2010 Oakland, 1 N/K 78 N/K N/K Yes Yes
California
32 2010 Los Angeles, 1 30+ 0 0 N/A Yes Yes
California
33 2011 State College, 1 2,000 45 N/K 190,000 No Yes
Pennsylvania
34 2011 Brooklyn 1 N/K 700 N/K N/K N/K No
Bridge,
New York
35 2012 Anaheim, 2 N/K N/K 0/6 N/K Yes Yes
California
36 2013 Brooklyn, 2 N/K 46 0/1 N/K Yes Yes
New York
37 2014 Ferguson, 26 1,000+ 321 1/10 N/K Yes Yes
Missouri
38 2015 Baltimore, 15 N/K 486 0/2 N/K Yes Yes
Maryland
Source: Author
Introduction to Case Studies ix
References
Fernandez, L. (2009). Policing dissent. Piscataway, NJ. Rutgers University Press.
Janowitz, M. (1969). Patterns of collective racial violence. In H. Graham and T. Gurr (Eds.),
Violence in America: Historical and comparative perspectives (pp. 412–444). New York:
Bantam Books.
Minteh, B. (2016). Policing and violence in the United States: A comparative analysis of pro-
test against police violence in Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore, Maryland, and Cleveland,
Ohio (2012–2015). Paper presented at the Midwest Political Science Association 74th Annual
Conference, 7–10 April, 2016, Palmer House Hilton: Chicago, IL.
National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. (1968). Report of the National advisory com-
mission on civil disorders. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.
Richards, L. (2003). Shays’s rebellion: The American revolution’s final battle. Philadelphia, PA:
The University of Pennsylvania Press.
Stark, R. (1972). Police Riots. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Waddington, D. (2007). Policing public disorder: Theory and practice. Devon, United Kingdom:
Willan Publishing.
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 The Policing of Public Disorder and Riots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 A Word in Relation to Previous Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 W hat Constitutes a Riot? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.1 The Influence of the “Battle in Seattle” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4.2 The Influence of Protests in the UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5 Changes in the Policing of Violent Protests and Riots . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.6 The Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6.1 A Note on the Development of the Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2 What Constitutes a Riot? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 The Problem with the Definition of a Riot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3 An Attempt to Understand Riots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3.1 Critical Consensus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3.2 Police Cause Riots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3.3 The Police Perspective as to the Causes of Riots . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.4 Crowds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.5 Police–Crowd Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.5.1 Elaborated Social Identity Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.5.2 The Flashpoints Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.5.3 Features of the Flashpoints Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.6 Research and Police Response Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.6.1 The Theory of the Police Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.6.2 The Actions Taken by the Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.6.3 The Police Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.7 C onclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
xi