WHY DO PEACEFUL PROTESTS SOMETIMES TURN VIOLENT?
Demonstrations, protests and occasional violent revolutions are as old as society, and some have had peaceful and successful conclusions leading to reform. From 1966 to 1999, nonviolent protests worldwide led to 50 peaceful transitions from authoritarianism to democracy.
Demonstrations and protests can relieve pressure, allowing people to make their voices heard and allowing them to share pain and to persuade authorities that things need to change.
Riots are different.
While they can often lead to positive change, they can also cause serious damage to property, human life and trust in the body politic. Revolutions often occur when riots expose the contradictions of society and lay bare the inability of the government to control order and economic functioning.
Given that peaceful demonstrations can be highly effective, why do they sometimes break down into violence and looting?
As is true of illness, economic catastrophes and wars, riots are often the result of a confluence of dynamics. No one factor causes them.
The present riots are occurring after the public witnessed a particularly graphic image of a white policeman’s knee on a black man’s neck who was pleading he could not breathe and then died.
The image is iconic for African Americans who see it as representative of their relationship with the police. That image, upsetting and enraging to almost all of us, comes on top of numerous other images of unarmed blacks being unnecessarily killed. A recent Youtube video showed a white woman calling the police and feigning that she was in danger from a black man who had asked her to obey the law and put her dog on a leash. Blacks know that had this not been caught on camera, he likely would have been arrested.
These events are the spark, though the kindling for this explosion was laid by weeks of quarantine, when the inequalities in health care were highlighted by the daily reporting of disproportional black deaths. Economic anxiety and the stress of quarantine made getting outside for a good cause even more attractive to many. As in all riots, mixed in with the well-meaning crowd are angry, opportunistic hooligans looking to take advantage of this tragedy to smash things and steal from stores.
Research shows that crowds act differently than do individuals. Responsibility is diluted and crowds egg each other on. People can justify outrageous behavior and acting out in ways they would not on their own. Violent perpetrators can slip away and hide in the crowd. Angry, destructive people can act with no motive except giving vent to their frustrations.
Crowds breed a sense of “us” and create a sense of belonging. This can be positive if they remain peaceful. When a small group becomes violent, research shows that a majority will call them out and demand they stop. The psychology becomes one of defining the aggressors as “not us.”
However, if the police respond to the whole group as if they are all aggressors and the police treat all protesters as potential law breakers, it has the effect of uniting the protesters against the police. The group unites, but in a sinister way.
The police have a difficult job, which unfortunately has led to some making tragic fatal decisions. But dealing with the stress of the coronavirus pandemic may have led to some becoming even more reactive.
Violence from the protesters can lead to a highly adrenalized response from some police officers, which can escalate protesters’ violence. Once looters have smashed windows, some opportunists feel they might as well loot since others will take the property anyway.
Getting free goods is unfortunately too attractive to some. It is easy to justify selfserving behavior in a crowd. When the dust settles after the virus crisis, some people will also be exposed for obtaining free loans when they didn’t need them, a more genteel kind of looting.
What is the solution? Psychological testing of police candidates needs reform so that only the most stable candidates are hired. Police should be given constant refresher training and emotional support to deal with burnout. Demonstrators need to be reminded that when some become violent, the majority should demand it cease and identify them to the police if it does not. Demonstrators need to be reminded that peaceful protests get more accomplished than violence without leaving permanent scars.