I’VE BEEN IN riots and this was not a riot,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said at a news conference at midmorning Sunday. “… I believe it was the right amount of force at the right time.”
Dinse said windows in several buildings and at least one vehicle were damaged during the clash, which began when individuals in a boisterous crowd in the thousands became unruly after the Bud World beer garden attraction was closed after reaching capacity.
Dinse estimated damage could reach “the low thousands,” but both he and Mayor Rocky Anderson objected to early reports that characterized the incident as a riot.
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“We want to emphasize that this was a relatively minor disturbance,” Anderson said. “… Frankly, I anticipated far worse than this and far earlier (in the Games).”
Dinse said between 180 and 200 helmeted and riot-gear clad officers responded to the area near Main and 200 South Streets after receiving reports that the crowd was getting out of hand. The gathering was declared an “unlawful assembly” about midnight and officers began slowly pushing the crowd, many of whom were chanting “USA, USA!”, down Main Street to the south, Dinse said.
Rob Garcia, 18, of Salt Lake City told the Associated Press the crowd was yelling at police, and officers forced people against cars.
“The police were pushing people,” he said. “The cops just jumped across and set up a barricade.”
Two revelers fight in the street during a riot. Several shop windows were broken, but no injuries were reported.
While many in the crowd obeyed orders to disburse, some individuals began hurling glass beer bottles at the officers, who responded by firing about 40 rounds of “impact devices” at the lower extremities of members of the crowd, he said. The action quickly scattered the crowd.
Eighteen adults and two juveniles were arrested during the clash, and most were charged with public intoxication and failure to disburse, Dinse said. Most of those arrested were locals, but at least one was a Canadian citizen, he said.
On March 17, 1955, more than 10,000 crazed hockey fans from inside the Montreal Forum and from the streets outside gathered together to protest the suspension of Maurice "The Rocket" Richard. An outraged fan slapped and punched the president of the National Hockey League, Clarence Campbell who was quietly sitting among the spectators. This "seven-hour rampage of destruction and looting" was a result of this attack that occurred during the game that opposed the Montreal Canadians and the Detroit Red Wings (Zacharias, 2000). During this riot, there were many people who were injured and over 100 fans were arrest.
The activating occasion of the Los Angeles riots occurred one spring evening when Rodney King was driving, neglectfully and inebriated, on the Foothill Freeway. At the point when two officers timed King speeding, and started to seek after him, a fast auto pursue followed. Rodney King was on parole, and was concerned a speeding ticket, joined with his blood liquor level, would cost him his opportunity. When King was at long last cornered, numerous squad cars were included. After one officer let go two tasers into King, King professedly opposed capture and four cops started utilizing their rod to beat King into accommodation. The battle that took after included a severe beating, more than 50 hits from the cudgel, kicks from the
officers that he did not know why they were there, was pushed to the ground and
...les and what they were actually going through was true. I could never imagine a mentality of a police chief being this way. It is an absolute horrific way of policing, and goes against anything to what the current era of community policing stands for. Also, what I don’t understand is how not one police officer took a stand against the police chief, and how this type of policing was never reported and deemed as acceptable behavior. The reason I also chose to include the L.A. riots is because it displays a side of the story many people simply do not discuss. The impression that I received is the rioting is deemed as justifiable. Both incidents are classic examples of how a lack of proper ethics and leadership can lead to such tragic incidents. What is even sadder is in between all this innocent people were affected, such as Rodney King, the businesses, and 53 deaths.
Even though many of the protesters were severely beaten, they still stood their stance and got the message out. What is a Riot? According to Encyclopedia.gov a riot “is a social occasion involving relatively spontaneous collective violence directed at property, persons, or authority.” There are five main
…There was no question of celebration in the minds of the fans who invaded from the West end of the ground. They had violence in mind and no sooner was it offered than it was returned with enthusiasm. The brutal and disgusting scenes which followed as bottles flew and drunken supporters charged and counter-charged from one end of the field to that other, brought disgrace upon the two clubs concerned, upon Scottish football generally, and were an affront to Scotland as a nation (Murray 196).
Police brutality is when a police officer causes serious bodily harm to a civilian. Police brutality is shown by the increasing amounts of Taser deaths each year. A chart created by the Seattle Post Intelligencer shows how during the year two-thousand only one Taser death occurred, but in two-thousand-four that number climbed to a staggering thirty-nine. In Baltimore, Maryland Freddie Grey was found dead while under police supervision. The night of Freddie Grey’s funeral Baltimore erupted in protests and riots. The chaos went on for days, the National Guard eventually came in to restore order and peace to the city. Media in recent months has increased focus on racial police brutality. Incidents of young teens dying have created uproars everywhere, media abuses this continues to fuel the fire and spark more
When the riots from the Michael Brown and Freddie Gray surfaced, police officers and law enforcement all had to adjust to the changes in their towns. People took off of work and school to protest about the killing of unarmed black men. They protested at the courts and in front of police stations. Normally during the middle of the day people would be at work but instead they were posted in front of government buildings letting the world know about their problem. Police officers schedules also changed when this happened. Instead of the officers usual deployment that may have consisted of patrolling or office work, many of the officers were standing outside and creating a barrier between the buildings and the protestors. In Baltimore, people broke into stores, set buildings on fine and destroyed a lot of property to get their point across to the Baltimore Police Department. Chaos theory states that things are constantly changing and that some of the things that happen and some things can be controlled while others can’t. The Baltimore Police Department had to change their structure to maintain the stability to the department during the
On the night of August 11, 1965 the Watts community of Los Angeles County went up in flames. A riot broke out and lasted until the seventeenth of August. After residents witnessed a Los Angeles police officer using excessive force while arresting an African American male. Along with this male, the police officers also arrested his brother and mother. Twenty-seven years later in 1992 a riot known as both the Rodney King riots and the LA riots broke out. Both share the similar circumstances as to why the riots started. Before each riot there was some kind of tension between police officers and the African American people of Los Angeles. In both cases African Americans were still dealing with high unemployment rates, substandard housing, and inadequate schools. Add these three problems with policemen having a heavy hand and a riot will happen. Many of the primary sources I will you in this analysis for the Watts and the LA riots can be found in newspaper articles written at the time of these events. First-hand accounts from people living during the riots are also used.
The media takes this news focuses on the protestor’s violence and showcases them as the ones creating a scene. The media then showcases police as the ones that have to deal with the situation by detaining citizens, thus making them look like the good guys. The mayor and chief police also take away from the citizen’s freedom by allocating a 7pm curfew and a 25 block ‘no protest zone’. So if individuals were to not follow the set curfew they can be detained even if they had nothing to do with the protest. Police started attacking citizens even before curfew, which stripped citizens more of their freedom and liberty to protest. Individuals who were leaving their office, and who were not apart of the protest were also taken to prison, even when they followed procedure. This proves that the actions taken were not a part of the due process system where we protect individuals but rather part of the crime control module where we screen out innocent people and get them into the
African Americans throughout the nation watched on social media as police responded to the initial peaceful protests with armored vehicles, riot gear, and the threat rubber bullets, dogs, and guns. These vicarious police experiences impacted them as though they had been confronted with the same treatment, spurring a national outcry against police brutality and the frequent police shootings of unarmed African American men. As social media spread awareness, national and international news organizations began reporting on the events in Ferguson, displaying images of protestors being treated as enemy combatants by police. The images and videos emerging led to an influx of support from many seemingly-unrelated groups who chose to stand in solidarity with the protestors. International media and Amnesty International scrutinized police actions while celebrities and individuals associated with many other oppressed and disadvantaged groups flocked to the region to join in the protest. As in the Civil Rights Movement, images of protestors confronting lines of police in riot gear and being teargassed focused the world on injustices faced by African Americans and forced the nation to take
“The police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence,” Robert Peel. The use of force for police officers is something I find to be justified and right, because it can possible help save the officers life and any witnesses lives.
Police violence remains a dire human right violation, especially in the United States. Over the last decade, police have applied force and aggression in ways that leave people wondering if they are discharging their duties. Recently, law enforcement seems to have taken a different turn characterized by aggression and violence when dealing with the public. Cases of unjustified shootings, physical assault, fatal chokings and violent treatment have contributed to the ongoing problem of police brutality in the America. Worse still is the fact that a greater proportion of these cases go unreported and undetected. This has partially encouraged violent police officers to continue applying force when dealing with the public. This new law enforcement
...te police officers of charges stemming from the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. As a result of this verdict, thousands of citizens rioted for six days. Mass amounts of looting, murder, arson and assault took place.” Riots are one of the most common forms of mob mentality and are shown in this book several times.
There were several causes which led to this riot and the immediate cause was racial tension. Racism tends to persist most readily when there are obvious physical differences among groups e.g. “Black” and “white” differences. This no doubt results in attempts to limit economic opportunities, to preserve status, to deny equal protection under law and to maintain cheap labor. Discrimination was represented ...