[lbo-talk] The three stages of riot

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Tue Aug 16 06:53:01 PDT 2011


On Tue, 16 Aug 2011, Charles Turner wrote:


> Johnny-come-latelys? Did they even bother/think to cover their faces?
> Were they then the easiest to ID on the surveillance footage, and arrest
> after-the-fact?

I think (but am certainly willing to be corrected) that most of the arrests so far are, like in the old days, the result of being physically pinched rather than ID'ed. The Johnny come latelys are always disproptionately arrested precisely because the end of the riot is when the police reestablish their control. The serious looters get in and out. They treat it as a window that will close, like all theft windows. But the latecomers are ensorcelled by the specture of normal rules being magically suspended, and goaded by feeling like idiots for not having gotten it earlier. They're like people late into a stock rally, with much the same results.

Michael



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