Human Factors Analysis: Why Crowds Turn Deadly

[Fred Fuller]

Trying to block a road/street with your body is a poor plan IMHO... there are other things more useful (and FAR more expendable) that will serve for that, if it appears necessary to deny or limit access via road.

lpl

 

[wheelgunslinger]

I could not agree more, Lee.

I think there's a lesson in that story for people who see a riot as a Rambo or Sheepdog opportunity.

 

[Onward Allusion]

One can toss out all the psycho-babble to analyze why groups of humans do certain things but would not consider doing the same things alone.

We are all a bunch of (to coin a NPR phrase) Clever Apes. At our most base, we follow a leader, "the" leader for the most part and run in packs. We are animals and at a very low level, no better than monkeys who can use tools.

Only when our civilized minds come to the forefront do we act "human". This is the same place where G*d, art, compassion, innovation...etc. comes from. I personally believe that it will be another 10,000 years or more, if we survive as a species, before we will evolve as a species to the point where crap like what happen in the UK, Syria, Chicago...etc... will cease.

 

[Averageman]

From what I have seen, it quickly lost control. It went from people upset over a Police shooting to a riot then morphed in to something akin to a flash mob riot.
Cell phones allow them to quickly communicate and move from one target of oppertunity to another.
I think the crowd/group/gang mentality allows bad behavior and promotes individual one upsmanship in bad/outragous behavior. The burning, assaults and looting is carried to the next level by the herd. Each individual seeking to be the alpha male of the herd.
Behind all of this though I am sure is some hardcore robberies and assaults taking place under the cover of the Flash mob riot atmosphere.
We may be no more than Monkeys that can use tools as stated above, but combine the tools and oppertunity and someone will steal things of greater value than you would find in a local shop.

 

[lemaymiami]

All of my experience says that whenever we (humans?) get compared to monkeys... the monkeys ought to feel insulted.

 

[we are not amused]

*http://www.amazon.com/Human-Factors-Considerations-Undergrounds-Insurgencies/dp/0898755409[/QUOTE]

That looks like an interesting read, I may have to buy it. But there is an older work about mobs and riots, by Gustave Le Bon, entitled "The Crowd; Study of the Popular Mind"
It is also available on Amazon, and should be in any decent Library.
I remember it from college as being a bit dry and stilted to read, but I was young then. At the time, despite the rather awkward writing, ( it was a translation), it gave a fascinating view into mob behavior and psychology, and talked a lot about riots. I strongly recommend it for anyone interested in crowd behavior, mob control, or riots. I hope the police and Civil Authorities in England are reading it.
Allegedly, Hitler and Mussolini both used the book as a primer on how to stir up and control mobs.

In the United States, I seem to remember that the Rodney King riots seemed to be used by a great many people, who cared little about the incident, as an excuse to rampage and loot, much like what is happening in London. I think there are a lot of parallels between the two incidents.

I think that, from what I remember of Le Bons book, mobs and riots usually are caused by people who don't have to get up and go to work in the morning. Not necessarily the poor or unemployed, as I remember the College anti-war riots of the sixties and Seventies, those were not poor people. But by people who don't have responsibilities, are idle, and quite frankly bored with their life. Some of the interviews of rioter seem to bear that out.

 

[SSN Vet]

read the OP's link.... didn't read all the responses....

I think there is a very telling truth behind the difference between the Japanese peoples response to the tsunami and that of post Katrina in NOLA...

Our diversity does NOT make us stronger. Common values and sense of shared heritage, however, do.

 

[Onward Allusion]

Our diversity does NOT make us stronger. Common values and sense of shared heritage, however, do.

This is very true. Humans are tribal. It does become an "us -vs them" mentality during times of stress. I think we are programmed at a genetic level to not see the two youths who happen to have skin color different than our own and are running for their lives AWAY from an epicenter of a riot as one of "us". We at a primal level see them as "one of them" who are running toward us. Like I'd said in a previous post - we're monkeys who know how to use more than rocks.

In the example of Japan, it is a homogeneous society. Non-Japanese people make up about 1% of their society. That 1% is mostly comprised of Chinese and Koreans who have very similar physical features. Caucasians and non-Japanese/Asians are therefore not treated with fear but treated with curiosity and novelty. This is why when the big one hit in March, the people banded together rather than run rampant in the streets killing each other for the last scraps of resources (at least temporarily). One would generally not take advantage of a family member (i.e Japan). This would never happen in the US if a natural disaster of that magnitude took place in the United States. There would be looting of resources and tribes would form. Most tribes would likely be along the lines of skin color.

Until we become a homogenous society (not skin color but values), we will need firearms to protect ourselves against "them" whoever "them" may be. Give it another 10,000 years.

 

[SSN Vet]

That is why you stop a crowd by identifying the leaders and removing them

My BIL, the state trooper, is a BIG boy (6'6", 250#... and though I often see him as a big goofball, he can present a pretty imposing image when he wants) had an interesting experience when he was called to back up a lone sherriff's deputy to break up a gravel pit keg party of teenagers late at night.

Deputy is very nervous, and wants to call for more back up. BIL doesn't want to look like a wuss and wants to check it out first.

They have to walk a ways into the pit and it turns out that there's a LOT of kids in there... So BIL walks up to the keg, puts his boot on it and announces "this is mine".

Joe smart a$$ steps forward and cries "you can't ....... SLAM, he's on the ground face down and deputy cuffs him.

Then BIL announces "who's next?" and like mice they all scatter away quickly.

When I first heard him tell this story I was very impressed... but he just chalked it up to following his training.

Little did they know that BIL is always trying to prove he can still master the B-ball court and has whacked knees.... (falling through the rotted porch of a hunting cabin while searching it on a man hunt hasn't helped either)

 

[mortablunt]

Fascinating thread. Thanks for getting the discussion started.