Comments on: What caused the 1968 riots?

By: Kirk

Kirk — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 16:03:50 +0000

I’ve always favored multiple lines of Claymore mines in depth as anti-riot tools. Placing cans of thickened fuel in front of them just adds to their powers of dissuasion.

Of course, if the rioters don’t recognize what a Claymore mine is… Well, after the first line goes off, they’ll know.

By: Sam J.

Sam J. — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 04:02:29 +0000

I heard that the cops in the old days when it looked like a riot was forming would scan the crowd for the most agitated, loudest protester, drag him out of the crowd, and beat the shit out of him where everyone could see. It apparently worked.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 01:02:10 +0000

I've written before about understanding riots, Schelling Incidents and Schelling Points, and how brutality can terminate riots promptly by stopping trouble before it starts.

By: Talnik

Talnik — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 23:32:24 +0000

I have to agree with Jim. They did it because they knew they could get away with it. And (here are my two cents) because it was fun. Attaching some socio-economic significance to it is pure condescension.

By: Adar

Adar — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 22:36:21 +0000

“In the 1960s, blacks were economically oppressed everywhere, but there were still places where things were better or worse”

A fairly high percentage of those arrested in Detroit during the 1967 riots were auto workers, members of the UAW and pretty good wages.

By: S3

S3 — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 04:48:55 +0000

Respect… Like Hitler wanting respect for Germany? Is Spilerman Jewish? Because that would be just perfect!

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 22:23:01 +0000

The riots occurred not because of repression but because of the absence of repression. The riots would have been less likely in earlier years because participants would have been aware of severe consequences to them. Same thing for crime. Crime exploded in US black populations in the sixties not because the economy was bad, it was good, but because the likelihood and severity of punishment had greatly decreased.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 20:20:58 +0000

Big city politics is always race riot protection rackets. Group of concerned citizens, angry mob, tomayto tomahto. When the Kennedy administration passed out federal jobs to the old Irish machines, the ambitious, aggressive Irish went to them. This left a vacum, and the federal money going to blacks gave them an incentive to fill it.