Riot Act

Cultural Revolution! When Do We Want It? The 1960s! The United States of America (and in fact, the whole world) has a long history of protest. From Nat Turner’s slave rebellion, to the trans-Atlantic Shakespearean rivalry that sparked the Astor Place Riot, to every workers’ strike from 1877 onwards; history can at times simply look like a long line of people taking action to right what they see as wrong. And yet there is one prevailing period of which the definitive image and mood is that of…

who was murdered and had his death erupt with riot and protest. Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Sandra Bland are others whose deaths were commemorated with protests. Eric Garner was put in a chokehold by a police officer and witnesses claim he said “I can’t breathe” eleven times. Garner was declared dead at the police station. Michael (Mike) Brown was shot while raising his hands…

them to move to the sidewalk. Then Michael didn’t take the situation too lightly so the officer and the young man started a physical altercation that lead into the shooting death of Michael Brown. The people of the neighborhood after then started to riot in the streets wanting justice for Michael believing that he was gunned down in cold blood. At first nobody knew what to do about the rioters or the people standing up to the police because they could…

Berlinger, Joshua. "Baltimore Riots: A Timeline." CNN. Cable News Network, 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2016. Freddie Gray, 25 years old, was being transported in a police van after being charged with possession of an illegal switchblade. He was beaten by police while being transported to the prison, leaving him in a coma where he later died from his injuries. In the wake of Freddie Gray’s funeral riots broke out in Baltimore, buildings were looted and burned down, and rioters threw glass bottles…

Racism and segregation has a mass history in the United States, which has impacted our society greatly. There were many riots, boycotts, and strikes which occurred throughout the 1900’s. Many people simply wanted peace and to bring everyone together no matter what race or color. Others wanted to be separated from people with a different skin color and race. Whites and blacks were being separated from bathrooms and even restaurants. This resulted in conflict between our society which left many…

violence does arise. There are demonstrations that create high social tension law enforcement is necessary to keep control. A good example of this is the DAPL demonstration, Indigenous people peacefully demonstrating and the authorities dressed in riot gear due to the reactions from both sides. Peaceful demonstrations can turn violent when forceful tactics are used to move people out-of-the-way consequently ending with injuries on both sides of the…

In the letter, “A Letter Home” and “Waiting for Dan” the main characters are both protesters. In “A Letter Home”, Kara is expressing her feelings towards the protests at Kent University that was involved with the Vietnam War. In “Waiting for Dan”, Dan is a man who rides a freedom bus standing up for racial rights. Because of Dan’s brave actions, he was sent to a prison in Mississippi. One similarity between the protesters in “A Letter Home” and “Waiting for Dan” is that they both had the same…

“To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men.” (Wilcox) This is a quote from Ella Wheeler Wilcox that actually makes a lot of sense, but how should we go about this? There are two types of ways to protest. You can protest peacefully, maybe holding up a sign and handing out flyers. Or you could violently protest. This can involve vandalism, assault, and just doing morally and legally wrong things in general. When you make the decision that you are going to protest something…

Known essayist and writer, Navneet Alang, in their journalistic essay, “Big Brother, C’est Moi: Vancouver’s Post-Riot Web Vigilantes Can Be Tamed”, describes the aftermath of the riots that took place shortly after the defeat of the hometown Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals; on June 15th 2011. The riots brought great controversy, due to various pictures and videos of the perpetrators, surfacing online from bystanders. Those images of violence and vandalism, were taken by citizens, where they…

It was 1997(2005) in Ethiopia, and I was about 9 or 10 at time, still naive to the world at large. It began as a typical school day, but then as my classmates and I were on our lunch break, we started to hear a man shout “Taxi, taxi, taxi!” just outside of our school. It seemed peculiar to us as to why that strange man was shouting. To the students and faculty in my school building, this man seemed deranged. One of my friends joked “we should probably go back to class before we end up like this…