The Shift In Respect

I might have jinxed Kent State with my recent post referencing their riot in the 60's. Last weekend over 60 students were arrested while they started fires during an evening of parties gone wild.

If you want to see mob mentality evolve over a few hours, take 7:38 to watch this video. A total lack of respect for authority. Yes, the easy explanation is drunk college kids, but I don't remember starting any fires or having police fire pellets at me in the 80's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfYwrZZ6sRQ

The Associate Press reported:

COLUMBUS, Ohio – "An end-of-year college block party spiraled out of control as police fired pellets and used pepper spray to break up hundreds of rioting students who sparked a string of street fires at Kent State University. Video posted on the Internet shows students hurling furniture and street signs into the flames on Saturday night as a SWAT team in riot gear converged on the crowd. Kent police said the party grew violent after one reveler was arrested and students began pelting officers with bottles, bricks and rocks. It was the first violent clash between Kent State students and police in years. In 1970, four Kent State students were killed by Ohio National Guard troops during a campus protest of the invasion of Cambodia. "They were burning pretty much everything," said police dispatcher Rosemarie Mosher. 'They were throwing stop signs on the fires, they were throwing chairs, couches, tree branches. Basically anything they could get their hands on.' "

The mood of the mob doesn't appear that different from the days directly following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. It doesn't look any different from Thailand over the past few weeks. The Associated Press reported:

PATTANI, Thailand - "At least 78 people were suffocated or crushed to death after being arrested and packed into police trucks after a riot in southern Thailand, officials said Tuesday. The announcement dramatically increased the death toll from the latest eruption of violence in Thailand’s Muslim-dominated south. Officials had earlier said that six people were shot to death during clashes Monday at a police station in Narathiwat province."

Viewing the video on the news showing the rioters attacking the vehicle containing the ousted prime minister was quite disturbing.

The angry and fearful mob behaves the same whether they're charged on beer or political distress.