I was watching a documentary about the riots in Vancouver after their hockey team lost game seven of the Stanley cup final in 2011. Apparently the rioters weren’t yet clued in to the capacity of the internet and mobile phones to provide all kinds of evidence to the police. That lack of awareness was evidently one of the reasons that people posed for pics as they were burning police cars, smashing windows and looting. Sadly for the people involved, there wasn’t any police leniency allowed for stupid. And I’m pretty sure the cops let the courts sort out if the person that brought a molotoff cocktail to a hockey game was bone deep stupid, or merely having a moment of stupidity.
So stupid was one of the reasons for the riot.
Other notable reasons included the home team losing, boatloads of alcohol, and a crowd of mostly young males. And of course, the mysterious phenomena known as mob mentality.
I kind of thought it was funny as the psychologists and media personalities shrugged at the inevitability of mayhem when booze and the boys get tangled up together. I actually laughed when this female educator described the number of boy/men and the quantity of alcohol, and then added, but hey, whatta ya gonna do?
She then half assed blamed the police, because they should have seen it coming and had better crowd control measures in place. It was almost enough for me to feel sorry for the authorities that are perpetually burdened with harnessing the herd. Because managing the masses is challenging enough when people are calm and sober, but regulating a drunken riot is another matter altogether.
You get to use tear gas and water cannons, but it’s not all fun. As gratifying as hosing someone holding a rag stuffed bottle of petrol might seem, I’m guessing there’s a downside or two to placing yourself into the middle of chaos. Mobs are kind of predictably unpredictable.
It’s actually a little depressing to consider that the human race requires twenty four hour round the clock crowd control. Organized authority has to be a presence or else we tend to devolve rapidly to burning shit. smashing shit and stealing shit.
And then, if not forcibly restrained we move on to serious shit. Rape, murder and massacres. That kind of shit, and truth be told, we can do it without alcohol. I mean there’s no arguing that alcohol is helpful, but we can morph into mob mental, and still pass a breathalyzer a half hour after looting outlet stores.
It’s in our DNA.
I have to admit that I’m not sure how I would have behaved if I was twenty and in Vancouver that night. I like to think I would have remained civilized, but I can’t quite shake the sense that it would be awesome to throw a rock through a huge plate glass window. I think my actions would have been dictated by the company I was keeping. If my wife were with me, then the window shattering would have been off the table. She’s always frowned on random destruction of public property, and with that much pandemonium going on she would have expected and received an escort to safety.
But if I was there with the boys, then the temptation wouldn’t have been tempered by female disapproval, and there’s a slight chance I may have been caught up in the mood of the moment. I say slight because I have faith in my judgement as far as the wisdom of committing a crime in front of a thousand cameras and five-o. Also there likely weren’t too many rocks to be found in downtown Vancouver.
But the concept of crowd control isn’t exclusive to riots. Every human activity that involves around five or more people requires some form of crowd control, and as soon as that control vanishes, the shit hits the fan in one form or another. In fact if you’re an organizer of an event and you neglect to include crowd control in your planning, then you better hope that nothing goes South. Because if it does and people get trapped in a fire or trampled in a stampede then you’re about to get seriously fucked over. Jail and lawsuits are a foregone conclusion in the West, and although I can’t speak for meted out discipline in other countries, I’m reasonably certain there were repercussions in Buenos Aires after a nightclub burned down and 1,432 people were incinerated because most of the fucking doors were locked. I guess there were attempts to control entry by locking the doors, but the owners sort of missed the getting out part of the scenario.
And then there’s the Hajj.
This year four travel companies are in shit for lax visa requirements that led to overcrowding where 1,300 people died from 50 degree heat. Then there were the 1990 Mecca tunnel event and the 2015 Mina stampede that claimed ,1426 and 2,400 lives respectively.
That’s almost 5,000 pilgrims off to Allah-la-la-land because of shitty crowd control.
Sometimes we get it right though, and when we do almost no one stands back and marvels at the subtle genius that came up with crowd control so efficient, that the herd is unaware they’re being herded.
Airports are a good example where this occurs. I’ve been in airports all over the world and you can pack those fuckers full of first time travelling throngs of clueless ignorance, and 99.9 % of people still make their flights. That same swarm also generally manages to locate their their luggage and find an exit.
However, I think the airport planners counted on a herd mentality. Because I get this feeling that most people just follow the leader, and eventually they find a sign that tells them where they want to go. Because every airport I’ve been in has a handful of repeat travelers that know where they’re going, and I think they look assured enough that everyone else just follows them.
Next thing you know there’s an escalator and a pictograph of luggage, and now it’s time to go crowd around the baggage dispenser instead of fanning out around the carousel. I guess that happens because there’s no signs on the floor telling people where to stand, so the airport planners haven’t quite perfected the system yet.
Honestly though, I don’t know if perfection is attainable with people. There’s always that percentage of idiots that are the antithesis of crowd control. It doesn’t matter what the venue is, these people will always find a way to fuck up the flow. Stop and gawk people for instance, who have an innate ability to block entrances or exists as they try to orient themselves.
We need border Collies for those people. In fact we should deploy border Collies everywhere that people gather. Not sure which line to stand in for a concert? An ass nip from a border Collie and you’re suddenly aware that you’re holding up the herd. Slowly walking five abreast in a two way traffic aisle at the mall? Achilles tendon nip from a border Collie and suddenly you’re aware that you’re holding up the herd.
People would bitch though, so instead we need the human equivalent of Collies, and we don’t quite have that concept sorted. Apparently it’s a violation of some sort to overtly compel people to behave in a civilized fashion and move in a logical direction.
So, no Collies and eventually we need to deploy Pit Bulls because the mob went mental.
But there’s no rules against covertly and eventually overtly compelling the masses with innuendo, peer pressure and propaganda. This is also crowd control, only without free roaming Collies. In this situation the attack dogs are typically leashed in studio’s pretending to be the news. Those dogs are usually the annoying yappy fuckers. But if they do their job properly, they energize the Dobermans to behave like fired up Dobermans.
And you only need one or two snarling dogs to initiate pack behavior. But you need the rest of the pack to be in proximity, or the situation is manageable and you don’t have to call in the military. The yappy dogs are in charge of making sure the pack is primed, in proximity and waiting to see what the Dobermans do.
And that’s how we get the storming of the Bastille, the India partition riots, January 6th, Vancouver, and BLM arson and looting.
With crowd control that produced uncontrollable crowds.
So I think it’s a good idea to understand when you’re being subjected to crowd control. Sometimes the control is for efficiency and civility. Sometimes you’re just a pawn serving someone else’s purposes.
Civility = Good.
Pawn = lots of potential for not so good with a high probability of incarceration and injury.
While the yappy dogs sit back and admire their work.