Ryan Sheers, 28, had no previous convictions when he walked up to a line of police in the northern English town of Hartlepool carrying a beer can. He pushed and shouted, “I pay your wages!” A policeman stepped forward, leading a dog. “Get your dog a drink,” advised Sheers. The dog bit him in the backside. During his hearing at Teesside Magistrates’ Court, Sheers, formerly a McDonald’s worker, wept after admitting to violent disorder.
What makes somebody riot? Why do people throw bricks at police while being filmed by dozens of phones, knowing it could get them a jail sentence that ruins their lives? Their decision may be political. The current British riots — the country’s worst disorder since 2011 — clearly express anti-immigrant feeling. They were prompted by the fatal stabbing of three girls in Southport and the false rumour that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker.
But in fact, riots are not purely political events. They are more emotional than that. To understand them as a simple matter of rational actors calling for specific policies is to miss out a lot about why riots start, how they spread, and how authorities should respond.