George Floyd death: Why do some protests turn violent? - BBC News - 0 views
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Curfews have been imposed in multiple cities in the US, after unrest and protests have spread across the country over the death of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody.
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Experts have also drawn parallels with the 2011 England riots - when a peaceful protest over a man who was shot dead by police turned into four days of riots, with widespread looting and buildings set alight.
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Prof Stott studied the 2011 England riots extensively, and found that the riots there spread because protesters in different cities identified with each other - either because of their ethnicity, or because they shared a dislike of the police.
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However, "police often react towards the crowd as a whole" - and if people feel that the police use of force against them is unjustified, this increases their "us versus them" mentality.
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Experts highlight a series of police tactics that were seen as heavy-handed - including the firing of large amounts of tear gas at young protesters - as moves that galvanised protesters and made them more confrontational.
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Moral psychology can help explain why some protests turn violent, says Marloon Moojiman, an assistant professor in organisational behaviour at Rice University.
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In the US, hundreds of businesses have been damaged, and there has been widespread looting in LA and Minneapolis over the weekend.
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He says there is "a long history of targeting, or selectivity", in vandalism and looting. "In the LA uprisings, you'd often see 'minority owned' spray painted on minority businesses, so that people would bypass those."
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Public order experts say that for the police, being seen as legitimate and able to engage protesters in dialogue is key.
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Prof Hunt says this week's US riots are the most serious ones since 1968 - after Martin Luther King was assassinated.