Riots/Demonstrations (Response To)

Riots and demonstrations, although sporadic, have been a constant throughout American history. Not surprisingly, local and state authorities, and even the federal government, have struggled repeatedly to suppress these forms of popular unrest. Perhaps the earliest response to riots and demonstrations involved the military.

In 1794, George Washington mobilized an army of approximately 13,000—as large as the one that had defeated the British—to suppress violent demonstrations by Pennsylvania farmers angered at heightened federal excise taxes on whiskey. When confronted with this overwhelming military force, dissent dwindled, thereby establishing the military as an effective riot-suppression tool, one that would be used again and again throughout American history.

Although the use of the military to quell riots continued into the 20th century, the general burden of responding to riots and demonstrations shifted gradually to local police departments. The first police training in riot control occurred in the aftermath of the Astor Place Riot in New York City in 1849. During this riot, which was caused by the scheduled performance of an unpopular British actor in New York, a mob overwhelmed 250 police, resulting in the deployment of the military. Two divisions of soldiers fired into the crowd of more than 10,000, resulting in 23 deaths and calls for more humane forms of suppressing demonstrations in the United States, among them the use of clubs rather than firearms to subdue crowds.

Professional training of police in riot control proved its worth during the Civil War, when massive riots broke out, again in New York, over the conscription of men into the Union Army. Drilled in military tactics but refraining from the use of deadly force, a contingent of 200 New York metropolitan police officers routed a mob of more than 2,000. Although federal troops eventually had to be called to quell the violence, the success of the New York police set the stage for using local law enforcement as the primary tool for quelling popular unrest in the United States.

To facilitate this role, police departments began to develop specific technologies for crowd control. In the 1870s and 1880s, mounted police became a popular modality of dispersing crowds. In the aftermath of World War I, tear gas became widespread. In 1926, the New York City Police Department founded its Emergency Service Division, one of the country's first riot squads.

Interest in riot technology surged during the 1960s, when city after city succumbed to widespread rioting, most of it in heavily African American neighborhoods. These riots, beginning with a 6-day riot in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, forced municipalities to reevaluate crowd control techniques, basic police procedure, and even structural problems that exacerbated race- and class-related tensions, among them lack of educational opportunity and jobs. Several ground-breaking studies of riots emerged, first among them the McCone Commission report on the rioting in Watts. Second, and perhaps even more important, the Kerner Commission Report on urban unrest in general, published in 1968. Although both reports drew criticism, they elevated the riot as a topic of serious policy interest.

They also sought to create a general theory of riot control. The Kerner Commission report, for example, stressed the importance of mounting a rapid, overwhelming response, noting that “sufficient manpower is a prerequisite for controlling potentially dangerous crowds; the speed with which it arrives may well determine whether the situation can be controlled.” The Kerner report also stressed the use of nonlethal force, particularly gas.

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