Ah, Facebook. I’ve seen innumerable posts about Ferguson, MO—looting, rioting, protesting, praying, supporting libraries and local businesses. I’ve also seen a few comparing what’s happening in Ferguson with the events of June 2011, when Vancouver’s hockey team lost the Stanley Cup.
So, I wanted some perspective. I wanted to find out how these two events compare, but I also wanted to know about some other riots from this decade. First off, defining a riot is tough. Many peaceful protests are mischaracterized as riots. Also, many peaceful protests are disturbed by people looking to cause problems and a nice crowd to hide them (“Some men just want to watch the world burn”).
Typically, though, a riot is any civil disruption that leads to violence and property damage.
Next up, getting reliable and complete numbers is tough. I’ve done my best (granted, in a short amount of time) to get as much data about how much property damage was done, how many injuries were reported, and how many arrests were made. In some cases, I could also get details about how many charges were levied (this was important with the G20 riots, because most people were just arrested in one fell swoop). So, this is a best effort, bust still enlightening. I’m not going to put any of my opinions or analysis in here (but if you want to talk about it over a drink, I’m game).
If you have more accurate numbers, please send them along so I can correct/update this table.
(Sorry it’s tiny–if you click on it, it’ll get bigger)
Selection Criteria: Riots listed on Wikipedia’s “List of Riots” page from 2010-present. Riots from the US and Canada. Events listed on Wikipedia’s “List of Civil Unrest in the United States” from 2010-present. Exclusion criteria: No prison riots. Riots with no additional data.
Sources:
The BiblioFiles 