By
Hillary Davis
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Riots shaped by many factors, including acceptance
Gabe Kirchner was little fazed by the raucous hollering and the smell of cigarette smoke, body odor and beer that surrounded him when he waded through the crowd on North Fourth Avenue Monday night.
"I'm a sociologist," said Kirchner, a sociology senior. "That's what I came here for."
The spectacle of bare breasts and airborne street sign fragments may have fueled Kirchner's interest in the dynamics of the throng of revelers - and he is not alone in study of such group behavior's origins.
Bill Bunis, a lecturer in the University of Arizona sociology department, teaches an upper-division course on collective behavior and is studying videos and accounts of Monday's rioting, which resulted in 17 arrests and thousands of dollars in damage.
Bunis said one must take into account a variety of factors when trying to dissect such group behavior, which includes more than a disappointing basketball loss.
One critical factor in riots is police presence, for better or for worse.
"I think that the police have a very daunting task," said Bunis, who added that officers must maintain social control without engendering resentment and hostility by their very presence. "What is the threshold, that is the question."
There is also the social notion that rioting is an acceptable public ritual, Bunis said.
"People feel they have the right to celebrate in new forms," he said. "It's almost like there is a right to turn over a car in a celebration."
Bunis felt this point drive home when he heard some students call Monday night a "fun riot."
"Rarely do you hear the words 'fun' and 'riot' thrown in together," he said.
The criminal mischief - from looting to setting fires to fights - was also given a nudge by the group behavior.
"There's no question the public ritual represents an opportunity structure for a variety of motives - both good, bad and indifferent," Bunis said.
Tucson Police Lt. Kevin Lane, a 17-year police veteran well-versed in crowd control tactics, said all officers are trained to recognize when a crowd could become dangerously unruly.
"People, when they get together in groups, act differently than they would individually," he said. "An individual standing alone on a nice, cool evening wouldn't just tip over a car for no reason."
Lane said an early sign that a crowd is becoming violent is when vandalism begins to occur, which could then lead to arson.
After fires begin burning, the potential for injury becomes much more likely.
"When people start seeing hurting other people, that's when things start to move south," Lane said. "As soon as some one starts getting hurt, it's not any fun anymore and people need to start leaving."
Lane said Monday's activity was similar to the mayhem that occurred in the Fourth Avenue area after the Wildcats won the national championship in 1997, but this year the crowd was notably more violent.
"If there are people who are bent toward violence, they incite the crowd toward violence, I think," Lane said.
However, Bunis disagreed that only a few particular people could be held accountable for the rioting, as students as well as people not affiliated with the UA were on the streets Monday.
"That's sometimes overdone, because we want to blame certain people," he said.
Bunis said people should reform their idea of celebration or create a new arena for it.
"We have to change social norms to say this norm is not reasonable, or cultivate public space or a public arena for the expression of public ritual," he said. "Fourth Avenue clearly won't do."
