PD James' latest Dalgliesh crime novel, The Private Patient (2008), is set largely in Devon at a manor house-cum-plastic surgery center. Central themes seem to include worthiness and what we deserve, revenge, redemption, forgiveness, the inability to forgive.

 

When the book opens, the reader is in the mind of the soon-to-be murder victim, Rhoda, and after her death, at various times we're privy to the thoughts and feelings of a number of other characters, including suspects and police. Rhoda turns out to be a rather single-minded and self-focused woman whose actions have been at least partially responsible for others' pain and harm, and by allowing us the victim's pov at the start, I think James aids our ability to sympathise with her.

 

Speaking of her family of origin, Rhoda recalls:

 

"Those outbursts of violence, the impotent rage, the shame, had done for them all. The important things had been unsayable. And looking into her mother's face, she asked herself how could she begin now? She thought her mother was right. It couldn't have been easy for her father to find that five-pound note week after week. It had come with a few words, sometimes in shaky handwriting: With love from Father. She had taken the money because she needed it and had thrown away the paper. With the casual cruelty of an adolescent, she had judged him unworthy to offer her his love, which she had always known was a more difficult gift than money. Perhaps the truth was that she hadn't been worthy to receive it."

 

Later, Dalgliesh, Kate and Benton are discussing the case over wine:

 

Benton says:

"People die because of who they are and what they are. Isn't that part of the evidence? I'd feel differently about the death of a child, a young person, the innocent."

 

Dalgliesh:

"Innocent? So you feel confident to make the distinction between the victims who deserve death and those who don't? ... Moral outrage is natural. Without it we're hardly human. But for a detective faced with the dead body of a child. the young, the innocent, making an arrest can become a personal campaign, and that's dangerous. It can corrupt judgment. Every victim deserves the same commitment."

 

 

This reminded me of a comment I read recently, attributed to Gil Bailie:

 

"Anything one does to champion the cause of the victim creates new victims, so then you have a shift in the marker, and the moral boomerang comes back upon those who were trying to champion the cause of victims and therefore made victims and therefore became victimizers and therefore the whole thing begins to shift again."

 

I think Dalgliesh is saying the same thing, though the line seems to so fine and the task so daunting -- to hear the victim, to do what one can to stop the making of victims (including recognising oneself as complicit in the ways we are), without making the avenging of victims a campaign, a cause to champion, a justification for victimising others.

 

Finally, James nicely summarises the way that finding an appropriate scapegoat brings order and peace to a community. Dalgliesh is musing about how suspects feel about the police:

 

"At first he and his team are awaited and greeted with relief. Action would be taken, the case cleared up, the horror which was also an embarrassment would be salved, the innocent vindicated, the guilty -- probably a stranger whose fate could cause no distress -- would be arrested and dealt with. Law, reason and order would replace the contaminating disorder of murder. But there had been no arrest and no sign of one. It was still early days, but for the small company at the Manor there was no foreseeable end to his presence or to his questioning. He understood their growing resentment .... "

 

 

Later she alludes briefly to the psychology of suspicion:

 

"Murder was a contaminating crime, subtly changing relationships which, even if not close, had been easy and without strain .... It wasn't a question of active suspicion, more the spread of an atmosphere of unease, a growing awareness that other people, other minds, were unknowable."

 

 

 

I've been reading in recent weeks about the so-called Bali Bombers, three men -- two brothers (commonly called Amrozi and Mukhlas) and an Imam/computer technician -- who were tried and found to be instrumental in the killing of 202 people -- most of whom were foreign nationals, including 88 Australians -- -- at nightclubs in a tourist area on the Indonesian island of Bali [in green] in 2002, to protest the US-led invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. (Bali is overwhelmingly Hindu, however.) Another 209 people were injured. (More at Wikipedia)

 

For their roles in the crime, their execution, which may occur by this weekend has now occured, will be by ritualised firing squad on another Indonesian island, off Java, the spot (or perhaps three separate spots) in the woods already decked out with chairs and crosses, after five years of legal appeals that apparently the bombers themselves had no interest in, as they have said throughout that they are ready and happy to die as martyrs, preferrably by beheading, in the Islamic way. They admit the crime and show no remorse but have apologised for killing Indonesian Muslims during the attacks.

 

Meanwhile, their family and other supporters are surging towards the moment of execution, burial, funerals, and partying, using the funeral as "an occasion 'to celebrate the victory of Islam.'" Graves have already been dug for the two brothers. A goat will be slaughtered. It will be an occasion for rallying.

 

As usual, it's the mimesis -- the accusative gesture, the heightening drama, the religious rituals and the prohibitions, the sacrificial centre that offers meaning and a feeling of unanimity amidst grief -- that interests me, and the predictable forms it takes, particularly as death comes very near:

 

The bombers are hailed by supporters as, variously, victorious martyrs, victims of an unfair system, and heroes whose deaths will spin off more heroes.

• Family members have said it's unfair for the Bali Bombers to be killed before the Bali Nine heroin smugglers, who "should be executed first because their drugs could have killed more people."
• The bombers issued a statement in October: "'Principally we are ready to die but if the executions go ahead it is wrong. If we are executed there will be new Mukhlases, new Imam Samudras and new Amrozis and they will take revenge,' they said."
• They have also written "an open letter encouraging their supporters to retaliate after they are executed," naming some specific officials whom they believe should be killed.
• The brother of two of the Bali bombers supports his brothers' right to kill "half-naked people [the people in the nightclubs] ... for the perceived insult. ... 'That's what [my brothers] believe. Whatever it is, it is against Islam and must be fought, whatever the form, whatever the action.'" Their mother concurred: "'I feel that killing infidels isn't a mistake because they don't pray.'"
  

 

The site of the execution has become rather sacred-seeming in the media, and both speech and acts related to the deaths are shot through with religious language and appeals.

• Religion is obvious at the site(s): There are crosses there, religious officials have met with the men and will accompany the bombers to their place of execution (as will lawyers and a doctor).
• There are rituals: the setting up of the execution site(s) in a particular way, the health check-ups for those who are about to die, families delivering a last meal of favoured goodies and other gifts. All the elements are in place, including autopsy table, helicopters and body carrier baskets, and the fourteen members of the execution squad, and a 'rehearsal' of the execution is planned for today.
  
• There are mythologies and compelling stories galore, from everyone's point of view, and they all say the same thing: we are victims and someone else is to blame for the violence. We are justified. There are rumours among supporters of the bombers that the U.S. CIA was behind the most destructive of the three bombs that exploded that October night. They see the attacks as "'a conspiracy between America, Australia and the Jews.'" There are all kinds of theories concerning the nefarious meaning of the multiple delays in carrying out the executions.
  

 

The supporters are gearing up for a show of grief, celebration, and unanimity on behalf of religion and its martyrs.

• Jemaah Islamiyah, a local network of "mostly Afghan trained militants" that is believed to be behind the Bali bombings, will be at the funerals in force and have threatened to kill in revenge for the executions. The founder of that group, Abu Bakar Bashir, plans to attend both funerals; he says that "Muslims would be angry if the men are executed but what he is most scared of is 'if God is angry.' 'If Muslims are angry,' he said, 'it will be only words. But if God is, it will be real problem.'"
  
• The U.S. and Australian embassies in Jakarta received bomb threats by text message earlier this week. Australia has raised its terror alert and launched travel warnings in anticipation of violence after the executions are made known.
  
• Some Indonesians are donating their land for the bombers' burial ground, to create a Jihadi cemetery; a blogger living in Jakarta notes: "'It is almost comical in a sense the competition that is being generated with regards to signing up the families of the soon to be dead killers to a burial spot.'"

 

Not only are the supporters building momentum, so is the media. I set up a news alert for "Bali Bombers" last week. It brings about 20-25 news stories per day into my email box, more than any other news alert I've ever had. And nothing is happening -- except the pre-death rituals, anticipation and intimations, and the post-death fears, anticipation and predictions -- and the precise recording of the process of momentum-building as mimetic.

 

I admit to feeling fascinated, not by these three bombers and what they've done, in particular, nor by their deaths whenever they occur, but by the process as it unfolds so clearly, so ordinarily though it's writ large, so (seemingly) unconsciously through all the conscious strategising.

 

To quote Rick Blaine in Casablanca (1942): "It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." Three people, yes, and yet, how alike we seem, how much the same the system seems to operate everywhere: how ready to grieve, to unify, to remove conflictual elements, to blame and accuse someone else, to seek revenge, to feel we are victims, to ritualise, to sacralise, to mythologise, to invoke a higher authority to support our views, to want our side to win, to join in the violence and to feel good knowing we're right.

 

Update 14 Nov: This article in The Age today hits most of the elements of the scapegoat mechanism: unification of splinter groups through shared anger, grief and a sense of being the victims of others -- the outsider 'others' become the enemies, displacing animosity among  warring splinter groups; the compelling story that can be told to enroll new converts; the 'sacrifice' and the glorification of the 'self-sacrificing' victims; and, the understanding in modern times that violence in the name of religion masks "economic, political and social disaffection."

 

Headline today:

 

Bombers get medical all-clear for death

 

It's been six weeks since I last blogged about mob violence. I've been away most of that time, but no matter where we go or what we're doing, collective violence continues in many forms. Below are some of the latest incidents reported as mob violence or mob justice. (And here's why I'm doing it.)

 

 

August to the present (also December 2007, and in 1999): Violence against Christians continues in Orissa, on India's east coast, since the 23 Aug. assassination of a Hindu swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his followers: "Though Maoist insurgents took credit for the killing, Hindu extremists blamed Christians. They mounted mob attacks on churches, as well as homes and villages populated by Christians.  More than 100 people reportedly have been beaten, hacked or burned to death since the mob violence began. It is estimated tens of thousands of Christians have fled their homes, many remaining in seclusion in forests and others in relief camps with police guards. ... Christians reportedly make up about 2.4 percent of the state's 36.7 million people." A BBC news report mentions the religious rivalry of the region: "Hindu groups have long accused Christian priests of bribing poor tribes and low-caste Hindus to convert to Christianity. Christians say lower-caste Hindus convert willingly to escape the Hindu caste system." More at Orissa Burning, at Legacy Matters, and in the NY Times.

 

12 Oct. 2008, Andhra Pradesh, India: "Even before Friday's communal fire could be doused, six members of a family, including three children, were burnt alive after their tile-roofed house was engulfed in a mysterious fire in a village near here in the strife-torn Adilabad district in the early hours of Sunday." Relatives allege "that Mahboob Khan's family members were killed and later burnt to death by pouring kerosene on them." The incident is under investigation.

Previously, 12km away in Bhainsa town, "three people were killed when a Durga idol immersion procession was passing by a mosque, where Friday prayers were being offered. Two of the three killed ... were from the minority community and they were stabbed to death. Twenty-five people had been injured too."  Andhra Pradesh home minister K Jana Reddy appealed for calm and "he urged people to stay away from rumour mongers."

 

8 Oct. 2008, Dhule, Mumbai, India: "The communal riots that erupted in Dhule on Sunday afternoon have claimed six lives so far. Eight others were injured in the riots which broke out after two groups clashed over the tearing of posters. ... Eighty-six were injured in mob violence." The area is about 75% Hindu and 25% Muslim. "Residents said that 10-15 houses were set ablaze near the Juna Devpur Eintbhatti area and the wall of Agna mosque was demolished by the rioters. ... 'The police became mute spectators as rioters pelted stones and put property on fire. They could not be controlled.'"

 

1 Oct. 2008, Kemaman, Terengganu, Malaysia: "A group of men beat to death a suspected motorcycle thief on Saturday in what appeared to be mob justice. The 30-year-old man was attacked by a group of 20 to 30 men. ... The suspected thief, from Dungun, had prior convictions and was also believed to have been a drug addict." Four men, aged between 30 and 40, are being held for murder.

 

30 Sept. 2008, Norwich City Centre, East Anglia, UK: "Three men have been arrested over the murder of a millionaire banker who tried to save a homeless Lithuanian man being assaulted by a mob." Frank McGarahan, 45, died from head injuries suffered when intervening to help: "[A]s Mr McGarahan shouted at the gang of ten men to stop, they turned on him. In the fracas, he suffered a serious head injury."

 

27 Sept. 2008, Meetiyagoda, Sri Lanka: "In a tragic incident, a six-year-old boy was burnt to death in his sleep when an angry mob set fire to a house in Meetiyagoda on Thursday night following a dispute with his parents. ... Police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara told the Daily Mirror the parents and the victim had gone to attend a wedding in the Bataduwa area on Thursday evening. In the night the father had come home along with the child and gone back to the wedding after the child went to sleep.  He had got involved in a brawl there, reportedly after consuming liquor. The brawl had taken serious proportions forcing him to flee the area and hide in the jungle. The angry group had stormed his house and set fire to it unaware of the presence of the sleeping child. The house which was made out of wattle and daub was swiftly gutted by fire."

 

26 Sept. 2008, Delhi, India: "Lalit Choudhary, 47, died on Monday of head wounds after being attacked by a mob at the Graziano Transmissioni car parts factory in Delhi. He'd been attempting to resolve a long-standing dispute with workers who had demanded better pay and permanent contracts, and some of whom had been sacked for their trouble.  However, a meeting with former employees turned seriously nasty and 'the unemployed men began vandalising the machinery, turning on Choudhary when he tried to reason with them'. ...  Around 125 dismissed workers armed with iron rods barged into the factory and went on rampage. When Lalit tried to pacify them, they assaulted him with rods." More at The Register.

 

7 Sept. 2008, Paris, France: From the Jerusalem Post: "Three counselors from the Bnei Akiva youth movement were attacked not far from the organization's central branch in Paris on Saturday afternoon. The boys, aged between 17 and 18, had just finished the minha prayer when they were attacked by a group of Muslims. ... [T]he youths were initially approached by a group of three Muslim/African immigrants who began to throw chestnuts in their direction. When one of the counselors asked them why they were being attacked, the assailants began shouting anti-Semitic remarks. Ten to 12 attackers wearing brass knuckles joined the original three and beat the three Jews until police arrived." The victims sustained a broken nose, broken jaw, and lacerations.

 

6 Sept. 2008, Birmingham, England, UK: "A father died after being slashed across the face and then repeatedly stabbed on his own doorstep by a mob in front of his teenage son.  Odd job man Jeff Parry, 44, was left dying in a pool of blood after the frenzied attack. Neighbours in Bromford, Birmingham, yesterday claimed he had been a victim of mob justice -- targeted after being accused of stealing a handbag. They said he answered the door to a group of men who lashed out, cut his face and stabbed him seven times." (That's the entire article.) So far, three boys/men have been charged, one 16 years old.

 

28 Aug. 2008, Nabbingo, Uganda, Africa: "The Police in Nabbingo, Wakiso district, battled with residents after they pounced on two suspected chicken thieves and killed one of them. Sadala Kiwanuka, a carpenter of Kawempe, was killed, while his colleague Bulana of Bwaise was rescued by the Police from the mob and taken to Mulago Hospital. ... An eyewitness said one of the residents saw the suspects trying to load the stolen chicken on their bicycle and made an alarm, which brought residents out. ... Police commander Alison Agaba said "had the Police not got there in time, the mob would have set the suspects on fire."

 

25 Aug 2008, Orissa, India: In part of the ongoing Hindu-Christian violence, a 29-year-old Catholic nun was raped "by a member of a Hindu mob in Kandhamal district. ... She also alleged that she was paraded naked through the streets." Another article indicates that she was gang-raped by members of a mob of 40 men; so far 8 men have been arrested in the case. With her when she was taken was pastor Father Thomas Chellan, whom the mob beat with irons and tried to kill by dousing him with petrol. See The Hindu for more info from Chellan's pov.

 

25 Aug. 2008, Soweto, South Africa: "The victim of two suspected robbers, who had reportedly been terrorising the community, feels the culprits deserved to die.  She said this after the two robbers got a fatal dose of mob justice in Lenasia South at the weekend when residents accosted them. 'The men have been stealing from the community for a long time now and they finally got what they deserved,' said Amelia Miya, 53. ... 'When I got to the street there were many people assaulting the robber with sjamboks and kicking him.' ... 'The other robber was caught a few streets away and beaten to death on the scene. It turns out that he was carrying a toy gun.'"

 

21 Aug 2008, Subang Jaya, Malaysia: Six men, all in their 20s, are believed to have killed Mohd Farid Sarader Ali, 24, who was alleged to have snatched the handbag of a VIP's wife. He was beaten up about a week later by the VIP's son and his friends, after they tracked him through his motorcycle registration; he fell into a coma and died three days later in hospital. Mohd Farid, an oddjobs worker, "had several previous records for snatch thefts." His mother said, "'Even if he did snatch the Datin's handbag, he doesn't deserve to die.'" Another man said that he and others "'followed the VIP son's car to the place but could not do anything as some 25 men bashed him up in front of the Datin.'"

 

 

At Overcoming Bias today, report of a study finding that "when we are reminded of when others have victimized us, we are less able to see that we victimize others."

 

Researchers reminded participants from the U.S. and Canada, and, separately, North American Jewish participants, of various attacks and atrocities, including, variously, the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S., the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Nazi atrocities in Poland during World War II, a deadly terrorist attack in Sri Lanka, and the genocide in Cambodia.

 

All the groups were less likely to perceive "the distress the [Iraq] war has caused many Iraqis, and less likely to feel collective responsibility" when they were reminded of an attack in which they felt themselves to be victims.

 

For U.S. participants, reminders of both the 9/11 attacks and the attack on Pearl Harbor caused participants to feel less guilt or responsibility for the distress of Iraqis than when reminded of the tragedy in Poland. The Jewish volunteers, on the other hand, felt "reduced guilt and responsibility for Israeli actions that cause suffering among Palestinians when they are first reminded about the Holocaust, compared with when they are reminded about the genocide in Cambodia." Canadians showed no difference among the scenarios, none of which affected Canadians personally.

 

This, I think, is why resentment is so corrosive. Resentment -- or re-sentiment -- is our internal, ongoing way of reminding ourselves of our own victimhood, of refreshing the feeling of being the victim, which apparently tends to make us more insensitive to others' victim status and less able to perceive our own role in perpetrating violence. But,  remembering times when we have felt victimised might also, perhaps, lead us to be more compassionate for victims of any sort, knowing what that experience feels like, realising that others suffer just as we do.

 

 

(Abstract of the study in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, June 2008)

 

It's been almost a month  since I last blogged about mob violence, which continues to continue. Below are some of the latest incidents reported, and some commentary on the phenomenon by others. (And here's why I'm doing it.)

 

 

19 July, Croydon, London, UK, Policeman attacked by gang of children after issuing litter warning: "A police officer was kicked, beaten and bitten when he was attacked by a gang of children, some still in their school uniforms, when he asked a girl to pick up litter she had dropped." He was "pulled to the ground during the assault by the group of up to 30 children and adults in the incident. '[The girl] just threw litter on the floor and we asked if she could pick that up. ... As we walked away, she threw it at us. Then we went back to talk to her. They swarmed at the start.'" [S]everal older men and women joined the fracas." The parents of an arrested 15-year-old girl "complained that the start of her summer holiday had been disrupted." One inspector said, "'While we would never use the word "mob", which is an inflammatory word, we can confirm that witnesses have described their initial fear that officers were going to be seriously injured or killed.'"

 

 

25 July, Tanzania, Africa, Mob justice claims three in Rukwa: "Three people suspected to be thieves were stoned to death and their bodies burnt beyond recognition by angry mobs in separate incidents on Sunday and nobody has been arrested for the crime so far." They were lynched "after they were caught with 25 head of cattle and a donkey stolen from Leonard Mandela (26)." They were also accused of stealing maize. "The suspects were also armed and they tried to stage a fight but were later over-powered, had their legs and hands tied before they were stoned to death. The criminals later disappeared from the scene after murdering the suspects but the RPC warned that in future the whole village would risk being charged with murder in case people continue to take law into their own hands."

 

 

26 July, Ghaziabad, India: In riot, a story of hope: "At least 30 people were injured in a violent clash between members of two communities. But when an angry mob descended on a group of policemen, [Abdul] Ghaffur [age 60] did not flinch as he gave them shelter in his three-bedroom, single storey home. ... Ghaffur today told Newsline, 'I have realised that a mob does not have any religion, for harming any innocent is not what religion teaches. I became more determined to save those who have taken shelter in my house. Sitting in his ransacked house, Ghaffur said: 'The 12 policemen ran for their lives and knocked on my door when surrounded by some 200 people. My whole family was inside (but) I could not turn them away.' Despite threats from the mob, by then gathered outside his house in numbers, Ghaffur did not open the door. 'They warned us with dire consequences unless we let the policemen out,' Ghaffur’s son Riyaaz said. 'When we refused, they took away all money and jewellery we had saved for my sister Nargis’s wedding.'" The violence apparently erupted "when police tried to prevent illegal construction on land belonging to the Land Management Committee." 10 people were injured, some by gunfire.

 

 

31 July, Shendandoah, PA, USA: Town struggles with fallout from immigrant's fatal beating: Illegal Mexican immigrant Luis Ramirez, 25, was attacked with such force that the blows left "a clotted, bruised impression of Jesus Christ on the skin of his chest from the religious medal he wore. His attackers were white teenagers, including star students and football players, witnesses told police. After a night of drinking, the teens taunted the undocumented worker with racial epithets, pummeled him to the ground and then kicked him in the head, court documents charge. He died in a hospital two days later." Two weeks later, two teens who are said to have delivered the fatal blows were arrested and charged as adults with homicide and ethnic intimidation.

"Defense attorneys for two of the teens say Ramirez responded to the name-calling with his own insults, which escalated the confrontation into a fight that got out of hand." One defense attorney, Fanelli, "said he plans to investigate whether Ramirez has a criminal background. He also questions why the engaged father of three was walking on the street with the girl, and the nature of their relationship. ... Residents question whether the attack was racially motivated or just an alcohol-fueled confrontation among kids. 'You would be proud to have any of these kids in your classroom, and any of them as your children,' said Fanelli."

 

 

31 July, Oxford, England, UK, Girl gang attacks 14-year-old: "A young foreign student was viciously attacked by a gang of girls in Oxford. [She] was approached by six white teenage girls as she sat on the steps outside The Queen's College in the High Street. One of them started swearing and shouting at the victim and then walked over to her and punched her several times in the face, causing an injury to her eye." She received hospital treatment. "The main offender of the group is aged around 16, skinny, 5ft 6ins, with bleached blonde hair, which was tied back. She was wearing a black tank top. It is believed the young girls, who were wearing dark clothing, were under the influence of alcohol."

 

 

1 Aug, Halifax, England, UK, Gang attack teen who asked for his ball back: "A 16-year-old boy was attacked by a gang of six youths in a busy park when he asked them for his football back. Four teenagers, thought to be around 17 or 18 years old, took the sixth-former's ball and refused to give it back. Then two other thugs joined them and they beat him up." His mother said, "'They just set upon him. They must have thought he was an easy target. One of him and four of them. Two others joined in afterwards.' ... She added that despite the park being full of people lapping up the sun only one woman intervened."

 

 

11 Aug., Kilifi, Kenya, Africa, In Kilifi, the elderly are endangered: "It is almost a crime to grow old in some parts of the country, and the 'victims' are labelled witches -- for which they are liable to suffer mob-justice or other forms of maltreatment.  Sporting white hair is also a crime that is linked to 'evil' practices. ... Mzee Katana Kasena, 78, lives under constant threat of lynching over claims that he is a witch. At his Miwaleni village, Mwanamwinga location in Kaloleni District, aged people like him who have grey hairs, dress shabbily and live in makuti structures are labelled witches. 'These claims are not true .... This is the work of my close relatives who are out to kill me so that they can grab my farm.'" ...

"In Kilifi it is claimed that family members collude to kill their ageing parents, grandparents and uncles, accusing them of bewitching them. ... Police in Kilifi estimate that 90 per cent of the deaths of elderly people in the area are a result of murder. ... The police boss recalls a case three weeks ago where an old man was slashed with pangas and his body left in a pool of blood. Villagers discovered the body of 75-year-old Katana Kalama 20 metres from his Maweni Bofa village and reported the discovery to police. ... 'Preliminary police investigations have revealed that the death of the old man had been organised by people who suspected him to be a wizard.'"

 

 

11 Aug, Bermuda, College-bound student murdered: "An 18-year-old man was murdered after trouble kicked off at a late-night party at Elbow Beach on Saturday. Six male teenagers were last night in custody following the stabbing of Kellon Hill.  ... A group of young men set upon Mr. Hill and attempted to steal his gold chain, according to sources. One told The Royal Gazette it is thought he defended himself and was killed in the resulting struggle. ... Detectives say about 75 people were present at the time of the incident, but so far they have only spoken to three or four. ... The victim is thought to have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time when they pounced on him. ... The perpetrators are thought to be gang members, although Mr. Hill is said to have had no gang affiliations and yesterday Police said there was no evidence to say the incident was a 'town versus country' fight."

 

 

11 Aug, Brisbane, Australia, Bashed koala found dumped in bin: "Wildlife officers were called to a park at Kallangur on Friday night after a koala was attacked by a group of teenagers. Residents reported a group of teenagers were throwing sticks and rocks at a koala. Hospital spokeswoman Anika Lehmann says the koala and her joey were rescued. But wildlife officers found the body of another koala in a garbage bin. 'It had a crushed skull, a punctured left eye, big trauma to the left side of its body, it had a broken right arm and when I asked the vet is this consistent with clubbing or bashing or whatever they said, yes.' ... Ms. Lehmann says it is one of the worst cases of animal cruelty she has seen."

 

 

15 Aug, Soweto, South Africa, Fear of 'orphans' in stonings: "The stoning to death of three suspected criminals on Wednesday in Ntuzuma township has brought to six the number of people killed in what appears to be incidents linked to mob justice." It's believed by residents that the recent victims are members of a group of criminals active in the early 1990s, which calls itself izintandane (orphans); "the 1990s gang had justified their actions claiming to be orphans who had lost their parents during the liberation struggle. ... Communities claim police have failed to deal with the matter of the 'orphans' until they [the communities] took the decision to kill them."

18 Aug, Portland ME, US, Motive unclear in East Bayside attack: "Portland police are trying to piece together the events that led to a fatal attack on a transient man. ... Around 1:40 a.m. Saturday, a group of young males chased 37-year-old Frank Williams III across a soccer field adjacent to the Kennedy Park housing project and attacked him until he crawled under a fence, according to police. Williams, who had been stabbed at least once during the attack, died soon after being taken to Maine Medical Center. ... The motive remains unclear, but police said the attack on Williams, who was known to them, may have involved drugs. The investigation remains in its early stages, but the attack does not seem to have been racially motivated or gang-related. ... Police said the assailants were a group of eight males that included whites, blacks and Asians and ranged in age from under 16 to mid-20s. Williams was white. ...

"Attacks on people who are homeless have become more common in recent years, said Donna Yellen, community initiatives and advocacy coordinator at the Preble Street Resource Center. ... 'Morning after morning at breakfast soup kitchens, we'd see guys with black eyes, cuts. They would have various stories about being assaulted for no other reason than they were homeless.'"

 

 

18 Aug, New Delhi, India, Locals lynch criminal: "In a probable case of mob justice, a 27-year-old criminal of Khajoori Khas area in north-east district died after three people severely beat him up on Sunday around 6 pm. ... Police said the victim, Dipender alias Deepu, was a bad character of the area and allegedly involved in several criminal cases. On Saturday, Dipender misbehaved with a girl in his neighbourhood. When she protested, he abused her and threatened her inside her house. ... On Sunday, the girl complained to her family after which an altercation took place between Dipender and the family members. Soon, some locals of the area also gathered and they started beating Dipender mercilessly. Two members of the family, Anatpal and Hari Singh took out a stick and hit Dipender on his head and he slumped on the road." Others may have been involved in the beating.

Dark thoughts last week as I was in the shower listening (thanks, showerbug!) to an NPR story about how China expels, arrests, and uses force to keep a lid on dissidents, in order to keep the society stable, and thinking about Girard's contention that the U.S. has managed to keep society stable without hierarchies, through social mobility, the legal and judicial systems, technology, and being part of global free market economic competition, among perhaps other ways he doesn't mention. I thought about how the U.S. maintains its fragile stability and two things come immediately to mind. We don't: the U.S. murder rate is far higher than any European country. According to 2000 data, the U.S. ranked #24 on a list of murders per capita, behind Colombia, South Africa, Venezuela, Russia, Mexico, some other bits of the USSR, and Thailand, but well ahead of India, Azerbaijan, Romania, Hungary, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and all of Europe, which except for Finland (#30) and Portugal (#33) ranked from #40 to #58, out of 62. The 2004 data shows an increase in the murder rate in the U.S. to 5.5 homicides per 100,000 people, compared with 2 in Canada, 1.6 in France, 1.4 in the UK, and 1 in Germany and Norway).

 

To the extent that we do maintain stability in our society, we do it at least partly by incarceration. The U.S. incarcerates more people than any other country, both in terms of numbers (gigantic China is a distance second) and percentages, so that 2.3 million, or more than 1 in 100 people, are in jail or prison (with more than 7 million on probation or parole), and 1 in 9 young black men are incarcerated. Half of those incarcerated are there for repeat non-violence offences.

 

Whether someone ends up in prison is determined by a complex matrix of factors, each of which may influence the other: race (both skin colour and psychic and historical wounds, fears, beliefs, perceptions); educational opportunity and resources; environmental factors -- everything from pollution and lead paint to family structure, community support, availability of mentors; income, income potential and family economic wealth; where one can reasonably choose to live; peers; addictions of choice; and so on. Tied in to all this are our laws, which, for instance, restrict but keep legal some addictions (cigarettes, alcohol, and prescription drugs like sleeping pills, e.g. ... and some might add non-nutritious foods, TV, technology, extreme dieting, and so on) and which outlaw others, and which enforce mandatory sentencing guidelines ("three strikes" laws).

 

Prisons keep our society stable; we can exile those who break the rules, who threaten our security, and we can effectively keep them away from the rest of us. Out of sight and out of mind.

 

Murder rates, although they have dropped from highs in the early 1990s, show we're not as stable as we think we are, at least in some areas of the country (i.e., usually in the poorest, most urbanized areas).

 

Who is being sacrificed to keep the U.S. stable? It seems clear to me that young black men are, if we can afford to lose more than 1/10 of them to prison and many more to murder -- in 2005, blacks were the victims of "nearly half the murders committed in the United States despite making up only 13 percent of the population," and slightly more than half of those were "young black men aged between 17 and 29." The children of those men are also being sacrificed. 

 

One could explore sacrifice in America in many ways -- in the economic system of haves and have-nots, in our celebrity and sports idol worship, in nursing homes and geriatric care, in women working and/or not working, our public education system, our health care system, and so on.  Another way might involve looking at deaths from motor vehicles accidents (43,300 in 2006), which occur 2.5 times more often than homicide (17,400 murders in 2006) in the U.S.  Alcohol-related motor vehicle deaths roughly equal murders, 17,941 in 2006. Obviously, motor vehicle accidents are usually far less intentional than murder, more collateral in nature even for drug-impaired drivers and reckless drivers (it's not generally their intention to kill anyone). Some motor vehicle deaths are completely accidental and perhaps unavoidable, because of poor skills, distractions, road conditions, vehicle fault, and so on; murder is never unintentional, by definition.

 

I wonder if the number of motor vehicle deaths and accidents could be said to result from our sacrifice to driving as essential to our way of life, or to our sacrifice to the cultural expectation of efficiency and getting things done as fast as possible, or to our societal tolerance for alcohol and/or to the stigma of the alcoholic in our society, or to our acceptance of social mobility as a stabilising mechanism, as Girard suggested. And so on. You get the idea. Granted, if we still rode horses or buggies, or walked long distances to get from place to place, or all took bullet trains, there would still be deaths resulting from these choices. Death happens.

 

My question is not a cloaked statement that cars and driving are bad, or that we should abolish prisons and laws; my question is, what are we sacrificing in our society, as a society, and for what purpose? And does that sacrifice bring us stability that otherwise we wouldn't have? What are the trade-offs?

 

 

 

The NYT Magazine is running an article this weekend titled "Malwebolence," about internet 'trolls' who enjoy causing harm to others, either because it's just fun -- they speak of "the joy of disrupting another's emotional equilibrium" while "you chat with friends and laugh" -- or perhaps because they have the notion that they are helping others learn how to handle explosives by blowing them up in their faces. One troll says his passion is 'pushing peoples' buttons' and he "frames his acts of trolling as ... sociological inquiries into human behavior." He also says: "'It's not that I do this because I hate them. I do this because I'm trying to save them.'" It seems fairly obvious through the article that this particular troll is trying to save himself, as well, though it may be too late: "'Am I the bad guy? Am I the big horrible person who shattered someone's life with some information? No! This is life. Welcome to life. Everyone goes through it. I've been through horrible stuff, too.' 'Like what?' I asked. Sexual abuse, [he] said." At age 5 he was molested by his grandfather [his mother confirms this] and three other relatives.

 

The article's author, Mattathias Schwartz, asks his readers at one point:

 

"Does free speech tend to move toward the truth or away from it? When does it evolve into a better collective understanding? When does it collapse into the Babel of trolling, the pointless and eristic game of talking the other guy into crying 'uncle'? Is the effort to control what's said always a form of censorship, or might certain rules be compatible with our notions of free speech?"

 

Free speech may be one issue to consider; it's not what immediately interests me reading this article. My interest is primarily in the proliferation (or so it's asserted) of mob violence online, what motivates and triggers it, and how it proceeds. As Schwartz says, attempting to respond to his own free speech query:

 

"Why inflict anguish on a helpless stranger? It's tempting to blame technology, which increases the range of our communications while dehumanizing the recipients. ... But while technology reduces the social barriers that keep us from bedeviling strangers, it does not explain the initial trolling impulse. This seems to spring from something ugly -- a destructive human urge that many feel but few act upon, the ambient misanthropy that's a frequent ingredient of art, politics and, most of all, jokes. There's a lot of hate out there, and a lot to hate as well."

 

Online mob violence, imo, is no different from in-your-face mob violence except perhaps, as Schwartz points out, it's considerably facilitated by anonymity and breadth of coverage. But the motivations, the triggers, and the process are the same in either case.

 

That 'trolling' is highly mimetic and is often mob violence is evidenced several times in the article:

 

• The Internet is "a mass medium for defining who we are to ourselves and to others." Yet another way to explore and  express who we are, vs. everyone else, through blogging perhaps more than through message boards, at least as the boards are used by most people.

 

• "Trolling has evolved [perhaps the wrong term] from ironic solo skit to vicious group hunt." "Technology, apparently, does more than harness the wisdom of the crowd. It can intensify its hatred as well."

 

• The victims are seem as utterly deserving of their fate, complicit in it, inviting it -- "You, the troll says, are not worthy of my understanding; I, therefore, will do everything I can to confound you" -- as is shown in this interchange between a troll and Schwartz:
  

 

"'You have green hair,' he told me. 'Did you know that?'
"'No,' I said.
"'Why not?'
"'I look in the mirror. I see my hair is black.'
"'That’s uh, interesting. I guess you understand that you have green hair about as well as you understand that you're a terrible reporter.'
"'What do you mean? What did I do?'
"'That's a very interesting reaction,' [he] said. 'Why didn't you get so defensive when I said you had green hair?' "
If I were certain that I wasn't a terrible reporter, he explained, I would have laughed the suggestion off just as easily. The willingness of trolling 'victims' to be hurt by words, he argued, makes them complicit, and trolling will end as soon as we all get over it."  

 

Another troll put it even more bluntly and graphically:

 

"'Trolling is basically Internet eugenics. ... I want everyone off the Internet. Bloggers are filth. They need to be destroyed. Blogging gives the illusion of participation to a bunch of retards. ... We need to put these people in the oven!'"

 

No one else is seen as innocent, therefore no one else is seen as a true victim and no one is seen as a perpetrator. Everyone else is seen as deserving of destruction at the hands of trolls, who, in some cases, see themselves as performing a meritorious service.

 

• That same troll implied that the mob (or a segment of it) is ripe for a leader and is waiting for a sign:

"'We're waiting,' [he] said. 'We need someone to show us the way. The messiah.'
"'How do you know it's not you?' I asked.
"'If it were me, I would know,' he said. 'I would receive a sign.'
"Zeno of Elea, Socrates and Jesus, [he] said, are his all-time favorite trolls. He also identifies with Coyote and Loki, the trickster gods, and especially with Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction." 

 

 

Beyond the indications of mob violence and mimesis, there's also an indication of antisocial personality disorder (sociopathy) -- an individual personality disorder, quite apart from the group phenomenon of mob violence -- in some of their comments about what's right and wrong, though even these might be echoed (often not out loud) by 'normal' people. It's the rationale, the feelings (or lack thereof) and the destructive actions, unchecked by any sense of true compassion for others, that together paint a particularly disturbing and illuminating picture:

 

"I asked [one troll] whether a person is obliged to give food to a starving stranger. No, [he] argued; no one is entitled to our sympathy or empathy. We can choose to give or withhold them as we see fit. 'I can't push you into the fire,' he explained, 'but I can look at you while you're burning in the fire and not be required to help.' [Metaphorically, though, according to this article some trolls have pushed some people into the fire -- their actions, usually en masse, have contributed to the deaths, job losses and relationship losses of others. They haven't simply sat passively by. They've set the fire, fanned it and then watched others struggle and writhe. Examples in the article.]

 

Asked "Is there anything that can be done on the Internet that shouldn't be done?," he didn't have an answer.

 

Another troll justified his desire to "kill four [billion] of the world's six billion people in the most just way possible" with his fear that "we are headed for a Malthusian crisis."  (He's the one who said he's waiting for a messiah.)

 

Schwartz ends the article by quoting some message board commenters trying to discern what makes people bad or good. "Finally," he says, someone types: "'I'd say empathy is probably a factor.'" 

   

I realise lots of good things happened today, all over the world. But checking CNN headline news this evening, here's what I found:

 

Bus passenger beheaded seat mate, witness says, in Manitoba, Canada. More, including identity of killer and victim, but still no motive. (2 Aug update: It gets worse.)

 

Preacher killed wife, stuffed body in freezer, police say, near Mobile, Alabama. He did this in Nov. 2004, when his wife caught him abusing his daughter, and he hid his wife's body with the help of the teenaged daughter he had been abusing. He's apparently been preaching ever since. (His resemblance to E.T. is remarkable ...)

 

Killer 'photographed mutilated girlfriend', in Goiania, Brazil. He dismembered her, photographed her with his cell phone, and stuffed her torso into a suitcase. The girlfriend was going to "tell his parents he was a drug dealer addicted to cocaine." More.

 

Sexual assault in military 'jaw-dropping,' lawmaker says. Forty-one percent of women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military and twenty-nine percent report being raped during their military service.

 

 

As the Wicked Witch says, "What a world, what a world ..." -- but the witch was bemoaning the loss of her wickedness to a good little girl who was just trying to save her scarecrow friend ...

 

 

It's been yet another month-plus since I last blogged about mob violence, which continues to continue. Below are some of the latest incidents reported, and some commentary on the phenomenon by others. (And here's why I'm doing it.)

 

As last time, I won't make the Girardian connections for each of these as I have in the past, because the connections are the same as always -- scapegoat is often someone from the margins (disabled, poor, stranger, female, old, young, from another caste or class or country, seen as privileged, etc. ), mob often forms spontaneously or grows larger as the scapegoating occurs due to accusatory mimesis, perpetrators easily justify the scapegoating as necessary and right, scapegoating's intention is to bring about peace in the community.

 

INCIDENTS

 

** 18 June 2008: Mozambique Africa: Four up for Mozambican's death: "Three men and a woman accused of stoning and burning a Mozambican to death at the weekend have briefly appeared in the Atteridgeville magistrate's court on a charge of murder." They "were arrested on Saturday after a mob attacked and killed Abraham Msimango (28). ... Police earlier said they believed the incident was not related to xenophobia, but was rather a case of mob justice as the crowd alleged that Msimango had burnt down a shack the on Friday. ... The officers had to call for back-up to disperse the angry crowd." The victim was also robbed.

 

 

** 22 June 2008 Vadodara, Gujarat, India: Mob justice in vogue in Vadodara: "A day after women activists beat up a man in the city for allegedly selling off a woman, the city, on Saturday witnessed two more instances of mob justice. In the first case, an M S University student was beaten up by his friends [with hockey sticks] in the university hostel campus for stealing a mobile phone, while in the second case, a youth was paraded around the hospital premises after he was caught stealing a bicycle. .. Strangely in both cases, no police complaint was filed till Saturday evening. ... Instances of mob-justice have been common in Vadodara. Earlier, a youth was chained to a tree, his face blackened and beaten up for breaking into a home."

 

 

** 27 June 2008, Cleveland Ohio USA: Young Teens Rob, Fatally Beat Man On E. 55th: "A Cleveland man died Wednesday night after he was beaten by a group of kids on bikes. ... Police say the suspects -- ages 13-15 years of age -- robbed the 42-year-old prior to the fatal attack. Investigators believe the random violence took place around 9:15 p.m.."  The victim, Anthony Waters, was walking from a homeless shelter, where he lived, to his mother's house.

 

 

** 28 June 2008 Seattle Washington USA: Seattle parking garage melee involves 50 people: "A dispute over who would be the first to exit a downtown Seattle parking garage early Saturday morning [aroun 2 a.m.] escalated into a 50-person melee and ended with one woman beaten, another stabbed in the abdomen, and a man arrested for assault, according to police. ... Two separate groups, one of men and one of women, had left the restaurant and got into an argument about who would be first to exit the lot. The women, in one car, got in front. One of the men got out of another car and started an argument with the women. The man pulled one of the women out of the car and 'began stomping on her.' ... At that point, onlookers got involved and the scene turned into a 'free for all, a huge melee.'

** 5 July 2008 Nairobi Kenya: Mob Justice, a piece on The Raven's blog, a travelogue of a couple living in Nairobi for six months. "Here in Kenya there is a thing called 'mob justice.' What it basically means is that a large group of people might attack you if they feel they have a right to do so. One example is from our driver Michael. In his apartment building a group of residents caught a thief in the act of stealing a DVD player. They chased him to the roof of the 6 story building and threw him off the building. When the police arrived and saw the dead body, the residents told the police of the stealing and how the thief by accident fell off the roof after the chase. And the later is what was written in the report, no further investigation was made." They give another example, too, of attempted mob justice against an innocent party.

 

  

** 6 July 2008 Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya: Summer in Kibera, a second-hand account from an American college student living in Kibera, a slum area in Nairobi: 

"On a different note; my house mate ... went downtown last night to a few bars. When getting ready to leave, someone on the street ran past her, snatching her bag from her shoulder. The street was crowded and well lit, and the many people who saw it ran after him and beat him until he was lying in a pool of blood. She came home horrified from witnessing such an event, and it has and will continue to take a great deal of energy to convince her that it is not her fault. The sense of mob justice is prevalent here, and terrifying. While we can talk all day long about where she was, how she carried her bag, who was with her, what time it was and so on, for me it comes down the troubling process of acclimation. As a white person, no matter how acclimated to Kenya you may become, Kenya is not acclimated to you. After being somewhere for a certain amount of time you naturally become more comfortable and let you guard down. However, we stick out, are stereotyped and targeted for crime. I feel very strongly about not blaming the victim in any circumstance and instead looking at sources of crime, namely poverty, and putting energy in addressing them."

 

 

** 6 July 2008, Haiti: Haitian official says 2 journalists killed in mob attack (AP): "Police said Saturday they are investigating an outbreak of mob violence that a Haitian politician claims resulted in the deaths of two journalists who were considering campaign runs for the Senate. ... [P]olice said people in the northern town of St. Raphael were taking revenge on men they believed had robbed a local credit union" of $1,800. The two victims were identified as Prad Jean Vernet and Adrien Michel, journalists with the Haiti Progres newspaper.  A member of the mob was also killed. (The account is somewhat confused -- were the two men who were attacked thieves, journalists, both? Were they targeted because they were thieves, journalists, aspiring politicians ... ?)

 

 

** 9 July 2008 Seattle WA USA: Chop Suey mob beating: when is vigilante justice an appropriate response?:

"Early Sunday morning, witnesses say, a crowd of about a dozen people beat a 25-year-old man outside the Chop Suey night club on Capitol Hill after the man was ejected from the club for allegedly harassing a woman. Angelo -- who witnessed the event and did not give his last name ... claims he saw someone grab a folding chair ... and use it to beat the man. Angelo also says no one did anything to help the man, who was left bloodied in the intersection of 14th and Pike." In another account, Angelo says, "“All of the people in front of Chop Suey started cheering [on the attackers]. ... And at least a dozen other people ran over and joined in beating the man." [I can't find this story reported in the Seattle Times or Seattle PI ...]

 

 

** 11 July 2008 Seattle WA USA (again): Traffic circle dispute turns tragic: 

"A 60-year-old Rainier Beach man seriously injured in a dispute over a neighborhood traffic circle died Thursday night at Harborview Medical Center. James Paroline had been in a coma since being punched and hitting his head on the concrete during the altercation Wednesday. ... At about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, Paroline was watering the little garden he had planted on the traffic circle ... He ran a garden hose from his house at the corner to the traffic circle," setting a traffic cone in the right lane to keep drivers from driving over the hose. A car of "young women drove up. One got out to tell Paroline to move the cone, police said. When he refused, the women began moving the cones themselves. Paroline sprayed one of the women with his hose. 'When she got sprayed, she really went crazy.' ... A short time later, another car drove up and a passenger -- described as an African-American man in his 20s ... got out to confront Paroline. The man delivered 'one punch.' ... The assailant then got in his car and sped off. ...

"'Most reasonable people just wait [for him to finish watering] or go the other way. But for some reason the people in the car decided to make something out of it.'" ... On Thursday, some described Paroline as somewhat of a curmudgeon, who'd call the police about neighbors singing in their yard or leaving recycling bins out too long. 'It shouldn't have happened, but I thought he'd annoy the wrong person one day,' said a neighbor."  (An arrest was made; the mother of the man arrested "said her son was coming to the aid of three girls he believed had been assaulted by the victim," one of whom is related to his girlfriend.)

 

 

** 11 July 2008 Marabastad, Praetoria, South Africa: We have resorted to mob justice: "An alleged thief, who walked past the front of a shop he burgled earlier this week, got the beating of his life when an alert shop owner saw him wearing clothes stolen from his shop. ... Members of the public apprehended him and beat him, causing serious injuries. 'We have resorted to mob justice here, because we are fed up with the crime in this area.'"

 

 

** 22 July 2008 Ahmedabad, Pakistan: Mob violence grips walled city: "Two groups clashed in three pols of Raipur and Khadia where a function to pay homage to Dipesh and Abhishek Vaghela by Congress workers did not find support with other residents. Khadia is a known BJP stronghold. Violence spread to other parts of the walled city and turned communal. Heavy stone-pelting and arson was reported from Delhi Chakla and Ghee Kanta. Sources said Ghee Kanta police chowky was also attacked by a mob. It had all started with a rally organized to pay homage to the two boys by carrying candles in their memory. The two rival groups clashed as the rally emerged. ... The police ... had to toil well into the night as sporadic incidents of violence continued in the inner lanes and bylanes of Khadia."

[I include this because it shows well, in such a short account, how violence can be evoked by sacred ritual and how it spreads and persists.]

 

 

ANALYSIS 

 

** 4 July 2008 Karachi Pakistan:  Mystery behind mob violence by Salis bin Perwaiz at The News International (Pakistan):

Speaking of recent incidents in which 'bandits' were "torched alive," Perwaiz offers some reasons for mob violence: (1) people have lost their faith in law enforcement agencies; (2) street crime has increased dramatically: "The every day killing and looting of citizens has caused a severe revulsion among the people and unleashed a deadly hatred which is shown in the aforementioned brutal and savage manner with which the criminals were set on fire. This is a direct example of the deep seated mental agony and psychological make-up of the society, which has decided to take on the criminals on their own out of utter frustration and desperation." (3) an organised gang involved behind these pyromaniac attempts who want to discredit the present government; "moreover, under the guise of punishing dacoits, some are settling their personal scores by calling their enemies dacoits and killing them on the spot with the help of frustrated people.  ... When asked about the morality of the enraged mobs, the investigators categorically said that there is, in fact, ethical justification for such heinous acts."

 

"Investigators believe that a racket of criminals have become active in distributing CDs containing these incidents of torching bandits in order to spread sensationalism in the society."

 

** 7 July 2008 Bangladesh: Mob Violence, a blog entry by kajalie: 


"Whether a mugging, road accident, or protests against a national policy -- whenever something goes wrong in our country, violence breaks out. Actions one would never even imagine taking individually are carried out by groups or 'the mob'. Is this anger a response to a failing social system where people feel forced to take the law into their own hands? Does this violence erupt all of a sudden, or is it dormant inside us all, just waiting for a trigger to set it off?"

Several examples are given, then the writer talks about the etymology of 'mob,' the history of mob violence, and, at length, characteristics of mob violence and dynamics of fear, anger and frustration:

 

* "A mob develops a mind of its own with individuals becoming highly vulnerable and suggestible to the will of the collective group. Crowds are essentially contagious...".

 

* "A crowd becomes a mob in steps. First, something exciting or interesting happens --  the trigger -- for example, a mugging or a road accident. Then, the focus of the crowd converges on a common element as emotions strengthen and, united around this issue or object, individuals escalate into a behaviour that is then imitated by others. For example, someone may start to beat the mugger, followed by others, or someone may smash a car window, leading others to follow and ultimately set the car on fire. But, while crowds are affected by emotions spiralling out of control, their behaviour may also be rational responses to political, social, religious, racial and/or economic catalysts. People may also participate in such violence because of their novelty in an otherwise routine life, for emotional release, to feel powerful, or simply to go with the flow, feeling no individual moral responsibility or normal constraints on their behaviour, sometimes, with participants not even being clearly aware of what is happening."

 

I can't do justice to the entry in a summary, so please, read it yourself.


 

 

** 17 July 2008: Nigeria: Footage of Thieves Burnt Alive in Nigeria, at Max Siollun's Website:

"[T]hieves being lynched and burnt alive by an irate mob is not an uncommon site [sic] in Nigeria. The Nigerian public has suffered various depravities such as rape, the loss of prized possessions, cash, physical injury and death of family members at the hands of robbers. Having been terrorized by them for decades, the Nigerian public usually deals ruthlessly and unsympathetically with captured thieves and armed robbers. There is no sympathy for robbers. Thieves and robbers that are caught in the act by the public are usually set upon by a mob, have a tyre flung around their neck and are burnt alive in instant vigilante jungle justice.

 

"Why do usually easy going Nigerians resort to such savagery? [Various causes given.] ... When the public catch a robber, it presents the public with an un-missable opportunity for vengeance against those that so terrorise them. A public lynching and burning of a robber is a ritual display of the public's (a) revenge, and revulsion with the robber's atrocities, and (b) outright rejection of a corrupt and inefficient penal and justice system."