5) Detroit, USA – 1967

Late one July night an unlicensed bar remained open whilst all others in the area had long closed. This late opening bar caught the eye of the local Feds who decided to move in and shut the fun times down. The police rolled up expecting there to be a small crowd who would be easy to disperse, they had misjudged the situation.

When the cops burst into the bar they found more than 100 people celebrating the return from Vietnam of a couple of their buddies. The police called for back up as the drunk and upset patrons decided to start protesting.

At some point things started going bad. The protest turned to riots and shop windows got smashed in, people were getting hurt. After 48 hours the National Guard and the military were called in but it still took 5 days to calm the situation down. All told more than 1,000 people were injured, 43 died, 7,000 got arrested and more than 2,000 buildings were destroyed.

That’s quite a ruckus for shutting down a lock-in.

So that’s a brief run down of five of the most heavy-duty riots the world has seen. It’s interesting because they can be sparked by such a small event and so quickly descend into widespread mayhem. What’s going on now with the whole Ferguson thing is the latest upheaval in Western culture; I wonder whether it will die down soon? Or whether another tiny spark will send the whole mess erupting again. Only time will tell.