Behavior in Special Situations

Did you know that public law and order include a social attitude that does not upset social discipline and peace? Did you know that violations of public law and order include shouting, insults, abuse, violence, fighting, breaking into state body buildings and obstructing their work, demolishing buildings, transport and other valuable things?

All those definitions are from the latest text book for police academy students under the title Civil Unrest.

The book teaches students that demonstrations are divided into: occasional, constant, small, big, peaceful, violent, workers', political, student, civil, party, religious, racial, social, nationalist and nationalist-separatist.

The author's message is clear: riots that are not dangerous to the authorities do not exist. In civil riots for example, young people "trained and armed for violence are present from the start. Most of those hooligans are from families that have given up on them, they do badly in school, see no prospects, have no profession".

Since all unrest is seen as dangerous to the authorities, it's interesting to see how the author defines local "forces of chaos", i.e. the opposition: "Political riots are organized by those political forces in the country that want changes or want to weaken the authorities and who assess that the moment has come to violently achieve their goals. Almost always prior to that kind of unrest, psychological and propaganda preparations are conducted from abroad for the population to accept the new authorities".

The book also describes participants in various demonstrations: "The masses blindly follow their leader. They do the most amazing things with no feeling for the law, community or moral norms. They believe they have to fulfill the joint obligation the leader gave them. The masses are directed against anyone who does not believe the same things they do. It is easily excited with imaginary things."

"The masses achieve or sustain excitement at a given level by singing, shouting slogans, war like signs (raising hands, marching). That weakens the individual and strengthens the effect of "mass consciousness" and there are known cases of individuals falling into a trance because of their upset sense of reasoning."

On the other hand, the police have a clear job: preventing civil unrest and securing law and order. The first step is an overall security assessment which includes the answers to the following questions: who are the real and who the covert organizers of the riots and what is their goal; are there any forces outside the country whose goals would be served through the unrest and possible success; is there media support and in what form both inside and out of the country.

The text book precisely lists "behavior in special situations", when for example rioters or the riot leaders are to be arrested; it spends a lot of time on types of cordon, use of chemicals, batons, armored cars, body armor and doesn't forget water cannon.

Finally, the author admits: "The infectious spread of emotions narrows the field of awareness and lowers the ability to reason critically not just among the masses but also among the members of the unit that is to take control of them. Weariness and psychological stress (while facing a rioting mass) causes police officers to become emotionally stimulated, heightens the effect of rumors and brings a rise of fear. When the police unit is subjected to that factor, tensions rise and self-discipline drops and some police officers could feel rid of usual limitations".