Witnessing A Riot
Posted on 18. Nov, 2009 by Dream in Independent Thinking, Miscellaneous
In the spring of 2008 I witnessed a “small” riot in east Orlando.
It was the first time I had ever seen such a thing, and it’s something I’ll never forget.
It was a Friday night. At a local bar named “Scoop”, with two friends (one of which was a speaker at The 21 Convention).
Usually Friday nights were packed at this bar – that night, sort of. Perhaps 80% of the usual crowd (a few hundred people).
About 1am, a few people start shouting at each other, maybe 30 feet from my friends and I (we are all outside in a courtyard style area, but still “in” the bar).
It hardly takes a few minutes before various people start shoving each other. Seconds after, the first punch was thrown. Fighting erupts – luckily the three bouncers present that night (under the order of the bar owner) managed to “move” the fight out of the bar, and into the parking lot.
There were already over half a dozen people fighting – considering this, and the fact that the fight was now “out” of the bar – the bouncers went back behind the gate, into the courtyard area of the bar.
Apparently this small group of drunk violent people had a lot of friends in the bar, since about an additional 20 people ran into the parking lot, almost immediately.
Must be popular guys huh?
I think not, since in a matter of minutes, an additional 15-20 people RAN into the parking lot, and joined the fighting.
Naturally, about a dozen branched off on their own, and started destroying cars (starting with the bar owners $70,000 BMW).
*Keep in mind there are nearly 50 people in the parking lot at this point, and so many individual fights I lost count.
The bar owner immediately orders the three bouncers to stop the dozen or so people wrecking his expensive car – to the dismay of the owner, they politely decline getting beat into the asphalt by an angry drunken mob (or getting dragged into the other fights going on nearby, as people who attempted to leave the bar and run to their cars, were generally, viciously attacked).
At this point you may be wondering, where were the cops? After all, this is only ~5 miles from one of the nation’s largest universities – should they be there after 15 MINUTES OF THIS GOING ON.
Well here’s what happened. Usually a few off duty (but still in uniform) law enforcement officers are hired to be present at a bar like Scoop. That particular night, the owner decided to cut that expense, and rely solely on his bouncers to keep order.
The cops were called almost immediately after the fighting began of course, so where were they? Surely a few had to be in the area.
They were actually – in fact they were watching the entire event happen from about a half a mile away (on Alafaya for any locals reading this). From memory, there were 3 marked sheriff cars.
They waited for backup (probably a wise decision considering the mayhem happening before them). In total, it took over 30 minutes for cops to come in and put a stop to the madness.
Over a dozen sheriff cars rolled in, along with a fire truck, and an ambulance (perhaps more than one, not sure from memory).
Multiple people were unconscious after having their heads beat into concrete curbs, broken bones left and right, blood, totally screwed up cars, and so on. The cops managed to arrest a few people, but from what I saw most of the people involved (including a good portion of the people who ignited the chaos) got away.
Do you know what was most disturbing of all though?
The impulse virtually everyone in the bar felt, during this insanity – the urge to jump in and start fighting.
It was one of the strangest feelings of my life, rivaled only by lighting striking less than 50 feet from me in my youth.
It was just an instinctual, animal-istic, IMPULSE, to join the mob, and start fighting/destroying things.
I couldn’t believe the thoughts that were racing through my head. Sure enough, both of my friends felt the same exact thing, and were equally alarmed and baffled by it. I spoke with a few girls that remained in the bar (the wisest decision unless you were an Olympic sprinter and were willing to risk your life getting to your car), and again, they felt the same “urge”.
Even more perplexing, I didn’t mention what I felt when talking to the women – I simply asked if they felt anything “weird” watching the fighting.
To summarize
- A bar owner cut a corner on the wrong night
- A small fight broke out, which was pushed into a parking lot
- Dozens upon dozens of people joined in, attacking not only each other, but cars and people running to their cars as well (I assume many of which had nothing to do with the people originally involved).
- LEO’s (law enforcement officiers) soon arrived, but did not intervene till backup arrived, some 30 minutes after the fighting began.
- Thousands of dollars in property damage was done, many people were injured (some seriously).
- Most (everyone?) who remained in the bar, felt a deep impulse to join the fight
The purpose of this post is to share my experience (and reference it later). I will draw conclusions and share further thoughts in a future post, but feel free to discuss or ask specific questions.
On a related note, check this out – a story about a young girl who was raped for hours outside of her school dance recently.
Even better, over 10 people witnessed the event, and did nothing.
I remember that night..
I’ve thought about it quite a few times since then, and never experienced anything like it. Everybody was so angry and fighting about nothing instinct kicked in and said either to hide or start swinging…
There was also that really hot lesbo kiss that happened during the fight, right by us… So the emotions must have been driving the girls crazy.
Bido