Riot Quotes

“And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? ... It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“On the plus side, there were no rioters in sight but on the minus side this was probably because everywhere I looked was on fire.”
― Ben Aaronovitch, Midnight Riot

“Every man who has in his soul a secret feeling of revolt against any act of the State, of life, or of destiny, is on the verge of riot; and so soon as it appears, he begins to quiver, and to feel himself borne away by the whirlwind.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“The riot had taken on a beauty of its own now. Arcs of gasoline fire under the crescent moon. Crimson tracer in mystical parabolas. Phosphorescence from the barrels of plastic bullet guns. A distant yelling like that of men below decks in a torpedoed prison ship. The scarlet whoosh of Molotovs intersecting with exacting surfaces. Helicopters everywhere: their spotlights finding one another like lovers in the Afterlife.

And all this through a lens of oleaginous Belfast rain.”
― Adrian McKinty, The Cold Cold Ground

“With his head thrust forward like a ram, Baryba pushed his way through to the front. For some reason this was necessary, he felt with all his guts that it was necessary. He clenched his iron jaws. Something bestial stirred in him, something he hungered for, some murderous instinct. To be with everybody, to howl like everybody, to hit the one that everybody else was hitting. ("A Provincial Tale")”
― Yevgeny Zamyatin, The Dragon: Fifteen Stories

“Last summer, in London at least, the hoodie was transformed from a benign piece of leisurewear into a uniform for the disaffected, the angry, the malevolent. So much so that ‘hoodie’ was no longer a piece of clothing. It was a whole person. A hoodie was somebody likely to steal, plunder and do you unimaginable harm.

People were crossing the street when a hoodie crossed their path - even if it was a 70-year-old gentleman walking his dog. That’s how quickly the fear had permeated the collective consciousness. And lifting the hood was tantamount to cocking a gun.”
― Mark Capell, RIOT MURDER - Myles Morgan Undercover #2

“He paused a foot away, and frowned. 'Dresses aren't good for flying, ladies.'

Nesta didn't reply.

He lifted a brow. 'No barking and biting today?'

But Nesta didn't rise to meet him, her face still drained and sallow. 'I've never worn pants,' was all she said.

I could have sworn concern flashed across Cassian's features. But he brushed it aside and drawled. 'I have no doubt you'd start a riot if you did.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Wings and Ruin

“Two wrongs don't make a riot.”
― Cormac McCarthy, The Passenger

“Our everyday life is the manifestation of the same riot where we started and ended yesterday”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“I regard President Trump as “America’s Terrorist’.”
― Steven Magee

“His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
For violent fires soon burn out themselves;”
― William Shakespeare

“In Liverpool, UK, President Trump would be known as a ‘Scallywag’.”
― Steven Magee

“It is time to remove President Trump.”
― Steven Magee

“George Floyd’s spirit televised the criminal behaviors of the police to the world.”
― Steven Magee

“Changing the social order in one fell swoop, Henry Gerber wrote in 1940, is “like trying to push over a big stone wall with your skull.” It can’t be done. But “we can undermine the wall by little individual blasts and it will topple down by-and-by.” Or, as Del Shearer said in 1965, social revolution required at least “a century of subtle attack” on the dominant culture.
As riots engulfed the United States in 1968, Frank Kameny saw similarities between homophiles and those Black Americans taking to the streets to express centuries of anger. “BUT,” Kameny said, “the Negro has truly explored and exhausted well-neigh, if not actually all, other avenues, and has gotten to the firm, unyielding stone wall of prejudice which blocks them. WE have run into this, but have not yet reached the end of all avenues.”
Queer people soon hit the end of all avenues, crashing into an unyielding stone wall.”
― Leighton Brown, We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride In The History of Queer Liberation

“In movies, they show hero as a victim first to make his violence look heroic. Similarly, all groups that incite violence make you feel victimized first so that you can feel like a hero when you do violence.”
― Shunya

“The unrest that took place. Somehow, we need to talk about it and address it. We need to educated and discuss on what really happen. How it started. What caused it and what fuel it. If not , we are in danger ,because there are some people who benefited from it, and they are not looking at the damage caused by it. So, they will make sure that it happens again.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“I viewed President Trump as the modern day version of Guy Fawkes.”
― Steven Magee

“लाश ! यह शब्द कितना घिनौना है ! आदमी अपनी मौत से अपने घर में, अपने बाल-बच्चों के सामने मरता है तब भी बिना आत्मा के उस बदन को लाश ही कहते हैं। और आदमी सड़क पर किसी बलवाई के हाथों मारा जाता है, तब भी बिना आत्मा के उस बदन को लाश ही कहते हैं। भाषा कितनी ग़रीब होती है ! शब्दों का कैसा ज़बरदस्त काल है ! कितनी शर्म की बात है कि हम घर पर मरनेवाले और बलवे में मारे जानेवाले में फ़र्क नहीं कर सकते, जबकि घर पर केवल एक व्यक्ति मरता है और बलवाइयों के हाथों परम्परा मरती है, सभ्यता मरती है, इतिहास मरता है। कबीर की राम की बहुरिया मरती है। जायसी की पद्मावती मरती है। कुतुबन की मृगावती मरती है, सूर की राधा मरती है। वारिस की हीर मरती है। तुलसी के राम मरते हैं। अनीस के हुसैन मरते हैं। कोई लाशों के इस अम्बार को नहीं देखता । हम लाशें गिनते हैं। सात आदमी मरे। चौदह दूकानें लुटीं । दस घरों में आग लगा दी गई। जैसे कि घर, दूकान और आदमी केवल शब्द हैं जिन्हें शब्दकोशों से निकालकर वातावरण में मँडराने के लिए छोड़ दिया गया हो !...”
― Rahi Masoom Raza, Topi Shukla

“That free time is one of the biggest barriers to activism was, in a way, proven in the summer of 2020, as the protests over George Floyd and the slew of other Black lives lost became the most attended protests in American history. Up to twenty-six million Americans participated, a number that would be unthinkable were it not for the converging COVID-19 epidemic and the unprecedented amount of free time that accompanied it.”
― Jack Lowery, It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic

“I suppose you think this is some big fight between youth and experience? Anarchy and authority? People like you always miss the point, Quentin Quire. It's all about "in" versus "out".”
― Grant Morrison, New X-Men, Vol. 4: Riot at Xavier's

“Whenever there’s a riot, that’s how it starts. It grips us to see the foremost god of the modern world crushed by prehistoric might. The burning car is the single most poignant representation of the post-industrial psyche.”
― Cameron Trost, Flicker

“A police officer is paid to be attacked by angry people.”
― Steven Magee

“Cumulative Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) is one of the many occupational hazards for police officers.”
― Steven Magee

“A police officer is one of the most dangerous jobs a person can do.”
― Steven Magee

“I do my best to avoid contact with what I regard to be corrupt police officers. You will not find me attending any form of riot anywhere in the world. As a police corruption researcher, I know the police line is probably staffed by lying thugs.”
― Steven Magee

“To riot or not to riot, that is the question.”
― Steven Magee

“To riot for equality or to riot for historic national identity, that is the question.”
― Steven Magee

“To riot for better protection of children or to riot for all of the other toxic government issues, that is the question.”
― Steven Magee

“I followed along with Sky News and BBC News during the UK 2024 riots. The BBC News feed distinctly changed after it emerged the killer of the young girls was a BBC TV star. The Sky news feed distinctly changed after the rioting did not stop. After a week of watching both of them, I never trusted either news feed and started to get my news from social media. Both channels reported the Banksy police box artwork as ‘fish’ when they were flesh eating piranhas!”
― Steven Magee