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PART VI CONCLUSIONS
is not borne out by the facts. In the midst of these riotous incidents were two leaders of the original demonstrations, RAGGENSACK and LO Kei, and other partici- pants fully sharing in the violent and unruly behaviour that followed, whilst others, with no previous criminal tendencies so far as one can see, were being drawn in by the excitement and the contagion of mass action. The real truth seems to be that one stage and one step led on to another. When these youngsters set out with their banners into these crowded areas gradually attracting more and more followers, it was no great step to the point when, having impeded traffic and virtually brought it to a standstill, the throwing of stones began. One reporter stated that it began in an area where he was by the throwing of a shoe. Often it took no more than one youngster, slightly bolder than the rest, to emerge from a group and kick over a litter bin or break a traffic sign or parking meter for others in the group to start behaving in a similar manner. Indeed, this pattern only repeats what has been seen in riots in other countries; teenagers normally well conducted quickly get carried away when caught up in an excited boisterous mob of youths, any element of which is breaking into misbehaviour. No doubt the most sinister feature of the first evening was the looting which occurred at a later stage, but even there we have had evidence that normally honest youngsters were carried away by the temptation of the moment and, seeing the broken windows and the goods, could not resist the opportunity of getting something for nothing.
439. The pattern was much the same throughout with crowds gathering, light- ing bonfires, obstructing the roadway, throwing stones and other missiles at police, breaking traffic signs, parking meters, smashing the windows of stationary buses etc. When dispersed by tear gas or baton charges, they slipped into the side streets or up staircases and then came back for more, a game of tip-and-run, which they seemed to enjoy. Although the mood of the crowds seems to have been changeable, many witnesses spoke of a comparative light-heartedness, jeering and throwing stones, ‘all in good fun', they said. Others detected a more sinister note at times and it may be that the mood varied from time to time and from place to place; though, no doubt, to the police at the receiving end, it probably seemed sinister and nasty all the way. But the testimony of the witnesses and, indeed, of many photographs that we have seen, indicates there was comparatively little real anger or animosity in the groups that were indulging, when someone took the initiative, in the type of destruction which tends to attract teenagers. Throwing flower pots, litter bins etc. from roofs, balconies and stairways can, of course, be very dangerous, but there was little real vicious savagery in the groups-little or none of that setting upon and beating up of individual victims, which is so horrible a feature of many riots. As Pastor STUMPF, a prominent social worker pointed out, the objects tended to be material things rather than human beings. The police suffered because of their role in maintaining law and order and in protecting these things, but apparently there was little human animosity apart from very slight racial elements e.g. when a group molesting a Chinese photographer desisted in order to pursue