Police riot

A police riot is a riot carried out by the police; more specifically, it is a riot that police are responsible for instigating, escalating or sustaining as a violent confrontation. Police riots are often characterized by widespread police brutality, and they may be done for the purpose of political repression.

The term "police riot" was popularized after its use in the Walker Report, which investigated the events surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago to describe the "unrestrained and indiscriminate" violence that Chicago Police Department officers "inflicted upon persons who had broken no law, disobeyed no order, made no threat." During the 2020 George Floyd protests, columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote in The New York Times that a police riot is "an assertion of power and impunity" that "does more to inflame and agitate protesters than it does to calm the situation and bring order to the streets."It is worthwhile to note that there have also been cases, such as the 1857 clash between the New York Metropolitan Police and 300 policemen from the New York Municipal Police who were occupying City Hall, in which 52 policemen were injured -- where a police riot involved only the police. (see New York City Police riot).