[quote]It was the morning of January 22, 1932, in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood of the Bronx. A crowd was gathering in front of 2302 Olinville Avenue, near the Bronx Park.
City Marshals and Police had moved in to evict 17 tenants who were on a “rent strike”. A crowd of 4,000 had gathered nearby.
When the marshals moved into the building and the first stick of furniture appeared on the street, the crowd charged the police and began pummeling them with fists, stones, and sticks, while the “non-combatants urged the belligerents to greater fury with anathemas for capitalism, the police and landlords.” The outnumbered police barely held their lines until reinforcements arrived.
Every single reserve police officer in the Bronx had to be called in to prevent being routed by the rioters.[/quote]
History is why the government and banks are not kicking people out aggressively.[/quote]
permabear,
These riots were a result of joblessness and the perception (correct, in my mind) that capitalists had destroyed the economy in the U.S.
This was the background story behind the Cold War, IMHO. The capitalists in the U.S. and parts of Europe were afraid of socialism/communism’s growing popularity. FDR’s New Deal was in response to this threat against the capitalists/financiers. It managed to quell the socialists and communists for a long time.
What is more likely to cause riots is the possible elimination/reduction of our social safety nets.
Now, if you can find a single instance where **falling asset prices** (and falling asset prices, alone…and especially falling asset prices that primarily affect wealthier people) have caused riots, it would bolster the argument that house price declines would cause riots. I’m unaware of any such cases in history, but am willing to keep an open mind.
