How anger becomes contagious

Before 9/11 the big focus for protest was globalisation: Seattle in November 1999, then MayDay 2K in London. I went down to Whitehall more from curiosity than conviction. The mood was almost horticultural — hippies planting herbs and daisies, guerilla gardeners ripping up turf — and the crowd stretched up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square, where protesters draped themselves over Nelson’s Column.

At about 2pm a police squad in full riot gear moved in to cut the protest into two, and then came the horses. A line of police draughthorses charged full speed, hooves thundering and people screaming as everyone scattered. My amygdala had already set me running: adrenaline flooded out, the upstairs brain shut down, and what stayed was the raw sensory memory of panic.

Once contained and cornered, the gathering changed. Anger spread like a contagion and the crowd’s complexion shifted: a McDonald’s was smashed and burgers thrown, seed planters became spray painters, vegans became vandals, Leninists became looters.

United Kingdom, London

protest, globalisation, seattle 1999, whitehall, trafalgar square, police horses, riot gear, crowd psychology, amygdala, vandalism