Chris Blattman

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Rioting in Reykjavik

“If you’re in a rampaging mob running through town, within five minutes you’ll probably encounter your uncle.”

That’s Edward Huijbens on the difficulties of unruly behavior in Iceland (population 320,000).

Ian Parker relates that and more as he investigates Iceland’s financial disaster and protest movement in the New Yorker. Rioting is indeed more civilized in Reykjavik:

They sat on the floor, and sang, among other songs, “We’re all living in a terrorist regime,” to the tune of “Yellow Submarine.” An hour into the protest, the air in the unventilated corridor had soured. Astutely, the protesters offered to leave if the riot police withdrew first. The police moved back, to cheers.

The corridor emptied and people drifted into the evening, stepping over eggshells. There were no arrests. Geir Jon Thorisson, Reykjavik’s avuncular and remarkably tall police chief, stood near the doorway, like a clergyman seeing off his congregation. A protester urged him to watch “Zeitgeist” on the Internet that night after work; he apologetically replied that he had to go to singing practice.

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