When It Goes Off

This articles talks about an event between two rival soccer teams. One of the teams Manchester United is about to have a fight in the bar.  One of the friends describes the event and how frightful it is. As all the fans get riled up about the opposing team they take the event outside to the streets. When they reached the underground train station did the the two opposing fans battle. As the fan's of the two teams started to brawl on the escalator, an innocent person slipped and cracked one of the vertebrae on his back. He was consequently rushed to the hospital but the riot or better known as a stampede to the stadium continued. Sam one of the characters explains how he was pressured into a argument with a dog handler. At various points in this article the crowd is so wild that they are even afraid they might even die at any point. Also at all times their is a line between the opposing team if one were to cross the line and were part of the opposing team they run the risk of being killed.

Smelser, a sociologist, defined 6 factors that need to be present in order for a group of people to think and act as a group of people. The first is structural conducivness basically this means that people of the group need to be able to identify the problem. In this example the soccer fans were able to determine the opposing team was bad. the second is structural strain  this is when society was not able to meet the needs of these people. The fans were not adequately supplied with drinks in the bar and were not given room to celebrate. the third is a spread of a generalized belief. In this scenario all the fans were either loyal the Manchester United or the other team which brought them together.The fourth factor is a precipitating factor which means a dramatic event or something of the sort that must occur in order to reinforce the generalized belief. This is seen when the stampede to the game and the game itself is held. The fifth factor is Mobilization for action which essentially means that group takes action and some sort of a leader emerges. In this example when Sammy and his group of friends made it to the front and were leading the riot defines this factor. The sixth and final factor is social control factor which is factors that are beyond their control for example in this story would be the police and other various groups.