Spectator sports, so the long-held belief goes, serve as a safety valve for modern society, allowing everyday people to vent, in socially approved ways, aggressions that would otherwise erupt into violence.
But if the convulsion following the Chicago Bulls` winning of a second successive National Basketball Association title is any indication, the valve is malfunctioning, assuming it ever really worked.
In fact, it was the Bulls` victory Sunday night that sparked a frenzy of violence and vandalism in areas ranging from chic North Michigan Avenue to the city`s poorest neighborhoods.
The looting, arson, shooting and other mayhem resulted in more than 1,000 arrests and at least 95 police officers and more than 100 civilians injured. Numerous businesses were damaged and, in a few cases, destroyed.
A spokesman for Cook County State`s Atty. Jack O`Malley said that, as of 4 p.m. Monday, 297 people had been charged with felonies related to looting at 115 locations.
”Ninety-nine percent were charged with burglary,” spokesman Andy Knott said.
Also, Assistant State`s Atty. Ed Pietrucha, who supervised bond hearings for some of those arrested, estimated that more than 100 buildings were looted.
But the unrest that erupted, marring what would have otherwise been a festive mood in a city starved for champions, had little to do with sports per se, according to experts and even some who participated in creating the mayhem.
”You have to understand-when you`re celebrating in America, what you do is you break a window and grab something,” a resigned Mayor Richard Daley said Monday in an attempt to downplay the violence. ”That`s a reality that`s taking place in America, unfortunately.”
Experts pointed to several other factors, such as the generally high level of violence today, mob psychology, and the alienation and boredom of the young.
Also blamed was a warped materialism of the sort witnessed during the Los Angeles riots that makes some people rationalize that it is perfectly acceptable to steal, especially if others are doing it. A corollary of this view is that the thieves have somehow even earned the right to someone else`s property.
More Top Picks Best Amazon Prime Day Bose Headphone Deals 2026
”It`s like income tax. At the end of the year, this is your reward,”
said a 26-year-old man who boasted Monday of taking part in the looting of Bi- Rite Liquors in the 6600 block of South Ashland Avenue.
Standing outside the ransacked and burned store, he rattled off the items he had stolen from Bi-Rite and other stores: videos, beer, diapers, potato chips, jewelry and cigarettes, to name some.
”I`m going to do it again. I`m not going to tear anybody`s building down, but I`m going to get it if everybody else is. I`ve got a family,” said the man whose chest bore a heart-shaped tattoo with his wife`s and daughter`s names. ”Next year this time, we`ll be doing it again. It`s a Chicago tradition from now on.”
Civil unrest during or after a sporting event has for years been something of a dubious tradition elsewhere in the Unites States and abroad. For instance, after the Detroit Pistons and Tigers won championships in the 1980s, major violence broke out. And soccer hooliganism in Europe has been a significant concern for years.
Though the unrest that often occurs in relation to sporting events could just as easily happen apart from sports, the special nature of sports to society can make the onset of mayhem more likely.
”Some people bracket sports as separate from real life, and they permit themselves to behave differently without affecting their own self-image,”
said Patricia Adler, a University of Colorado professor who has researched sports sociology.
It`s an observation that is readily verifiable by anyone who has marveled at the boorish behavior of fans in the stands who will go so far as to spill beer on the mother of a player among other acts of rudeness.
Furthermore, athletes have a tremendous emotional buildup during a game, but they expend the energy with physical exertion, she said. Fans, however, have that emotion and energy build up with no release.
Take these highly excited people and place them in a crowd and they lose their identities and personal responsibilities. ”They feel like they`re part of something bigger,” Adler said.
A loss of personal responsibility, often lubricated by too much alcohol, a staple of sporting events, results in indelible images like the surging crowd on Division Street, some of whose members demolished two taxis by jumping repeatedly on them.
Later, some members of that same group ran along North Michigan Avenue, smashing windows at about a dozen stores and looting some.
”What makes me mad about this Rush Street thing is these young . . . guys have no business getting drunk all day, then tearing down the street,” said a woman who works at a bookstore on Michigan Avenue and attended the title game at the Stadium.
”What connection does what they did have to the Bulls?” she asked. ”It breaks my heart. It takes all the joy out of what should be a wonderful moment.”
Vandals smashed the large front window of Stuart Brent Books, 670 N. Michigan Ave., and expensive art books, placed in the window to boost sales for Father`s Day, were thrown into the street.
Owner Stuart Brent likened the vandalism to Kristalnacht in 1930s Germany, when Nazi thugs mindlessly broke countless store windows of Jewish merchants.
”I can only describe this in two words, total ugliness,” he said, tears welling up in his eyes. ”Our civilization is terribly thin. It`s like an eggshell. I fear for the barbarism that`s beneath the surface. Look what they did to a bookstore.”
Some social observers agreed that the disturbances showed the fragility of society. ”Celebrations have gotten out of control in different societies and throughout history,” said Aldon Morris, a Northwestern University sociology professor. ”This is not atypical, but there are undercurrents.
”Why do people loot? For a lot of people, it gives them a chance to get things they otherwise couldn`t have. But there is a deeper cause, and we just can`t brush it off as a few isolated people who got out of hand. . . . There is a great deal of political and economic cynicism out there: There`s no hope for the future.
”If this can happen during a so-called happy time, it seems to imply that anything of a serious political or racial nature this summer could
(spark) an explosion.”
”Even if we`re not talking anger here, you have to be mindful that there are very limited opportunities for work and recreation,” said Mark Testa, a University of Chicago sociologist. ”When you have 60 percent to 70 percent of the 16- to 24-year-old age group not in school and without a job, they become restless.”
The young men sitting near the Bi-Rite store owned by Ahmad Nobani, an Arab businessman, confirmed that their postgame pillaging was an attempt to create some ”excitement.”
”Everybody got drunk and just wanted to do something,” said one of the men.
Nobani`s store was torched after being looted. He estimated he had lost $120,000 in merchandise. ”It`s totally demolished,” said Nobani, who had operated the store for nearly two years.
On Monday, as Department of Streets and Sanitation workers shoveled piles of glass and debris outside the charred hull of his store, Nobani said: ”I built this and I`ll build it again-somewhere else.
More Top Picks Best Ellipticals For Heart Patients
”I feel sorry for the children. These are their examples,” he said, looking at the young men who had looted his store. ”What you see is what you follow.”
A 15-year-old boy said he had no remorse for his part in the looting.
”If you were real hungry and your momma has no money, what would you do?”
he asked. But later, he admitted he wasn`t hungry Sunday night. ”I was drunk.”
A 12-year-old who was detained by police for looting Nobani`s store said he saw nothing wrong with his behavior, at first. After all, he said, his mother was drinking and having a good time with the rest of the crowd.
”When I went to sleep, I thought about it,” he said. ”Michael Jordan wouldn`t have liked what everybody did.”