# Will there be race riots if Zimmerman is found not guilty?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-race-riots-if-zimmerman-is-found-not-guilty/662201>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 29, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-race-riots-if-zimmerman-is-found-not-guilty/662201 "2013-06-29T14:00:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 137

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-race-riots-if-zimmerman-is-found-not-guilty/662201/137 "2013-07-03T04:05:51Z")

</div>

> [@Magiver](#):
>
> what other cases of this magnitude can you list?

I’ve already posted several times about the Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo cases. In both cases cops shot a black guy to death and were acquitted of all wrongdoing, and there were protests but no riots. There were not riots in the earlier stages of this case either. The last time this delightful thread topic came up (early 2012) I also listed… well, why retype it?

> [@Duke Lacrosse, DSK, Trayvon Martin ...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duke-lacrosse-dsk-trayvon-martin/616952/22):
>
> I realize that if you lived through the riots in the '60s and/or saw the Rodney King or the Crown Heights riots up close, this kind of thing is more likely to be at the forefront of your mind. Still, I can’t help noticing that people are quick to suggest that black people might start rioting if they’re upset with something. Anything, really. It was suggested many times on this board that black people would riot if Obama lost in 2008, and there was never any concrete reason that it might lead to riots - it just seemed reasonable to some people to speculate that black people would riot if they didn’t get their way. As a reminder, there were no riots over the Amadou Diallo shooting, none over the sexual assault of Abner Louima by police (and I realize there were convictions in that case), none over the Sean Bell shooting, none over the Duke case, and I’m sure I’m forgetting my share of other controversial criminal cases that involved race in one way or other.  
> There have already been marches, and nothing bad happened.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-there-be-race-riots-if-zimmerman-is-found-not-guilty/662201)._