Mobs are easy, folks, and that's what's going on here. Most of the kids there are there just to see what the hell is going on; witness it; tell others about it; have a story to tell their friends "I was there!". It's like every doorknob who ever went crazy in front of a media camera for no reason than to say "hey look at me!"
I eyewitnessed the first Penn State "riot" back in the summer of 1998. After fun night of partying on the biggest party weekend of the summer, I was there on the street watching in bewilderment as a mob erupted in a "riot", blocking all of the street, tearing down lightpoles on Beaver Avenue (33 in total!), burning garbage in the street, doing some damage to store fronts and such. It wasn't an angry mob; it was just a mob, doing what drunken mobs do - stupid things. Like most of those couple thousand on the street I did not personally participate in any of the stupid things going on, just watched in bewilderment/amazement, just like most of those that are there tonight. Actually did some civic duty, myself, in physically preventing some stupid kids from kicking in some store windows.
On to tonight:
The truth of the matter is this. Joe Paterno is an icon. You don't understand what this man meant/means to Penn State unless you've lived there. He IS/was Penn State. People's whole lives, they put this man on a pedestal, rightly or wrongly. Suddenly, he is accused of immoral actions (gross negligence or total cover-up of a heinous crime, to be exact), and those who idolized him, put him as the face of the entire university, are simply not ready within 3 days time of accepting this. You're witnessing first-hand the "denial" and "anger" stages of grief, folks.
You can blame the students all you want. I've seen some of the interviews, heard the reports of (relatively minor) violence and property damage, seen the images of the crowds (most of whom are simply witnesses, no more), seen interviewees saying what sound to me like stupid things; and others making intelligent interviews. You can criticize the kids all you want for the mob mentality, but to call them brainwashed is idiodical (I'm going to guess that many of those using the "brainwashed" adjective to describe these kids are loyal subjects to the massive Talk Radio complex, for example). The truth of the matter is simple - a big part of the world of most of the kids at Penn State, and of we alumni, came crashing down horrifically within a few days time. They're running through a bunch of emotions related to the crimes committed, their fallen icons, their university, their home. This type of reaction should not be unexpected, and is simply not that excessive considering the huge changes going on right now in young adult lives.
If nothing more happens tonight and in the coming days than some property damage and minor injuries, then I think the unbelievable transitions occurring right now at Penn State have gone over amazingly well. There are plenty of other places in the world, even in this nation, that would behave much, much worse under these kinds of circumstances.
