Security-force killings of activists triggered escalatory cycles of mourning and reprisal

Evidence

Starting on New Year’s Eve, the final day of 1985, the deaths of two local activists at the hands of security officers resulted in community mourning; public vigils; politicized funerals; attacks on shops, stores, and houses; burning of policemen, witches, and accused informers; and battles between marchers and police. … On February 1, a security guard killed seventeen-year-old Michael Diradeng outside a Jazz Stores supermarket. Youth groups organized a mass funeral and vigil for the fifteenth, but police were on hand to break up the vigil with tear gas. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 603

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Escalating resistance met with legalized repression entrenches rather than contains mobilization. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 577; Severe repression can accelerate the very mobilization it targets. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 578; Violent contention typically grows out of nonviolent claim-making. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 726 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Targeted assassinations predictably trigger revenge attacks in a violent feedback loop #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 633
• Police violence against protest organizers turned leadership figures into martyrs #exemplifies (0.80) — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 368
• Extreme political violence like assassination usually has a pathological psychological basis #contradicts (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1153
• Repression drives nonviolent movements to armed rebellion #expands (0.75) — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 32
• Fear of retribution compels even principled resisters into supporting violence #expands (0.70) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2204