2020 New Rawabi riots

The 2020 New Rawabi riots were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occured in New Rawabi Prefecture in June of 2020. Unrest began after the shooting of a 19 year-old Villager man named Tyrone DaQuavius by Gerald Caine, an officer of the New Rawabi Prefectural Police Service, the primary law enforcement agency of the city and prefecture of New Rawabi. Unrest began on Wednesday, June 3rd, several hours after the killing of Tyrone DaQuavius. Although initially constrained to majority Villager areas, the rioting and looting soon spread to virtually every area of New Rawabi. Primarily peaceful demonstrations also took place in San Fierro and New South Rhodesia.

The riots in New Rawabi were the most destructive both the Greater Teutonic Realm and the Realm at large had seen in modern history with over 400 deaths in connection with the unrest as well as the cost of over 500 million iron certificates in property damage and stolen goods. Local police forces possessed little ability to restrain the thousands of rioters and attempted to minimize contact as much as possible in order to save lives and cool tensions. Only after days of deployment was the military able to halt the rioting and restore order to the city. Over 10,000 citizens were arrested with some still being held indefinitely whilst awaiting trial.

Background
Even before the killing of DaQuavius, the Villager community had felt disenfranchised and mistreated by both law enforcement and other ethnic groups. Predominantly Villager neighborhoods often clustered around smaller ethnic enclaves of different ethnic groups like Little Derry and Japantown. Villagers on commute to and from work and school would pass through these areas, stopping in shops and meeting with friends. After numerous shoplifting incidents, many involving Villager gangs, in the area, Japanese and Solician store owners became distrustful of Villagers as a whole with some stores even going as far as to ban Villager teenagers and young adults from entry. Many Villagers reported stores that prohibited them from entry to local authorities. They were further dissatisfied when most complaints were paid little attention or ignored completely.

These tensions grew further in March 2020 when Arnold Banks, a Solician convenience store owner, shot and killed a Villager youth with a double barrel shotgun after getting into an altercation. Banks later testified in court that the young Villager had drawn a knife and was threatening to kill him. Although a small multipurpose knife was found on the dead body, it was securely stowed in the minor's backpack. Banks was acquitted on nearly every count except for the misdemeanor of improperly stowing his firearm, leading to a small fine. Although there were no large riots due to this particular incident, tensions only grew, leading to hate crimes by Villagers against Solician and Japanese residents, typically elders that appeared well-off.

Incident
On Wednesday, June 3rd 2020, officer Gerald Caine was deployed on patrol in the Copeland area of the Industrial District, a predominantly Villager neighborhood. He responded to a call regarding a recent assault and robbery on the intersection of Lawrence and Norvell at 2:31 pm. After speaking with several witnesses and investigating the scene, he obtained a description of the suspect, the vehicle he escaped in, and a partial license plate number. After several minutes of searching around the neighborhood, he found the suspected car in the parking lot of a Grab-n-Go convenience store.

Officer Caine entered the store and surveyed it for the suspect. He saw a man fitting the description and approached him with his hand on his pistol holster. He announced the alleged crime to the suspect and attempted to place him under arrest. DaQuavius dismissed and ignored the further calls from Caine to put his hands in the air but as the officer closed in and attempted to corner him in an aisle, he engaged in a full sprint, attempting to escape. He knocked into Officer Caine and ran quickly out of the store. Caine soon took off after him, chasing him to the end of the block.

DaQuavius rounded past the next building as the officer drew his firearm. Caine pursued the suspect for several blocks on foot before he disappeared into an alleyway. DaQuavius re-emerged several seconds later, holding his waistband. Officer Caine allegedly interpreted this as the suspect reaching for a weapon and opened fire. He shot Tyrone DaQuavius seven times in the neck, head, and chest. DaQuavius was pronounced dead-on-arrival according to New Rawabi coroners.

Soon, word spread by mouth that a young Villager had been shot by a police officer in the Copeland area and practically the entire populace was aware after TTN aired several segments explaining what little was known about the incident on the nightly news. Outrage and resentment soon boiled over and starting in the evening of June 3rd, rioting and looting began.

Day 1: June 3rd
Soon after hearing of the demise of Tyrone DaQuavius, many Villagers took to the streets, especially in the Copeland area where many personally knew DaQuavius. Unsupervised protests in the evening soon turned to assaults then looting as the sun set. The initial unrest took place at the intersection where Caine had been called. Rioters began throwing objects at cars and stopping traffic to search for non-Villager motorists to beat, rob, and possibly kill.

Two racially-motivated assaults were recorded on camera with a 38 year old Japanese construction worker on commute from work and a teenage Teuton walking through the area. The Japanese man was pulled out of his car, kicked in the abdomen, neck, and head by four Villager men and had a brick thrown at his face, leaving him with a kidney rupture and a fractured skull among other things. The Teuton teenager was walking home with two grocery bags from a corner store he stopped at several minutes beforehand. As he entered the area, an armed Villager began shooting in his direction, perhaps as a warning shot or maybe just missing the target. A bullet grazed the youth's rib and he quickly retreated from the area. Three other assaults occurred with no photographic documentation including a Solician man driving through the area, unaware of the riot around him, whose beating was only stopped when a Villager priest from a nearby church shielded the man's body with his own and pleaded for an end to the violence.

Looting also took place in the area with five Grab-N-Go establishments being fully or partially destroyed and looted including the one in which the arrest of DaQuavius was attempted. Local businesses, especially those owned by Solicians and Japanese citizens, were targeted, destroyed, and robbed. This looting, at least on this initial night, took place in primarily Villager neighborhoods although it soon expanded to Japanese and Solician shops in the ethnic enclave areas surrounding the Copeland area.

Day 2: June 4th
Rioting continued throughout the night and into the morning, although it waned from early morning to sunrise. The riots expanded to several more neighborhoods in the Industrial District as the police desperately deployed barricades to the Capitol and Financial Districts in an attempt to contain the riots. President 77brickman05 proclaimed on Twitter he would make an address to the nation on TTN from his estate at 1 Presidential Lane but later deleted the tweet and did not perform the address.

After the initial shock due to the death of DaQuavius began to simmer down, gangs and other criminals took advantage of the lack of police presence and began to perform organized theft operations as well as the murder of rival gang members and narcotics dealers (it is controversial whether to count deaths due to gang activity in areas without police presence as deaths due to rioting but for the purposes of documentation, most historians count them as so). At least 17 people were known to be killed in drive-bys, bombings, and assaults by rivals over the course of the riots and over 200 million iron certificates worth of goods were said to be stolen by organized criminal activity in the same period. The Dexistanian and Japanese embassies were also attacked due to widespread ethnic animosity towards Solicians and Japanese in Villager communities. These attacks were unrelenting and included improvised bombs, vehicle rammings, and gunfire. Workers and soldiers soon became trapped inside the premises and evacuations were ordered for all Japanese diplomatic buildings in New Rawabi. Similarly, the Dexistanian embassy in New Rawabi sent a distress call for evacuation.

Day 3: June 5th
New Rawabi police deployed more barricades in an attempt to block off every street leading out of the Industrial District and its surrounding areas. All emergency service personnel were deployed on duty and the Army began transport into and begin operations in the city soon after. Peaceful protests over the death of DaQuavius in San Fierro also began with hundreds turning out to several demonstrations across the Prefecture. These were mostly self-contained and police presence was minimal.

Hearing the news of barricades being constructed, various groups including rioters, gang members, citizens attempting to escape the rioting, and visitors trapped in the city began to march on several key barricades around the city, trying to destroy them and rout the police to ensure free movement throughout the city. These barricades were severely undermanned and most were given up without a fight, condemned to be destroyed and overrun by the crowd.

However, several stations did not retreat, most notably on Simian Jimmy Pikeway where a single New Rawabi police officer used tear gas canisters, baton rounds fired from a shotgun, and bear mace to ward off a mob. Although he did not succeed in repelling the mob of over 100 people, he defended the choke point for several hours from destruction. After expelling all available bean bag rounds and tear gas canisters, he retreated on foot to a nearby police station. Officer Steven Worley was later awarded the Badge of Service by the Chief of Police and the Presidential Medal of Honor by President 77brickman05 for his bravery and dedication to the police force. Another notable incident involving barricades throughout the city was after a group of men had engineered a modified bulldozer, which was bought at auction by one of the men, to serve as an offensive vehicle. Dubbed the "Deathdozer", it destroyed several barricades and injured several people. The four men operating the vehicle were shot at with three being fatally wounded by a National Guard helicopter sniper while attempting to refuel the vehicle days later on June 8th.

Entire blocks of housing and commercial buildings were destroyed by this point with over 40 dead including two police officers. The majority of food stores in the Industrial District had depleted and many of the residents were starving. The only reprieve provided for the residents was personal charity and the various churches and other religious institutions scattered throughout the area, although this failed to mount an effective defense, due to the large population of the area and the relative poverty of the churches themselves.

After news of the breaking of several barricades, a group of armed men claiming to be affiliated with the Agriculture Party announced their intention to restore law and order and "succeed where the police have failed". They vowed to quell criminal activity in New Rawabi and end looting by "any means necessary". Although this declaration was issued on the 5th, it took several days for these militias to manifest into boots-on-the-ground action.

Day 4: June 6th
A humanitarian crisis soon gripped New Rawabi with tens of thousands of residents seeking refuge pouring into the rest of the city by car, foot, and the few running public transit lines including buses and trains. The barricades had largely been destroyed and this free movement only exacerbated the problems. Along with the wave of refugees fleeing the crime and destruction, criminals came in large quantities, hoping to capitalize on the chaos and exploit access to areas without law enforcement.

As refugees entered the rest of the city, recorded police brutality incidents rose nearly fourfold. One particular incident that shocked the rest of the Realm occurred when a group of five off-duty New Rawabi Police officers loaded a van with modified semi-automatic and high caliber firearms and blocked off a key bridge leading to South Rhodesia. Any civilian that attempted to cross was promptly fired upon with extreme prejudice even to the point of pursuit. A total of six civilians were killed with 13 injured including two children and a pregnant woman in the span of several hours.

Attempting to capitalize on the ongoing chaos, a radical left-wing terrorist organization affiliated with the Teutonic Communist Party, the Worker's Liberation Front, stole a dump truck and fitted it with steel armor several days before rioting began. They proceeded to pack copious amounts of plastic explosives in the cab and bed of the truck, virtually ensuring death to the driver. Nevertheless, one especially dedicated member, Earl Turner, agreed to the effective suicide mission in order to assassinate Brickman and overthrow the government.

Barreling down the main drag of 21st Street at 10:15 AM, the truck drove through large fires and past destroyed store fronts to 1 Presidential Lane. The plan expected there to be a minimal National Guard presence, given the preoccupation with the larger riots. This plan was ill-fated, however, as elite guards lined the estate more so due to the rioting. As they saw such a heavily armored vehicle rapidly approaching a high value target, several preliminary soldiers took action. The front left tire was shot out by a guard armed with an experimental Salazar assault rifle roughly 1000 feet from the property line, sending the vehicle into a tailspin. Turner attempted to reverse into the front vineyard of the mansion but was shot in the shoulder and hand. Losing blood and seeing an opportunity to deceive the guards, he attempted to play dead, still in the driver's seat.

After a few guards approached the vehicle cautiously, he started the ignition and began accelerating backwards, killing one guard and injuring another. As the wall of Brickman's estate was in near sight, he detonated the fuse and was instantly killed in a shot to the head several seconds later. The subsequent blast formed a hole in the main wall and created a large crater in the vineyard. Two additional guards were killed and several more were injured. Although it created a panic and killed three, causing substantial property damage, the mission went uncompleted and the remnants of the Worker's Liberation Front would be mercilessly hunted down by government forces due to the incident.

Day 5: June 7th
The National Guard deployed fully with over 10,000 in the city by noon and it was soon announced via TTN that all troops deployed would resort to lethal force if they identified any criminals or rioters while on duty. This extreme approach garnered criticism from across the Realm by both governments and abroad analysts although GTR officials stood firm, defending the measures as a necessary response to widespread destruction and crime. Hundreds of trucks, tanks, and APCs in the service of the National Guard and Army entered New Rawabi, many armed with mounted automatic machine guns. Refugees continued to pour into the Capitol and Residential Districts and looting began in several shopping centers. With the full strength of the National Guard, however, this looting was swiftly and brutally abated with over 20 suspected looters shot dead by the evening. Armed Agriculture Party-affiliated militias came out in full force by the afternoon although these were hardly effective in their professed goals of stopping crime. Most incidents involving said militants were ethnically and politically-motivated beatings of Villagers and Albanians in isolated areas.

Day 6: June 8th
After the ruthless quelling of looting by the National Guard in several areas, rioting waned and outright ceased in areas where the military and police could deploy. The Industrial District was still largely without a law enforcement presence although several neighborhoods were virtually abandoned due to the massive amounts of refugees leaving to other areas of the city and prefecture. Vigilante squads organized in various areas, enacting swift mob justice on any violators of the law although the government of the GTR condemned the actions.

Over 2,000 were arrested by the afternoon with military aircraft dropping tear gas and sometimes lethal sarin on untamed areas. The jails and holding areas began to overflow with suspected rioters and criminals and some were transported outside of the city. A riot in a jail in the 12th Precinct caused several injuries and the death of a police officer. News of this led to a reprisal in an adjacent holding area near Hall International Airport where several police officers beat a prisoner bloody and dragged him in chains through a nearby street.

Day 7: June 9th
Nearly all rioting stopped by noon and the National Guard moved to secure multiple areas in the Industrial District including Copeland, the root of the unrest. The National Guard also clashed with both local vigilante groups and far-right militias, leading to deaths on both sides. These firefights were not sustained and most led to the swift retreat of the vigilante and militia groups. The hanging of a Villager man from a tree took place in an abandoned neighborhood park in the Residential District. At around 2:00 in the afternoon, after several grueling days of constant combat and arrests, a bitter and frustrated detachment of National Guard heavy infantry herded several dozen detained suspects into an abandoned high school gym and opened fire with fully automatic rifles. The victims of the slaughter included women and minors, the youngest being a 15 year old boy. No survivors were left among the detainees with 68 tallied at a later date. Over 900 rounds of ammunition were expended after a sweep looking for any surviving stragglers. The unit, led by Sergeant Dorjee, rejoined the larger force with no mention of the action to his commanding officers.

Several soldiers in the unit later testified in a tribunal investigation that the action had occurred and was ordered by the highest ranking officer in the force. Both Dorjee and his second-in-command, Corporal Osborn, stood trial and were convicted for the murder of civilians although given the circumstances, the judges were very lenient, the only consequence being the demotion of both individuals to the lowest rank of Private as well as a probationary period of six months.

The staff of the Dexistanian embassy returned to their posts as all rioters were removed from the Financial District. There were several rapes reported by citizens with the alleged perpetrators being New Rawabi police officers entering newly retaken areas although none of these were substantiated or investigated. The Agriculture Party Chairman released a statement, condemning and disavowing "any and all" militia or vigilante groups that attempted to assume the role of law enforcement or perform violent actions. In the same statement, he congratulated and commended President Brickman, the military and police, and the citizens of New Rawabi for "meeting the lawless rioters with resolve and courage" to restore law and order to the city. This statement was widely lauded by both the media and Brickman himself for its unifying and patriotic nature.

Day 8: June 10th
The last unoccupied areas of New Rawabi were secured by military and police after more than a week of rioting and chaos. Aid workers, both organized and voluntary streamed into the areas, administering food, water, and first aid to anyone in need. Families were found starving from the prolonged isolation and destruction. A horrified coroner discovered the now decaying bodies left in the gym from the summary executions the day prior. Firefighters were also deployed as several people were trapped in ruins of buildings and other areas.

President 77brickman05 made his first public appearance since the beginning of the unrest in a tour of the wreckage of the Copeland area. Sporadic gunfire could still be heard as the National Guard finished off the last of the scavengers trying to pick abandoned and destroyed areas clean. Police beat and arrested several skinheads harassing a Villager family attempting to find their way home. Raids on several suspected meet-up spots for political extremist groups were conducted with at least eight suspects shot and killed. Four members of an Agriculture Party-affiliated militia were summarily executed in the streets by police after an apartment raid uncovered assault rifles and hand grenades. By nightfall, over 300 additional suspects that been detained and moved to the various holding areas throughout the city. After more than a week, the New Rawabi riots had finally subsided with order restored to the capital city of the Greater Teutonic Realm.

Aftermath and Legacy
In total, over 400 people died in the entire sequence of events with many deaths being revealed after the fact, due to the lack of proper available reporting of deaths during the riots themselves. As far as total economic costs, over one billion iron certificates, (roughly eight billion of today's Brickbux) were inflicted in damages and lost merchandise. Then-Mayor of New Rawabi, large_and_in_charge1488, who oversaw the swift recovery from both the FIrst Great Realm War and the riots, was credited with the historic and rapid revitalization of the city and prefecture and his highest approval ratings were in the months of July and August directly succeeding the riots.

Refugees were quickly resettled in their neighborhoods and areas with many receiving direct aid by the Prefectural government to repair and rebuild their residences and neighborhoods. However, some areas were deemed unsalvageable and many reconstruction projects in these areas were largely abandoned, most notably the neighborhood of Copeland itself. Arnold Banks, the aforementioned convenience store owner who himself evacuated after narrowly avoiding being lynched by an angry mob on the first night of rioting, controversially received government aid to rebuild and restock his business.

The political impact was also profound as themes of law and order resonated heavily with the general populace, leading to a Law and Justice landslide in the local elections of September. President Brickman used a Senatorial majority to pass the Riot Control Act nationally. The bill, among other things, paved the way for the creation of the National Police, the repeal of several protections related to police brutality and government surveillance, and a crackdown on organizations and ideologies judged to be "extreme" by the government. Large_and_in_charge1488, initially a strong ally of Brickman, passed a similar bill in the city and later the Prefecture of New Rawabi which allowed the practically free operation of National Police in the territory and widespread detention without trial.

The impacts were not only political and economic but also cultural as well. Due to the massive scale of the riots, hundreds of thousands were directly involved in the unrest and thus, many stories began to emerge, documenting and recounting all manner of things that occurred during them. A documentary called NR '20, released in January 2021, showcased previously unknown footage and stories from all walks of life including a detailed breakdown of the shooting of DaQuavius. Periodically, even to this day, uncovered interviews and footage regarding the riots will be published and broadcast on TTN and other media aggregates. Colloquially, the 2020 New Rawabi riots are simply referred to as the Riots or the Unrest, due to their scale and impact.