Situations like this, you start to appreciate Big Brother's desire for a suite of non lethal crowd control options. Tear gas won't do it... you need something than can "taser" hundreds of people at once.

I think riots would be a lot less effective if (again, yes, I'm on my soapbox) the media would stop giving them center stage. Just a brief "In case you hadn't noticed, we've a bit of unrest in certain areas" would be sufficient. Instead, the riot makes tv which fuels the riot which makes tv which...

ObETS: Yet another reason to have at least a few days supply of food and water. You never really know when you're going to be in a situation where you'd rather not go outside for a while.