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Renzo Gracie and the Sociology of Fighting

Renzo Gracie and some of his friends have been arrested for their role in a street fight.

This isn't the first time that Renzo Gracie (an MMA legend and BJJ black belt) has made the news for street fighting.  Many of you might remember that Gracie recently live tweeted while beating and stalking two guys who tried to mug him in NYC.
Renzo Gracie is the wrong person to mug

Not surprisingly, this event elicited mixed responses from the blogosphere and martial arts community.   Some people praised Renzo, saying that he was like a modern day Batman taking down thugs on the street; others were skeptical and said that Renzo acted like a thug, stalking his prey, and then celebrating it on Twitter.

Someone shot a video of his most recent altercation, but the video leaves much to the imagination.  As viewers we don't get to see who started what, or how the altercation even unfolded.  Instead, we are treated to the poster's comments about how Renzo is an MMA legend and see a crowd of people milling about, after the violence.

In other words, most of us have no grounds to start judging Renzo, his friends, or the bouncers in this fight.  We weren't there and don't know how this fight started or why Renzo and his friends were moved to fight.

Randall Collins shows us that violence unfolds in stages
Sociologists like Randall Collins and Curtis Jackson-Jacobs remind us that fighting is often the end result of a much lengthier social process.  They don't just "happen" and it's quite rare for people to blindly attack strangers.  Even people who go out "looking" for fights create opportunities to get into them.  The person who walks through a crowded bar and accidentally "bumps" into someone is inviting others to start something that can lead into a fight.  From there, mutual combat isn't even a given.  Fights often begin with some kind of small transgression that balloons into more serious kinds of shoving, blustering, and threats of real violence.  And then, as people become increasingly entrained into each other's rhythms, violence becomes more and more of a possibility.  The physical act of getting into a fight, then, is hardly inevitable and rarely a one-sided affair.

This is why I'm so disappointed with major news coverage of this fight.  The New York Post (which can hardly claim to be a legitimate news paper these days) has published a horribly slanted article about the fight.  Instead of talking about the fight as an event that police are investigating, post writers have framed Renzo and his friends as "thugs" who went after a helpless bouncer.

Why have journalists all but written off the bouncer's role in this fight?   Could it be that the bouncer tried to intimidate or bully Gracie, who then swiftly smashed him?  Before rushing to conclusions, it would be wise for the media to think more carefully about how fights happen.

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