Partygoers from around California flocked to Santa Barbara two weekends ago for Deltopia, Santa Barbara’s most epic party of the year.

A weekend meant for the beach and part-hopping, Deltopia turned into a foggy nightmare of tear gas and SWAT teams.

The chaos began when someone hit a UC Santa Barbara police officer over the head with a bag full of liquor bottles.

I wonder what kind of definition of “fun” people who riot for no reason have.

Broken glass, tear gas and hordes of people with a taste for anarchy doesn’t sound like a good time to me.

I understand why riots break out when there’s a cause behind it, but a bunch of people running amok down Del Playa Drive for absolutely no reason? I don’t get it.

The riot started without provocation and was followed by an entire night of senseless violence and vandalism.

After the first act of violence went down, partygoers banded together to widen the spectrum of commotion, much like the way meerkats follow the alpha male to assemble.

A meerkat is a mammal in the mongoose family. A group of them is referred to as a mob, gang or clan.

The mob mentality spread. Soon there were people shaking cars and climbing on windshields, parading down Del Playa Drive in a frenzy of meaningless rioting.

More than 40 people were hospitalized, 130 arrests were made and
six law officers were wounded, according to Santa Barbara’s News Channel 3.

Meanwhile in Ukraine, anti-government protestors rally in front of parliament buildings to find some sort of means to an end of Ukraine’s corrupt political affairs.

Patrons of Italy are battling with police in the streets of Rome, protesting European austerity policies and Italian government.

Riots are usually the result of uncontrolled passion for a cause, but it appears that reckless party people riot just to riot in California.

This mob mentality creates vicious and unpredictable circumstances where anyone around is subject to danger.

People take on an aggressiveness that they would likely not have in a small group or on their own.

What may have begun as protestors rallying to draw attention to an issue, soon morphs into a mass of frustrated people acting out against anyone who gets in the way of that cause.

What happened at Deltopia was rioting without reason.

It only took one irrational person to assault a police officer to get a gang of party people riled up.

While there are those enduring the burn of tear gas and sting of rubber bullets for a movement they truly believe in, it would seem young people in California don’t have a cause worth fighting for.

Julianna Eveland can be reached at [email protected] or @janeca12 on Twitter.