Nancy Rodríguez UNC - Chapel Hill Mathematics Protests and riots have been a natural means for a population to express discontent toward their current living situation throughout times. One can think of riots as outbursts of social activity that initiate when there is enough tension in the system. In this talk I will introduce a PDE system that models these type of phenomena. The model introduces an explicit field (which can be measured) with an implicit field (which can be thought of as a potential field). I will discuss some analytical results as well as their sociological implications. Finally, I will conclude with the analysis of some data from the 2005 French riots and the 2011 London riots.