Shoes on the ground - youngster (Example spiral of violence)

Newspapers like to write about the following:

A group of teenagers sitting in public transport, yelling around and having their shoes on the opposite seats. An old person comes by and tells them to put their shoes on the ground because otherwise it's damage of public property. The youngsters do not want to loose face and insult the old person. The old person insults back. At the end the old person gets beaten up by the group of youngsters. 

Everybody is upset: How could the teenagers do that ? When asked - the teenagers cannot really say why they reacted that way.

Analysis:

The teenagers cannot comply with what the old persons said, because they would loose face. The old person also does not want to loose face because - after all - he is right. The classical start of a spiral of violence.

Conclusion: 

If you want people to do something give them an opportunity to do so by not loosing their face. The outcome of everything else may be unpredictable.