What is going on??

I wanted to find out how it all began and got a biography of a man who apparently was shot by police? How did that escalate into a riot?

Hope all our London friends are okay.

The riots are almost 100% certainly nothing to do with the man who was shot sciski. I will comment in more detail later (am at work at the moment) but the Guardian has good coverage and opinion pieces if you want to read in further depth:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

In short -

Fact:
Opportunistic disenfranchised youth have, following but unconnected to the murder in Tottenham on Thursday, sensed and seized an opportunity to commit robbery and arson, to which the police have so far [for many reasons] not demonstrated an adequate response.

Why is this happening? That is a very complicated question to answer and requires a deeper debate of its own.

At one end of the opinion scale people are calling for police to be allowed to bring in and use water cannons, plastic bullets and to draft in the help of the army to stop further incidents. At perhaps the other end, questions are being asked about what is it that has failed if society has come to a place where people simply do not care about their community and will set it on fire and smash it down for the sake of a pair of trainers or a flat screen TV.

I will be safely (I hope) at home in my quiet suburb well before dark and watching what transpires. Twitter is also good for this with the hashtag #londonriots or watching what is trending in the UK.

Opinion piece from one of the less beat-'em-with-sticks types:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/camila-batmanghelidjh-caring-costs-ndash-but-so-do-riots-2333991.html

Thanks Pipster. I tend to rely on news.com.au, which seemed more focused on merely reporting events as they happened, as opposed to any analysis or explanation.

The article to which you linked is so sad. Yes, it takes money to care.. money and time.

For some intelligent, in-depth analysis there is a thoughtful piece in today's newspaper followed by much reader discussion below, which I found very informative:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/09/uk-riots-psychology-of-looting

This part caught my attention because I just bought a couple of books from waterstones.co:



....or maybe because these same folks are planning to steal the e-book versions online with the laptops they'd stolen first.

...naaah, it's because they don't realize that books that inform minds and build character are their best friends in this time of recession and you don't need to go stealing around for that - just go to a public library.

A lot of what was written in that last article made sense to me.

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I really liked the article from the Independent as echoes a lot of my own thoughts on the subject.

The Guardian and other sources actually predicted that riots would happen due to youth centres being cut. There are a lot of angry young people out there, especially those involved in gang culture, and if they can't get a job and have nothing productive to do, then violence becomes the inevitable answer.

Whilst the riots probably started because of the man who was shot, they quickly escalated into something that was definitely not related. All the looting, to me, seemed like pure opportunism. There were people rioting and looting who couldn't even name the reasons why, they were just doing it because they could get away with it.

I am however proud that the north east did not take part in any violence or looting

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~I'll think of a witty comment later, or not. Maybe something to do with clouds?!~

That does make a lot of sense to me. If they don't formulate their own creative answers, the answers they'll find will come in the form of flash mobs.



Based on my own experience, it seems that for every ten people you'll ever meet, only one is consistently morally upright, only one is consistently immoral/ without conscience, and the other eight can swing either way given the opportunity - call it bandwagon mentality. So I have to agree with Pipster that the lack of policing is part of the problem.

(You know, this reminds me of the different kinds of bacteria - beneficial bacteria, harmful bacteria and opportunistic bacteria! )



am vicariously proud of your region

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I agree with the bandwagon theory. Normal, every day people who are good people got swept up in the looting. Kids who are decent kids, like the girl who stole one bottle of Lucozade and will now face jail. I don't consider that to be justice. I honestly think some of these sentences being carried out are completely over the top. These kids need a good talking to and some community action, but jailing them, especially when the prisons are already overcrowded, will not help.

The guys who are being locked up for four years just for posting on Facebook?! That's ludicrous.

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~I'll think of a witty comment later, or not. Maybe something to do with clouds?!~

Yep, sending them to jail is really going to help the situation and turn them into upright citizens. I can't believe it.



I can't believe this either.

Agreed.

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