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| People calling for martial law should remember that, unlike american riots, in this country the publicdoesn't have widespread access to guns. |
The riots that are currently going on throughout the country are bringing forward a wide range of opinions with the press recalling events in the 1980s, no-one has thought to actually sit down and actually think the events through. The only real variation between the mainstream newspapers is, as usual, between the left and right. The right have called for water cannons, martial law, strong fines for those arrested in the protests etc. with the daily mail calling it a mob and, in some cases, “yobs and chavs” whilst the left have largesy sat reminiscing about the 80s.
An important point to be made is that the press have had their part to play in all of this, by going overboard on reporting the incident the press have successfully inflamed the situation with a singular protest of 5,000 becoming a “national” breakdown. I get particularly angry with newspapers like the Daily Mail in situations like this as they love to inflame it and then come down like a hammer screaming things like [paraphrasing of course] ‘chavs are violent’ although I suppose this is quite a nice change from their usual tone of “bring back the weekly bin rounds” although they’ll probably figure out a way of linking the two together before long.
However, what every newspaper seems to be missing is an opinion about how to effectively prevent this sort of thing happening in the future, many of course have talked about draconian police measures bearing down upon the populace like a police state. But this neither solves the problem nor does it bode well for freedom of speech. No, what has failed to be accomplished, is the analysis of what happened in the run up and why a, relatively, small protest has grown to rioting in several major cities.
It seems logical that areas that need to be looked at are, indeed, police tactics and what has led to people dropping social norms and deciding that they need to burn down buildings. Thankfully we have not reached the level of riots in the 1980s nor the horrific event that was the riot in Los Angeles in 1992 , oddly the latter has many parallels; when Rodney King was beaten up by police officers and after the police officers were acquitted it sparked a fury of outrage that was backed up by guns. The problem is that in cases where the police have been the ones doing the wrongdoing it acts as a strong stimulant to not respect them, particularly in the minds of those who are strongly effected by the economy. Indeed, it may well be that the news that the stock markets are in free fall may have fueled part of this as people are scared for their futures.
It seems to me that the government, police and the press have all failed in their duty to this country and whilst those causing the violence are certainly not blameless the actions of the government in the last year that have increased youth unemployment and the rich/poor divide in London, the poor tactics that the police have been implementing and the press hype have helped to add fuel to the fire.
An important point to be made is that the press have had their part to play in all of this, by going overboard on reporting the incident the press have successfully inflamed the situation with a singular protest of 5,000 becoming a “national” breakdown. I get particularly angry with newspapers like the Daily Mail in situations like this as they love to inflame it and then come down like a hammer screaming things like [paraphrasing of course] ‘chavs are violent’ although I suppose this is quite a nice change from their usual tone of “bring back the weekly bin rounds” although they’ll probably figure out a way of linking the two together before long.
However, what every newspaper seems to be missing is an opinion about how to effectively prevent this sort of thing happening in the future, many of course have talked about draconian police measures bearing down upon the populace like a police state. But this neither solves the problem nor does it bode well for freedom of speech. No, what has failed to be accomplished, is the analysis of what happened in the run up and why a, relatively, small protest has grown to rioting in several major cities.
It seems logical that areas that need to be looked at are, indeed, police tactics and what has led to people dropping social norms and deciding that they need to burn down buildings. Thankfully we have not reached the level of riots in the 1980s nor the horrific event that was the riot in Los Angeles in 1992 , oddly the latter has many parallels; when Rodney King was beaten up by police officers and after the police officers were acquitted it sparked a fury of outrage that was backed up by guns. The problem is that in cases where the police have been the ones doing the wrongdoing it acts as a strong stimulant to not respect them, particularly in the minds of those who are strongly effected by the economy. Indeed, it may well be that the news that the stock markets are in free fall may have fueled part of this as people are scared for their futures.
It seems to me that the government, police and the press have all failed in their duty to this country and whilst those causing the violence are certainly not blameless the actions of the government in the last year that have increased youth unemployment and the rich/poor divide in London, the poor tactics that the police have been implementing and the press hype have helped to add fuel to the fire.
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