No offence…rioting
Okay I want to first say that I do not mean to offend anyone by this post. I just simply don’t understand it.
My LJ and DW accounts have been bombarded with posts over the last few days about the riots in London. I have received emails from some USAF friends of mine over there and there has really only been two topics on the World News over the last ( Read more... )
- co-ordination (this is a lot of people, moving fast, striking without warning, always miles ahead of law enforcement)
- scale (current data indicates 9 major cities hit)
- motivation (the powers that be aren't ready to engage with the issues that are bringing people onto the streets, so they're calling it mindless, without meaning or motive; people are afraid, because if they don't know what these people want, they can't give it to them to make them stop)
- the Arab spring (the timing, the images, it's spookily familiar)
- the Toxteth riots, 1981 (we did this, 30 years ago, and it's just beginning to register with people that all the peace in the mean time was a product of an artificially inflated boom cycle, and that maybe this is something we're going to have to live with in the years of recession)
- the global financial position (debt downgrade problems in the US, massive losses on the nikkei, sovereign debt crises spreading through the euro zone, it looks like nobody is safe, and investment is folding like a card house for the second time in three years)
- the loss of faith in the Police (you only have to look at the NotW affair to see how little the British trust their Police)
- massive discontent within the Police (the autumn of discontent among public sector workers has been predicted for months, the Police are bearing over 20% budget cuts on an institutional level, and large scale cuts in pay and conditions; hardly the time to have all holiday cancelled, hours extended, and all the specials brough in)
- the weakness of the British government (in 1981, love her or loathe her, we had Mrs Thatcher strong-arming the country through, now we have the unholy alliance of Cameron and Clegg, the difference is almost too obvious to be worth commenting on)
I'm not saying any or all of these are causing the riots, that's a much bigger topic for a time other than 11pm on a work night, but I think that a smorgasboard of the above elements is at work in the emphasis with which this is being reported internationally. Put crudely, people are frightened, and fear sells.
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