Life's a riot

[strictlytrue]

Have you ever heard of Bến Tre? It's the capital city of Bến Tre province in Vietnam. The US Air Force bombed the crap out of it in 1968 and an USAF officer said - allegedly - "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it

Comments

[ext_349064]

But this isn't some planned attempt to destroy capitalist society organised by the anarcho-left. Rational arguments about why looting is bad are pointless as they assume there's some coherent plan behind all this, as opposed to people so completely abandoned by society that they have no problem with burning down shops and buses. The questions that need to be asked are about how we got here. The apparently popular attitude that "they are just criminals" as though there just happened to be a lot of crime juice in the water lately is deeply frustrating circular bollocks.

[strictlytrue]

But this isn't some planned attempt to destroy capitalist society organised by the anarcho-left.

No, it isn't. And individuals who are arguing that it is should take a long, hard look at themselves.

Rational arguments about why looting is bad are pointless as they assume there's some coherent plan behind all this, In some cases, there was something of a coherent plan. It seems pretty clear that last night, at least, the age profile of those involved was higher and that gangs - in the literal sense of the word - were co-ordinating their actions and turning up in cars to ransack and loot. These weren't people abandoned by society, but opportunist thieves preying on communities. I think there's been an awful lot of this - crime gangs putting out messages to the youth of an area to gather and cause trouble, while they make the most of the chaos to steal vast quantities of stuff to sell

[ext_349064]

What turns someone into an opportunist thief? Is it genetic?

[strictlytrue]

As I understand it, that is possible. But it scarcely matters.

I guess you're getting at the idea that there's a reason opportunist thieves are opportunist thieves - I suspect there are many. But it's clear that such people exist in good times and bad. You can't blame the cuts for the existence of opportunist thieves.

It's certainly true that the more opportunities people have, the more jobs there are, the more prosperity there is, the fewer criminals there are. And it's certainly true that when times are bad, people are angry and trouble is more likely. None of that means that there aren't a great many people using the riots to line their own pockets at the expense of working-class communities.