Quick Note about Rioting

First, just in case people wondered, I'm fine. I'm not anywhere near the stuff that's going on, I live in a good neighborhood and I don't hang around the city center at night. Things are much worse in London, but there have been rioting/looting in some of the larger cities throughout the country (Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham).

I have a different perspective on all of this, being an 'outsider' as it were. I have not seen a riot occur in the States, but my history classes taught me precisely what happened after such riots. The police came in and subdued things. Obviously there were some times in the history of the U.S. where 'rioting' was called for. I'm thinking specifically of the Civil Rights movement. It wasn't rioting in the same sense, but violence did occur and the police were called in. The police were trained to deal with situations such as that and the police had the authority to take action.

My understanding of how things work in the UK tells me that the police here are under-trained and their hands are tied by government BS. People do not fear the police here. They are not an authority. I had a classmate at Uni who always bragged about how he could get away with things in front of the police because they basically just said "go on home" and that was the end of it. CCTV, which I'll admit I initially felt very paranoid about (Big Brother anyone), is helpful in tracking immediate problems but when all it's used for is to tell some drunk guys on the way home from the pub that they shouldn't be changing the traffic light bulbs, it's lost some of its effectiveness. (That was one of the stories my friend told, by the way).

Now CCTV is being used to try and identify many of the rioters/looters involved in recent events. Good, that's helpful. And getting the public to help identify them is another good thing. But the fact remains that the police are rendered more or less impotent

I love living in England, don't get me wrong. But seeing these recent events makes me more convinced that there are some serious problems with the government (That is not to say that they aren't serious problems with the US government either). Slapping ASBOs on kids doesn't help them to get better, it only perpetuates the problem. I read a brilliant article about community and if you feel a part of your community, you would be unwilling to let something bad happen to it. You wouldn't contribute to its downfall. You wouldn't delight in its suffering. I love the community of England and it just makes me sick to see people using this moment of confusion to try and get ahead, however meager the perceived benefit.

I see videos of people taking armloads of items from stores like Game and I wonder, how do they expect to get any money off of that? Surely they can't be so naive to think that it won't be traceable?

The worst I've seen so far is of a young man, sat bleeding and a group of people approach him. They help him up, then start going through his backpack and stealing whatever he has. The only bright spot in that entire scene is that he wasn't injured further, that he didn't resist and end up getting hurt for it.

A friend of mine here is a police officer for Nottingham. Her fiance as well, who is trained in riot control. They are both waiting to be called up to help. Part of me wants them to get in there and help get this sorted. I know she feels that way too. But part of me wants her to stay away, to not get called up, so she doesn't have to deal with this.

My thoughts and my prayers are with all the members of the UK Metropolitan Police Force. They are not the enemies.