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Technology Blamed For Helping UK Rioters
Hugh Pickens writes "The WSJ reports that following three nights of rioting and looting in London, Blackberry's messaging network and social networking sites are being blamed by police, politicians and media organizations for helping rioters in London spread word about the next hot spot . It's an 'encrypted, very secure, safe, fast, cheap, free, easy way for disaffected urban youth to spread messages for the next targets,' says Mike Butcher, editor of TechCrunch Europe and digital advisor to the Mayor of London. But Ian Maude, an analyst at Enders Analysis, said it's unfair to lay the blame on technology. 'Certainly, it's a lot easier for people to communicate with each other in real time via some of these services but that's a fact of life. They're not good or evil in themselves, its the purposes for which people use them.' The Metropolitan Police, known as Scotland Yard, say they are monitoring social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM), the maker of Blackberry smartphones, says it has 'engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can.'" An anonymous reader points out that the rioters aren't the only ones using technology. London police have begun posting pictures on Flikr of people they'd like to interview following the riots over the last few days.
Blaming technology for the rioting is bullshit. You have to have people willing to riot and loot in the first place, this just helps them group together....
But more than that, the real bullshit is that in any group that size, there's no way the communication is "secure", in fact it MUST be broadcast (by tweet or whatever) where anyone could see it. Yes that lets rioters group but it also SHOULD give police a heads-up where to be. If technology is to blame for the riots then the police are almost as much to blame for allowed the riots to occur when the targets are handed to them on a digital platter beforehand.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A few months ago the western world wailed loudly when some arab countries terminated internet and mobile phone connections because it was thought to be assisting their local rioters. Here we have a supposedly democratic country where, at the first sign of trouble, government officials are suggesting exactly the same thing.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
20 years ago the same area erupted in rioting.. Those rioters used social networking rather than social media, they knocked on doors, chatted in groups, and then went off to find trouble. None of them had mobiles then.. didn't stop the riots. Political action and talking did that.
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
Guns blamed for helping gunmen shoot people.
Bombs blamed for helping suicide bomber blow up.
Planes blamed for helping people crash planes.
Fire blamed for helping people start fires.
Phones blamed for helping people coordinate bad things.
Internet blamed for child pornography proliferation.
How about this?
Sensationalist media blamed for making everything a scandal or a controversy!
People wanting to ignore and pass off responsibility just fire the blame cannon everywhere. Why are they rioting? Why is there so much civil unrest in England? Are the English that repressed that this is a cry-out for help? Or is this all being blown out of proportion, and the riots are really just a couple of small groups causing trouble. Personally, I think the PoliceState in that country has spiraled out of control, and now there is a growing underground movement with there backs to the wall, so we are seeing the rebellion swell as more and more dissenters act out the only way they personally feel they can. How about looking at the fundamental causes for societal unrest, lets analyze the sociology of the The Land of the Panopticon Complex.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
With a weakened social safety net, rampant unemployment, eastern-european migrants taking over the few remaining jobs and the super-rich from abroad (mostly the middle east) causing housing prices to skyrocket...
It also has nothing to do with the looting of the public done by the banksters and their enablers, the politicians.
Finally, the Met police are trusted and can't be blamed for the vandals and looter's complete despise for the actions of the law enforcement... it's not the fault of the police that they are unaccountable.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Today has been a rather different story - Twitter has been used to organise a community-driven clean-up process, with large numbers of people gathering in the damaged areas of London to help fix things and tidy up. #riotcleanup is still trending worldwide, and has been for most of the day, #riotwombles (a wonderful tag) has been used for organising people on the streets, and @riotcleanup has picked up over 70,000 followers today. There's also a sort of website running now.
Social media, the Internet and technology in general are just tools - it's how people use them that matters; and today we've definitely seen them being used for good.
Give law-abiding Britains their gun rights back and let them use them in public when attacked by people who clearly intend to render substantial harm to life, limb or property.
Liberals were predicting that the "make my day" self-defense statutes Florida and Georgia have would result in a bloodbath because recipients of violence could not only stand their ground (by abolishing the "duty to retreat") but also lowered the threshold for using a weapon in self-defense.
Instead, a lot of criminals suddenly realized it would be open season on them.
Of course, you're well within your right to lecture these "redneck states" on how uncivilized their behavior is--even as your city is struggling with outright barbarism in its midst.
I've followed the BBC feed on the riots, and I can't say I've heard anyone, including the police, "blame" the technology, as much as simply acknowledging that the rioters use it to organize. That's it. Nobody is screaming "remove technology from the premises".
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
and pay some inciters to heat things up, a bigger riot will afford more police the opportunity to look like heroes. Maybe even stage another shooting.
Yep, I think the real problem here is that the rioting started as a response to (real or perceived) police violence, and the reaction was "add more police" and the situation got worse. Rinse, repeat. This isn't a problem of technology, this is the equivalent to trying to put out a fire at an oil refinery by adding more gas.
Get a web developer
We are having these problems in Illinois and Wisconsin as well. Illinois has no concealed carry law, and Wisconsin's doesnt take effect until Nov 1.
We are not seeing destructive flash mobs in Houston. It's won't happen there because both the organizers and participants know that lots of Texans walk around armed all the time. So, the concealed carry law it's self PREVENTS violence because these hooligans don't want to try something that will lead to them being shot dead.
So, the UK can watch and spy, and listen all they want and it will have no effect on what is happening.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
The disturbing part is that the police and more importantly the politicians are focusing on the tactics being used rather than the underlying causes of social unrest. How about figuring out why you have disaffected youth rather than how they are effective at being disruptive.
With all the surveillance cameras in London one would thought that is has to be the most secure city in the world.
Oh the irony.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
How about figuring out why you have disaffected youth rather than how they are effective at being disruptive.
The job of the police isn't to determine why, it's to stop it from happening. The police are doing their job. The 'why' is only for politicians to work out and try to address.
Living in London, and seeing the chaos first hand, I find the millions of ignorant teenage American basement dwellers posting here, with their stupid, teenage libertarian logic highly offensive. Britain is a different country, with different traditions, and different laws to the US.
IF these gangs of hoodlums were all packing .45s, then hundreds of innocent people would likely be dead.
There is NO government conspiracy to start riots as a pretext to limit our civil liberties
CCTV does work -- ask all the homie-g gangbangers being busted right now, where the evidence that put them behind bars came from
Grow up, and kindly refrain from commenting on things you obviously know nothing about. Ignoramuses.
It started as social unrest, it spread to the 'thieving cunts' afterwards.
Tell me a time when technology in some form has NOT helped Rioters....
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
When a young man was asked by a reporter, if he thought rioting was the correct way to express disconsent, he answered with
"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"
The TV reporter from Britain's ITV had no response. So the young man pressed his advantage. "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/07/7292281-the-sad-truth-behind-london-riot
BBC news ran a story last night that basically blamed Twitter and Blackberry. When I logged onto Twitter - I would say approximately 95% of the posts that were rioting related were outright condemning the riots - and I could see no signs at all of this "organisation" that the BBC article claimed. It seems to me that journalists are just blaming the technology with no real evidence to back up these claims - apart from the fact that many of the rioters are using mobile phones.
At this point, regardless of individual beliefs... I'm sure that they would prefer to NOT have rioting than incite more riots.
They are called agent provocateurs. If you have never heard of them and have never read of instances in which they are known to have been used, and why, then no offense but you are ignorant about this subject and should not be stating your "certainties" lest you become the blind leading the blind...
Most people are blissfully unaware of just how devious their governments actually are. Also, "expanding government for the sake of power" is not an "individual belief". It is very much a shared ideal.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Not to crap on your analogy but sometimes those fires are put out with explosions. That might be analogous to how they end the riots...
Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
"Disaffected urban youth" in England are toting around Blackberries? Thatâ(TM)s not very hip and edgy.
It is if you're youth here. Smartphone brand choice (released a few days ago). 37% of smartphone-owning 13-15 and 37% of 16-24s have a BlackBerry.
(My theory is they're either cast-offs from mum/dad, probably from business, or stolen. BlackBerry Messenger is popular, although I don't understand why, when things like MSN were popular before and work on all phones.)
His family staged a protest but a number of outsiders used it as an excuse to riot. Probably members of his gang but it it snowballed from there. People should take solace from the fact that the courts will be very busy handing out sentences to many of these morons over the coming weeks.
Yeah, Police State. Why don't you grab your passport and go visit some real police states in the world at least then you will know what you are talking about. You must just be upset because you are one of those "impressionable punks of low-intelligence" and people are treating you like one. And you don't need the FBI to "fill their heads with violent talk, provide them with weapons or fake bombs and plans for attempting to use the same" when the Internet is doing such a bang up job on a global scale.
Citation needed please: where does it say he was a violent drug dealer?
This portrait suggests he was affiliated with a gang suspected of murdering 3 people, was suspected by police of dealing drugs and guns and was a person of sufficient interest that an anti-firearms team decided to stop him. At which point he pulls a gun and gets shot for his troubles. Does that mean he's a violent drug dealer? That strongly suggests he was to me.
What? Nobody is asking why this is possible at all? I mean, let's look at what's going down here: Someone got shot. Someone else spreads the (false or true, who cares?) information that he was the victim of police violence. And suddenly all hell breaks loose and people are rioting.
Could it be, just COULD, that we're sitting on a powder keg with a damn lot of people SO pissed at government and the whole mess governments have put us in that they will accept ANY reason to vent their anger violently?
That's the only explanation I could see. I mean, think about it, why else should a lot (and we're talking about a LOT) of people go out, become a mob and riot? Because they care for the guy who was shot? At best, it's the spark for the already filled to the brim keg.
The problem isn't technology, and it isn't that someone was shot. They now want to close the lid on the keg to keep it from exploding, because that's all that's needed, not only in London.
A spark.
People are angry. VERY angry. It's like looking at a saturated solution ready to crystalize, and all it needs is a disturbance to set it in motion.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I'm well aware of agent provocateurs... however widespread civil unrest WITHIN YOUR OWN NATION is not generally the aim of agent provocateurs. Their use is normally to destabilise foreign sovereign nations, not your own.
The first thing that came up when I Googled this subject was the FBI's COINTELPRO operation. Guess who it targeted? US citizens. A US law enforcement agency using agent provocateurs to target US citizens. That should qualify as "within your own nation" (even without the caps lock). You talk like this is somehow unheard-of. It is not, not by a long shot.
... well, it sounds like an absurd attempt to save face.
COINTELPRO was intended to disrupt political groups within the US. These include the Ku Klux Klan, the Black Panthers, and others.
Oh, and the New York City police were known to use these tactics against the protesters of the 2004 National Republican Convention... in New York City. I'd say both of those are within the USA.
If you are a government official, your own nation is what you should be most concerned about. Whether you want to work towards martial law or whether you want to get rid of pesky opposition groups, this is logically the case once you have power-hungry people who love power for its own sake, whose only concern is whether something will obtain the results they desire.
The purpose of an agent provocateur is to cause someone to break the law. It's the kind of thing that would be called "entrapment" if a police officer openly did it. So they act through proxies. What you're thinking of is something similarly devious but with a different goal. What you're thinking of is more like the way the US used its intelligence agencies to destabilize Iran in the 1950s and overthrow its democratically elected government, replacing it with a dictator. Yes, that is one possible use of this kind of technique, but you limit yourself if you really do not see how it could be applied domestically.
To tell me you are well informed about this subject but had no idea it wasn't limited to only one very specific, narrow use
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
And they needed someone to get shot to do that? Why now, why not last week? I mean, the TV was there, they certainly wanted it back then too, why now?
Why're they doing that at all? Would you? I guess not. Neither would I. So why are there suddenly so many people who very obviously don't give half a shit about the law?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I don't think most of the people who are actually rioting are pissed at their government, they've probably paid pretty little attention to what the government has been doing in general. They're pissed at their society, because they're jobless and have no future prospects. That has very little to do with what the government has or hasn't done recently and a lot more to do with persistent problems that technology has brought about but society hasn't been very effective in dealing with.
At least that's certainly the impression that the writer of this article gives.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Posit: The rich abuse their wealth to gain political and economic control of a country.
Consequence: Wealth is concentrated towards the powerful, the poor become poorer.
Result: Over time a politically, economically and morally disenfranchised underclass is created.
Conclusion: Democracy cannot survive when run exclusively for the benefit of the top 1%.
Trouble is, nobody really knows why these kids have been raised so badly and why the schools have taught them so badly and why their culture hasn't encouraged them to aspire to working hard and why there aren't enough job opportunities that suit their level of ability. It is tragic for them.
Um, the left have spent decades pushing policies which created a feral underclass who believe that they can go out and smash stuff up and burn buildings down and won't be punished for it. If 'nobody' is smart enough to figure that out, then Britain really is doomed.
The real question is what do you do with millions of people who are violent and unemployable who have been told all their lives that they have a right to free stuff paid for by the remainder who are productive and law-abiding? And that's an abyss the politicians don't want to look into because many of them have been instrumental in creating it and there is no good way of dealing with it.
Why are they doing it? That is the question that I'd like to have answered. If it is organized crime, it does not need a focal point like a shooting of someone. Unless you want to tell me that this is the "revenge" of the criminal organization for killing one of their people, but if that was the case, London would have WAY bigger problems to deal with than simple riots. If this was the case, London would be at the mercy of that criminal organization.
So why are they doing this now? I'm kinda wary of mainstream media reporting about interviews with the rioters, I'm not so sure they'd be correctly represented. After all, the media have an interest in reporting what the public wants to hear, and they certainly prefer to hear "black criminals on the loose" to "black people so fed up with the way they're treated that they go rioting".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
And THAT is exactly the point. That is the key to the rioting and looting this time around. I've posted this in two place now, but here's goes again: The London riots cannot be divorced from the recent political and financial scandals in the UK and beyond.
In the last few years, the general public has been made privy to the monumental failure of ethics and responsibility in institutions both public and private. Bankers and financiers have been seen publicly seen to profit enormously from feckless and irresponsible behaviour. Politicians and civil servants have been shown to be inept at best, and in collusion at worst. And--in particular in the UK--the media and police force have been found to be involved in the most scandalous, unscrupulous and unethical behaviour of recent times.
We are living in an age of irresponsibility.
It's interesting to see that many of the rioters are expressing no political, social, or ideological motivations. They are either engaged in arson or larceny. It is simple opportunism. But this behaviour not a random incident; it is an inevitable consequence of our times. I would hold that these rioters across the UK, discontented from the effects of austerity and unemployment, and cynicised by the endless stream of unresolved scandals, have simply decided to have their own slice of the rotten pie.
If bankers can loot the nation without consequence, if the media can destroy lives with impunity, and politicians lie without consequence, then why should a young unemployed man with few prospects turn up what may be his only opportunity to own a big flatscreen TV, or some designer clothes, or to vent his rage at the state? Because it would be "wrong"? Because it is "immoral", "unethical"? But for his entire life this young man has been shown by example that crime pays, that ruthlessness and wrongdoing pays, that rage and emotion pay.
I don't wish to sound like a religious reactionary, bemoaning the loss of public morality. But what kind of ethics have these young men learned from their leaders and public and private institutions? In the UK and beyond. Where are the ethical pillars of our society who lead by example? In politics? In the church? In the media? In private industry? I see none such. And moreover, I see those in such influential positions profiting from their poor examples.
Remember to these young people, the state over the last 10 years is all they have ever known. A state that has lied and warred. A media that has colluded and harassed. Public institutions who have lost all sense of civic duty. Industries that have profited from the most wanton recklessness and greed. And everywhere, none have been held to account.
There are other underlying causes such as deprivation, unemployment, and hooliganism. But such things have always existed in the UK and elsewhere, but I see this spontaneous outbreak of criminal opportunism first and foremost as a sign of our times. These opportunist rioters have been lead by example by our corrupted ruling classes. As the saying goes, "As above, so below".
May the Maths Be with you!
Someone please mod parent up to 11.
The brits are forever preaching to the US about how this type of mob violence, and how it never happens in Britain (ignoring history) and how British police are for the most part unarmed. All the while their country is slipping into a technological dictatorship where taking a picture of a landmark gets your camera seized.
Now the authorities raise the SAME alarm as Mubarac in Egypt, Gaddafi in Lybia, and Assad in Syria. We are probably hours away from the British government suspending texting services and perhaps even cell service in the affected areas, just as was attempted in those countries. (Meanwhile, I suspect the Police CCTV system (if still operational) is recording everything in hi-def.)
That the riots are all in defense of a drug dealer is ridiculous. Its long past that.
The largely docile british citizen in some of these areas is probably reaching the breaking point, and has had enough of a government more interested in stepping on their necks than helping them prosper. Meanwhile the upper crust in the rest of the country is clucking and tsk tsk-ing and sending in more police. What's next? Importing advisers from Syria? Shooting in the streets?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
The original rioters were. Yesterday the age average increased considerably.
But it makes sense. Youths were the ones who got hit the hardest with the recent cuts in social services, and youth unemployment is through the roof.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Are you seriously comparing a bunch of thieving trash to people who are fighting genuine oppression?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
You're right. Because I'm sure all of the baboons putting people's lives and livelihoods in jeopardy would have been playing table tennis and sipping lemonade while telling some boring old hippy their troubles - if the opportunity had been there.
And I'm sure their actions will do wonders for the local economy, which will in turn enable a huge increase in funding for yoof clubs, leisure centres and the like. /facepalm
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The riots have gone way past the involvement of a "bunch of thieves". Have you even looks at the photos and the size of the crowds?
This rioting is something Britain has not seen in recent years. It is a totally new expression of anger from what sociologists would call the "underclass." That said, there are familiar elements in the build-up to last night's anarchy that might help you understand it a little.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
And sometimes explosions start fires where there were no fires burning before.
"But this one goes to 11!"
Well, the pictures don't look too different. In both people run around, fight the police and light buildings on fire. In both scenarios people get hurt and looting happens. The main difference seems to be that we agree with one and disagree with the other.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Be it as it may, and be it as it is, what matters is how they perceive it. That's pretty much what motivates people. Not reality. Perception. And if they feel they're treated unfairly, and feel strongly enough to toss aside the fear of prison and everything commonly held up as decent behaviour, they will act accordingly.
Reality or not.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
People are angry, but what they are angry about is that the universe hasn't handed them everything they want without them having to do anything to earn it. They are angry at the perceived injustice of the simple fact that the universe isn't fair. Boo-fucking-hoo, frankly. Get angry. Riot. Destroy everything. It won't get you anything you want, and it won't hurt anybody but the people who would nominally be on your side had you not hurt them.
It's a foolish response that has never worked, will never work, and frankly, shouldn't work. Justifying it, rationalizing it, and excusing it won't change that simple fact.
By the "underclass," I presume you mean 13-17 year old kids from middle class families, since that's apparently the makeup of most of the looters.
It's hard to feel much sympathy for the plight of that underclass.
The rioting started in the borough of Hackney. Hackney closed most of their youth clubs due to central government cuts. Putting lots of kids that used to have things to do out onto the streets. And then you've got the unemployment that the government is responsible for.
I doubt many of these rioting criminals have any idea of politics. But for sure the governments political mistakes are contributing to their behaviour.
Yes, you could do that. Or realize that all this is a waste of time anyway and start rioting. Not that this would change anything either, mind you.
Why youth unemployment is so high? Because there are not enough jobs. Duh. Add now that our education system has been cut to resemble a weak joke and we hence have kids that get out of high school without even knowing how to add two-digit numbers and you might have an idea why.
When you look around lower class youths you will notice that they get very early and very directly the idea that they're not wanted. Neither by their parents, nor by their teachers, nor by the rest of society. If society rejects you, it's only logical to reject society in return.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
By the "underclass," I presume you mean 13-17 year old kids from middle class families, since that's apparently the makeup of most of the looters.
Citation?
Looking at the footage reveals that most of the looters are black. And the middle class is overwhelmingly white. Furthermore the rioting all started in the poor areas of London - Tottenham, Toxteth, Lewisham etc.
Ealing got hit last night - but only because the very poor area of Acton is only a short walk away, and doesn't have shops which are as good as Ealing.
The whole thing is growing tiresome, so we should at least agree that violent protesting is a vicious, stupid thing to do.
These people aren't protesting. There's no banners, no chants, no spokesmen telling the media what their problem is.
These are just looters. The logical conclusion of having a consumer society, preaching greed is good, but discriminating against a group such that they don't see honest work as a way to get the products that are advertised to them.
These reatards don't know what real discrimination (South Africa pre 1994, USA in the 50s) is. I bet they can't spell it.
Retards is spelled with only one a.
You're the only one claiming that he pulled a gun. The police aren't. And for sure if he did, they'd be saying it.
Um, the left have spent decades pushing policies which created a feral underclass who believe that they can go out and smash stuff up and burn buildings down and won't be punished for it.
Well you'd probably believe that if you read the Daily Mail. In the real world however, under Labour the prison population rose to it's highest ever level, a higher level than anywhere else in Europe. This was against a background of crime decreasing ever year under the British Crime survey. Labour were certainly not soft on crime.
This problem has happened under the Tory coalition. In Tottenham where it started, the Tories have caused more than half the youth clubs to be closed. A week before the riots started, there were predictions that putting these kids onto the streets with nothing to do would lead to riots. Right wingers are so short sighted - they don't see beyond the end of their noses. Penny-wise, pound foolish.
This is completely untrue. I'm from UK, on holiday from work at the moment and following the news all day on numerous formats.
It is true that technology, particularly social networks and Blackberry messenger are being cited as a reason why pockets are able to spring up and move around quickly (hence being difficult for the police to respond to). It is an explanation - an absolutely valid explanation - but an explanation for a phenomenon is quite different from assigning it blame.
Frankly local MPs and suchlike have come across as surprisingly knowledgeable. I got a schooling on Blackberries from a 50-something female MP from a fairly posh London borough this morning. I'd wager she knew more about these things and why they're popular amongst London youths than RIM's marketing department, she might be deserving of a commission on my next phone.
I find it rather odd that /. posts a link to a tiny article (apologies if my adblock etc is cutting things out) on an American newspaper's site when there is a detailed discussion on the London-based BBC. I'll note the BBC carefully states "A number of politicians, media commentators and members of the police force have suggested that Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger, in particular, had a role to play." Again, having "a role to play" is quite different to being culpable or responsible, my impression is the BBC is responding to those misunderstanding the frequent references.
Oh yeah and technology is also being mentioned with the likes of "Twitter and Facebook users plan clean-up" (again, not social media being credited but noted as a tool used for people worthy of praise).
"In the early months of 1811 the first threatening letters from General Ned Ludd and the Army of Redressers, were sent to employers in Nottingham. Workers, upset by wage reductions and the use of unapprenticed workmen, began to break into factories at night to destroy the new machines that the employers were using." - The Luddites, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRluddites.htm "I say Edward, if it wasn't for these 'paper and quill' contraptions these Luddites would not be able to organise such thugery. They should close those so called 'stationary shops' before it is too late!"
By the "underclass," I presume you mean 13-17 year old kids from middle class families, since that's apparently the makeup of most of the looters.
Citation?
Uh, pretty much every single article in the BBC, the Guardian, or the Times today? That's why Tim Godwin was repeatedly quoted and shown on TV Monday night as saying that the most essential thing to control Tuesday night's rioting was for parents to keep their kids at home.
Looking at the footage reveals that most of the looters are black.
Not what I'm seeing on BBC or ITN. Stuff like the two white teenage girls speaking here is a lot more typical.
Furthermore the rioting all started in the poor areas of London - Tottenham, Toxteth, Lewisham etc.
It started in Tottenham because the Duggan shooting was in Tottenham. Since then it's happened everywhere. Crouch End and Catford, as just two examples, don't exactly strike me as warrens of council housing.
Well...
I'm not rioting...in fact I'm a reasonably comfortable 30-something with a career and a (rented for now) place to live in an okay part of the UK.
It's easy to forget though that the last generation or two have been able to make money, probably more money than 95% of these kids will ever see in their lifetimes, by the hard toil of *owning a house*. People who are working now and looking forward to retirement have ridden an unsustainable bubble of market-driven growth that has made their lives, to all intents and purposes, a cakewalk.
Because of the recent financial problems, you now need 15% deposit minimum for pretty much any mortgage and unless things change you'll be lucky to make more than about 1%-2% per annum appreciation on your capital. Same deal with an ISA or anything else. Even if these kids could get jobs (which they can't) the chances of being able to make provisions for old age are pretty much zero.
Best bet is to stay on benefits, but even those are being cut and the pressure increased on people to find work. At the same time the UK government is trying to force ill/disabled people back to work by taking away Incapacity Benefits from them, leading to even more competition for entry-level jobs.
The sad fact is that no amount of hard work by this generation of young kids is ever going to put them on an equal footing with earlier generations who coined it in by doing nothing during an unsustainable financial boom which these kids are paying for with their lives and their futures.
Hell it doesn't excuse looting and arson, but all these "why can't these kids get a job and work hard like I did" people really wind me up. Not saying the parent is like that but if they are 35+ and living in the UK then the Universe pretty much DID "hand them everything they want without having to do anything to earn it", at the expense of the kids who are out burning stuff and stealing trainers.