Britain riots: my two cents (or rather a rant)

[alexandral]

I rarely rant about political matters, but I do so occasionally. This is the day for ranting because I have not seen anything as scary as current British riots in my life (and I lived through the fall-out from the collapse of USSR which at the time I thought to be the scariest time of my life). I do find it doubly-scary because I have always thought that the level of life and opportunities existing in Britain (even now), even in the poorest places, are much higher than in many many places in less developed countries. So I can not quite understand: why? When there is rioting in third-world countries, like China, it is often attributed to the countries' "regime". What are we to attribute the British riots to? Democracy?

I find the situation scary and I find it appalling. But the thing I do not understand personally is what is happening with the Police and other forces responsible for keeping the peace in the country. Where are they?

For example, there is an article explaining "What could the police do to stop the rioting?" on BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14459127. What it says is that Britain is not comfortable with the use of Water Canons, Baton rounds or Army forces. This is a typical phrase: "British policing traditionally did not rely on such methods" and that "In other countries they'd be deployed in the blink of an eye" (meaning Army forces). But seriously, may be this is the time to reconsider?

Comments

[endlessdeep.livejournal.com]

I've been keeping an eye on what is going on over there. A childhood friend of my Mom's who lives in Hayes called my Mom today and said it's getting very close to where she lives and she's a little fearful. This is scary business. I think your friend linndechir explained it best. What would be the result of more forceful police or military action to stop the rioting. But I agree, something needs to be done to keep the peace.

There are too many people with nothing and so little with everything they could ever want. Everything is out of balance.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I hope your mum's friend is safe - the things seems to have calmed down since yesterday.

My husband keeps saying that what happened was in the interests of the Police. I don't like conspiracy theories myself, but yes, the outcome will be in their favour, so may be at the beginning they were a little hesitant to react, and when everything escalated so quickly they were purely swamped.