Saturday, August 27, 2011

All is fair in rioting in England

The rioting that took place in London and several cities caught the U.K. police and the public by surprise. The usual characteristics of the criminal elements were tempered by highly educated folks joining the vandalism. The police took painfully slow time to response and let the rioting get out of control for several days on end. When the police did show up in force, then the rioting subsided and the whole nation is now taking stock of the situation and how this could have happened in the most democratic of countries that whole communities descended into violence. Although some people did tried to protect their properties and communities but it was not that much supported by the police.

The Prime Minister of Britain has blamed the social media and hooligans for invigorating the rioting. Although this may be true to a point, but the police needs to share the blame for not coming out in force. Since the British police are for the most part unarmed and there are strict gun control laws, the rioting still did a lot of damage. Imagine the same thing happening here in the U.S. where both the public and the police are armed to teeth. There may be many causes and among them maybe the fact that the jobs are becoming scarce and government after hooking up the public on Government welfare programs now is trying to curtail them and the public is not ready for it especially in this recessionary period. All in all there should a public debate on what are the causes and find remedy so that it does not occur again.

No comments:

Post a Comment