White Riot
Aug. 11th, 2011 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thermalsatsumaThis seems to have been an exceptionally long week.
Watching the reports of riots on familiar streets has left me feeling angry and depressed for many reasons. We have an alienated underclass with no stake in society and no qualms about committing blatant acts of theft and destruction, and yet how are there actions any different to the bankers with no thought other than their next bonus who have driven the world economy into a brick wall? Politicians stand up in parliament and condemn, and yet it was only a couple of years ago that they themselves were caught out claiming thousands of pounds to furnish their second homes with big tellies and expensive bookcases. The papers wax wrathful about people flouting the laws that they are happy to break in pursuit of a good story. We can't even trust the police accounts of the shooting incident that was the trigger for the riots.
In my most paranoid moments I suspect that David Cameron was happy to let the riots take hold for two days before returning to deal with them. The precedent has now been set for turning off social media, increasing the amount of CCTV surveillance and we have even had sizeable numbers of people calling for baton rounds, water cannon and even live ammunition to be used to restore order.
Something has gone horribly wrong somewhere.
Watching the reports of riots on familiar streets has left me feeling angry and depressed for many reasons. We have an alienated underclass with no stake in society and no qualms about committing blatant acts of theft and destruction, and yet how are there actions any different to the bankers with no thought other than their next bonus who have driven the world economy into a brick wall? Politicians stand up in parliament and condemn, and yet it was only a couple of years ago that they themselves were caught out claiming thousands of pounds to furnish their second homes with big tellies and expensive bookcases. The papers wax wrathful about people flouting the laws that they are happy to break in pursuit of a good story. We can't even trust the police accounts of the shooting incident that was the trigger for the riots.
In my most paranoid moments I suspect that David Cameron was happy to let the riots take hold for two days before returning to deal with them. The precedent has now been set for turning off social media, increasing the amount of CCTV surveillance and we have even had sizeable numbers of people calling for baton rounds, water cannon and even live ammunition to be used to restore order.
Something has gone horribly wrong somewhere.