A quote from a guardian site article: "People don't believe the government anymore since the Iraq war.""
Does this strike anyone else as familiar? Police use only a modicum of force to deter rioters, looters smash-and-burn for days, public outrage simmers, then police interject with overwhelming force, reminiscent of vigilante justice, and arrest both looters and non-looters alike. That script was played out time and again at international economic summits (G20, G8, Summit of the Americas, WTO etc). This appears extremely contrived. There is no reason for police to sit on their ass doing nothing unless they were ordered too. The question is WHY? It smacks of problem-reaction-solution. Vilify protest, demonstrations and award the State broad and heavy-handed powers to arrest anyone mildly deemed a threat. IOW, this appears to be a POWER GRAB. Watch how all this resolves itself. Huge new laws pass in the UK to take what's left of individual rights and give police big new arrest powers.
Police claim they're repeatedly "foiled" by rioters that spontaneously organize, primarily through Blackberry Messenger. Is it that difficult to assign 10 to 20 undercover officers to each major city, have them mingle with rioters, get a few BBM PIN numbers, then preempt the next riot? This is not brain surgery. "The challenge they face is staying ahead of the rioters, many of them unemployed city youths harnessing social media and smartphone technology to plan their next opportunities to attack." http://www.globalnews.ca/feature/6442461111/story.html
Officers have been authorized to use rubber bullets to prevent further violence. http://www.globalnews.ca/feature/6442461111/story.html
lol, rubber bullets, now that is comforting. Has anybody in the whole depraved country got a 12-gauge? Good God, you people once made the best.
That's not terribly bright is it? What was the initial trigger - a police shooting. You think more of the same is going to help? More like start a civil war. Apparently there were no shots fired at police and the bullet lodged in the police radio was from a police weapon. The police shooting may have been justified, but there is some explaining to do.
This might be a test of the portion of the Patriot Act in the states that justifies shutting down portions of the Internet during a national emergency.