Mobs of London!

Watching the chaos and destruction that is gripping Britain shows just how fragile the world has become in this era of economic certainty. If this can happen in London and it's suburbs, could it happen here in the United States. One can only wonder, could it?

Since August 6, the Riots have acted like a virus, erupting from one area of the city to another, moving to other areas that have never seen such violence. One reporter on the ABC news called it the "worst rioting in a generation." The rioters using social media sites such as Twitter and Blackberry Messenger, have planned which areas they were going to target and what acts they were going to do.

A wheelchair bound "activist" named Jody McIntyre sent out a Twitter message to his 9000 followers to spread lawlessness across London. His twitter feed "Be inspired by the scenes in Tottenham, and rise up in your neighbourhood. 100 people in every area = the way we can beat the feds."

You can follow the London Riots own twitter feed via Facebook by clicking on link. The pace on Twitter revealed that over 3.4 million people visited Twitters homepage, which equals about 1 in every 170 UK Internet site visits on August 8th.

So we now know how the riots grew and spread so rapidly, something that law enforcement here in the United States need to clearly understand, monitor and adapt to before this type of crime spree hits here. What were the causes that brought the level of crime to such epic proportions.

The Precipice

On August 5, Mark Duggan, 29, was shot and killed during a early evening police stop, "by Officer's from Operation Trident, a Metropolitan Police unit that deals with gun crime in London's black communities, with officers from the Special Firearms Command (CO19)" according to Sandra Laville, corespondent with the Guardian Newspaper. The reporter goes on to say that the Independent Police Complaints Commission has taken over the investigation and attempting to clarify the facts and quickly allay fears. However, according to the report, Duggan was a "local boy who was loved by the community."

So what factors contributed to the riots? Shootings by police officers in Britain are rare, even more rare a fatal shootings. According to the Home Office, there has been an increase in increase in fatal shootings at 55 (non-police involved) in 2010/11, compared to 40 in the previous year. Serious injuries were down from 337 to 298 and slight injuries up from 1,537 to 1,593.  Although these numbers are not showing increases which are statistically extreme there are some increase. So crime does not appear to be a contributing factor to violence either going up or down, so what other factors could be contributors.

Law Enforcement Response

Post 9/11, the British Police have changed their policy involving firearms and "shoot to kill". The British police have modeled their "stop the threat" training after the Israeli and Sri Lanka Law Enforcement authorities who have dealt with numerous "suicide bombers."  Post 9/11 British Officers have concerned over terrorism and the risk of suicide bombers have engaged this policy to minimize the risk of mass death incidents. Still the vast majority of British Law Enforcement Officers do not carry firearms.

Racial profiling in the urban communities in Britain is considered very prevalent. The young black people feel that they are being stopped more often, combined with "continuing deprivation, growing unemployment, a feeling of lack of opportunity" says David Winnick, a member of Parliament.  A prevalent use of stopping black people, searching and interrogating them has resulted in some abuses and the feeling of abuse by members within the community.

Steve Hynd, a blogger from a news site Newshoggers.com reports that racism amongst British police is still rampant, even after the famous Mcpherson inquiry. Especially amongst London Metropolitan Police and there specialized units like the TSG riot response unit.  A decade on from Macpherson, black people are still seven times more like likely to be stopped and searched than white people in England and Wales, with Asians twice as likely – figures which are a major impediment to good race relations. The Commission believes that these differences cannot be justified by detections, since only around one in six people in all racial groups are then arrested.

The disputed use of stop-and-search has arguably caused more conflict than any other modern policing tactic and first achieved national notoriety during the Eighties, when it was blamed for precipitating inner-city race riots. Black people are four times more likely to be stopped than white people, according to Scotland Yard’s figures, which continues to give rise to charges of police racism.

Youth unemployment

According to the Telegraph youth employment in London is extremely high, in February 2011, there were 75,000 people aged 18 to 24 who have not had a job for two years. This was an increase of 43 percent on a year ago. Couples with the end of the Education Maintenance Allowances, which allowed students to stay in education, increased tuition fees and the abolition of the Future Jobs Funds - which Britain's Office of Labour would have created 200,ooo jobs.  That is a death knoll for teenage opportunities!

Inequality

In an article written by Mary Riddell, in Britain's Telegraph she states "Britain is less equal, in wages, wealth and life chances, than any time since," the last major financial upheaval, in 1929.  The anger continued after bailouts came for financial institutions, big business and industry, while Britain's youth got hit with the reduction of their education benefits and the bleak job prospects. The riots all unfolded while much of British leaders were vacationing abroad in yachts and resorts.

Weak Police Response

The mass rioting that occurred was allowed to occure because police failed to crack down quickly on behavior, similar to what happened in Los Angeles during the Rodeny King Riots, when the LAPD backed out of entire neighborhoods, thus fueling the looting and mayhem that insued. When the mob sees that police can't control a situation, it "leads to a sort of adrenalin-fueled euphoria," says ciminologist John Pitts.  The relative quiet that was brought back to Britian after 16,000 police officers calmed to ritoting and looting that occurred onthe prior four nights. A strong response met with overwhelming force can push the community to comply with societies norms.

But the underlying factors that contributed to this unrest must still be dealt with, and they did not occur overnight. A long term solution, with the involvement of all parties from the community, to government, business and law enforcement must work together to reduce the risk factors which lead to this level of mob violence or it will only get worse.