So much nonsense.....

With the worst of the troubles apparently over, the analysis is well under way into what happened and why, and this is the point, as is so often the case in the media arena, that there is a vast avalanche of complete and utter nonsense being spouted on all sides, whether it is the "string-em-up" brigade from the right, or the "no-one is really to blame" leftist liberals. I would like to add my voice to this stream, with the aim of cutting through all the nonsense and coming up with a rather more sensible idea and hopefully some sensible suggestions. This latest round of troubles started with an excuse, the shooting of a man in London, believed to be armed, by police officers. We know now that contrary to early reports the oplice had not been fired on, but there was a modified hand gun found at the scene loaded, and the police were on scene as part of an operation into organised crime. This young man it appears likely to have been involved in this operation in some way. There are arguements on both sides as to whether a community response against the police is warranted or not, but this is largely irrelevant, as what happened next suggests.

Following on from initial incidents of violent protest there was an upsurge in looting from shops across wide areas of London. It appears that the reason for this change and escalation was that the police had employed a policy of wait and see with the initial incidents giving a signal that people were unlikely to be challenged and caught for looting. Once this mindset was established there was little incentive for people to stop looting in the initial stages. It is being suggested that the police response was inappropriate, and the police have claimed that the situation was unprecedented, but it didn't start that way. I would suggest that it became unprecedented as a consequence of tactical errors made early on in the situation. Certainly things could have been handled differently but it is impossible to extrapolate whether the outcome would have been better or worse.

Moving on from the initial escalation, we saw widespread looting and vandalism spreading out across the country and I feel that this was as a consequence of the hands off approach taken by the police. The tactic was replicated in other cities and as soon as it was clear that looters were getting away unmolested it bacme open season on shops. There have however been some positives. The speed with which people have been brought to justice has certainly had an impact, as has the speed and accuracy of the uploading of CCTV images of people involved. The change in police attitudes on Tuesday night to a more aggressive strategy also seems to have helped the situation calm down, and alongside this the changing mood of local communities against the looters seems to have had a similar effect.

It will be interesting to see how this all moves forward, and what, as a society we learn from the mistakes made....