Lootin' in London

Like most people I was shocked to hear about the riots in London this week. What appeared to be a legitimate social protest in the beginning turned ugly with shops and houses being burned, and looting galore.

It originally appeared to be the result of an oppressed and marginalised minority rebelling against a lack of future prospects, lack of life, ever decreasing benefits and services and neighbourhood overcrowding, coupled with boredom and ever present visits from the police.

Social explosions of this kind are nothing new. The same scenario exists in Los Angeles (Compton), New York City (Harlem) and Sydney (Redfern). All of those places, in recent years, have seen their share of riots over perceived police mistreatment of locals. However, none of those places saw anything quite of the scale that was seen in London this week.

For a while, it was easy to feel some sympathy for the oppressed minority over there - the class system is, and always was, a flawed system designed to keep the rich in the black and the poor in the red. However, after four days of blatantly ripping off merchandise from stores it's gone beyond a joke.

There's a theory that suggests that on the first day of rioting that the looting happened because the police were so stunned by the damage and were run off their feet trying to get on top of things, that the looters simply got away with it. On the second day, people must have thought "Oh well, yesterday people got away with it, we'll have a go today" and on and on it goes until in excess of 500 people were arrested and charged with looting.

As if that wasn't enough to make one rethink their sympathies for the situation, when one reads a story like this one, about a 19 year old, well-to-do university student who thought she'd join in the thieving for something to do.

As of now...Sympathy. Evaporated.

Sorry kiddies. I no longer feel sorry for the situations of those protesting - there's better ways to get your point heard and now that this has come to light, I hope every last looter gets the book thrown at them. Sure, situations are not perfect, economically or socially, but the actions of people who should know better, helping themselves in a time of crisis is, in my view, unconscionable.

This article sums up the situation beautifully . Entitled "The Stereotype of the Underclass Does Not Apply", author Andrew Gilligan hits the nail on the head.

It's hard to contain the rage.....