Thoughts on rioting

A few years ago, when I was still living in Dublin, a group came down from Northern Ireland for a parade under the title "love Ulster". The event was organised by loyalist groups and their motives may have been mixed. However, wise counsel would have taken the view that they should be met with consideration and courtesy, if only to show that we were civilised people and thus disappoint their expectations.

Instead, we got a riot - in broad daylight - which must have reinforced their sterotypic view and served as propaganda for the most irredentist elements in the loyalist camp. Interestingly, it may have been orchestrated at the outset, but it got started and the police reaction wasn't quick enough, it developed a momentum all of their own. There is always an element in any urban setting that is just waiting for the normal restraints to break and then they let rip. A chain reaction starts and it son gets out of control.

That is not to justify the people involved. People who react in such a way are thugs and, no matter what their background or circumstances are, they still make a moral choice. Anyone who smashes a window or rips up a paving stone to throw it knows excatly what they are doing and should be treated accordingly.

The same applies to riots that took place here in Switerland last year at the time of WTO talks - in Geneva, the city of peace! On that occasion there were no fires but there were lots of smashed windows and some looting.

In the case of London, I think that, at the very outset, there may have been a few people in Tottenham with a sincerely-felt sense of grievance who just lost their temper in the face of a failure by the police to appreciate and address their anger (this is especially credible if the allegations about a 16 year-old girl being beaten without provocation by the police are correct). However, to the extent that these people might be allowed some indulgence, they soon ceased to be the driving factor and I hope that, if not now, then in time to come they will be shocked at how the situation has escalated.

For the most part, subsequent to the first few moments of the first riot, I don't buy anger against the police as an excuse. Every police force I've ever encountered can behave badly and give grounds for anger, to a few people - especially if they are poor or belong to racial minorities. However, there are always far more people who are just waiting to appropriated this as an excuse to indulge in mindless violence. There is a word for such people. they are called thugs.