The UK Riots

I'm in no position to write about what's going on in the UK right now; while I'm reading news as it comes up, I'm unfamiliar with the politics there, and no one seems to have any idea what's going on. It seems like the news has a new cause every day. But Shakesville made an interesting point that I wanted to repeat...

An Associated Press article quoted Manchester assistant chief constable Garry Shewan, who claimed:

"We want to make it absolutely clear — they have nothing to protest against," he said. "There is nothing in a sense of injustice and there has been no spark that has led to this."

To which Melissa McEwan responded:

I feel like I'm stating the obvious here (although this idea appears to be anything but obvious virtually everywhere the riots are being discussed), but "hundreds of youths" don't go on a "rampage" without any reason, even if that reason is simply having no incentive not to. And, truly, feeling utterly devoid of any reason to not take to the streets of your community and destroy it is a profound injustice.

She goes on to talk about youth clubs which were closed a few years ago in London, and teens were concerned that having nowhere to go and no outlet would increase gangs and violence.

The whole post is entirely worth a read, and I think that point is an important one. If such a large population feels so unsupported by their community that they don't have any problem destroying it, then that's indicative of a political problem, not just widespread immorality or bad parenting.