ktlight
15th August 2011, 08:22
FYI:
A black man killed by police. Mobs of looters. Cities charred and shaken. The riots in London mirror some of the worst uprisings in modern U.S. history.
And there are more parallels: Stubborn poverty and high unemployment, services slashed due to recessionary budget cuts, a breakdown of social values, social media that bring people together for good or bad at the speed of the Internet. And finally, there are a handful of actual attacks, isolated and hard to explain, by bands of youths in U.S. cities.
As Americans look across the Atlantic, a natural question arises: Could the flames and violence that erupted in Britain scar this country, too?
Police, elected officials, activists and regular citizens offer varied answers, reflecting the unsettled mix of race, class, lawlessness, and the chasm between haves and have-nots that may lie behind the unrest.
"History shows that the social tinder for such eruptions of massive violence and looting is usually widespread poverty without hope, and the spark is typically an incident of police brutality in the absence of a culture of police accountability," said Benjamin Todd Jealous, CEO of the NAACP. "Such conditions exist in almost every major American city."
Others, like British Prime Minister David Cameron, blame "criminality, pure and simple." That echoes descriptions of some recent episodes of mob behavior in places like Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Chicago and Ohio. Stores have been pillaged, passers-by robbed, and random victims brutally attacked by dozens or occasionally hundreds of youths summoned through tools like Facebook and Twitter.
Racial friction is an uncertain element. In Britain, TV images have shown mixed-race crowds creating mayhem. In recent mob violence in Philadelphia and Milwaukee, attackers were black and victims white.
Even though it's unclear how much race motivates today's mob violence, many see it as one of a combination of factors, which together make the grip of American law and order feel less secure.
In Milwaukee, where there have been two cases since July of large group attacks, Bob Donovan, an alderman, said a "terrible disrespect for the police" has convinced him that what happened in London could definitely take place in America.
"If one person goes out on a rampage and is apprehended, they're going to be held accountable," he said. But when you have 100 or 200 or 400, the likelihood of holding everyone accountable just isn't there."
source
http://www.sheboyganpress.com/article/20110814/SHE0101/108140430&located=rss
A black man killed by police. Mobs of looters. Cities charred and shaken. The riots in London mirror some of the worst uprisings in modern U.S. history.
And there are more parallels: Stubborn poverty and high unemployment, services slashed due to recessionary budget cuts, a breakdown of social values, social media that bring people together for good or bad at the speed of the Internet. And finally, there are a handful of actual attacks, isolated and hard to explain, by bands of youths in U.S. cities.
As Americans look across the Atlantic, a natural question arises: Could the flames and violence that erupted in Britain scar this country, too?
Police, elected officials, activists and regular citizens offer varied answers, reflecting the unsettled mix of race, class, lawlessness, and the chasm between haves and have-nots that may lie behind the unrest.
"History shows that the social tinder for such eruptions of massive violence and looting is usually widespread poverty without hope, and the spark is typically an incident of police brutality in the absence of a culture of police accountability," said Benjamin Todd Jealous, CEO of the NAACP. "Such conditions exist in almost every major American city."
Others, like British Prime Minister David Cameron, blame "criminality, pure and simple." That echoes descriptions of some recent episodes of mob behavior in places like Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Chicago and Ohio. Stores have been pillaged, passers-by robbed, and random victims brutally attacked by dozens or occasionally hundreds of youths summoned through tools like Facebook and Twitter.
Racial friction is an uncertain element. In Britain, TV images have shown mixed-race crowds creating mayhem. In recent mob violence in Philadelphia and Milwaukee, attackers were black and victims white.
Even though it's unclear how much race motivates today's mob violence, many see it as one of a combination of factors, which together make the grip of American law and order feel less secure.
In Milwaukee, where there have been two cases since July of large group attacks, Bob Donovan, an alderman, said a "terrible disrespect for the police" has convinced him that what happened in London could definitely take place in America.
"If one person goes out on a rampage and is apprehended, they're going to be held accountable," he said. But when you have 100 or 200 or 400, the likelihood of holding everyone accountable just isn't there."
source
http://www.sheboyganpress.com/article/20110814/SHE0101/108140430&located=rss