Rioting and Disorder In The UK

[Gemma]

Over the past few nights there has been mass violence and looting throughout suburbs of London and sporadically across other parts of England.

How are other countries media channels covering this news?

Being honest, I never thought I'd see anything like this in Britain. Most of the crimes are being carried out by youths between the ages of 12 and 20.

 

[Kevin]

In our news market (Philadelphia, PA region) there has not been any major coverage on the television news other than a few blurbs. The online news outlets have been providing greater details along with a lot of video & first hand reports.

What is being reported is that the riots are in response to a police shooting of a suspect but it seems more like years of built-up tension finally boiling over. That is opposed to riots in major US cities like Los Angeles where riots can be started as a result of anything from a sports team losing, a sports team winning, police action, or just what seems to be random flare-ups.

It is a bit surprising to see anything like this from London; it is not a location normally associated with youth riots.

 

[Gemma]

It is quite frightening watching shops smashed up, looted and burned to the ground in broad daylight by teenagers and youths. If you ask me the police should be more heavy handed and ask questions later.

On our news you hear them going on about frustrations, society and having no future.....all just excuses if you ask me. You even heard perpetrators saying they were doing it to 'claim back their taxes' - they were lucky if they were 14 years old!!!

Tension at present must be high everywhere in England that has some underlying gang and youth problems, thankfully from my point of view nothing like this looks like happening in Scotland.

 

[Kevin]

Not something I would have expected to see.... other countries looking to the US on how to deal with riots!

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/11/london-looks-to-us-to-combat-gang-violence