Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 10, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
London is a big city. It is not easily policed.
In London, unless you implement a curfew, you cannot control all areas. It is impossible. But the heavy presence of the police will help to calm the situation and give assurance that something is being done.
Placing thousands more police in the streets is just one solution, but judging from how the violence is unfolding, it is taking place in small outbursts.
The authorities were clearly caught off-guard. In fact, the entire country was caught off-guard, including the Prime Minister who was on recess. They could not have predicted that the violence would have spread and spread so widely.
The reason why it has spread has nothing to do with the death of that young man who was shot by the police. There will be an inquiry into the death and it will be an inquiry that will enjoy public confidence. The first wave of violence was in protest against the death; the second wave has nothing to do with the lack of public confidence in the system or about the social or economic system. It simply was a case of persons taking advantage of some tensions to test the security of the system, to see whether they can get away with criminal activity.
Some of them have been able to break stores and make off with loot. But many have been arrested and many will be placed before the courts and face the full force of the law. Some of those who feel that they could profit from the unrest and engage in arson and theft will also be eventually brought to justice as the security cameras assist in identifying some of the perpetrators.
The British authorities are going to send a great many young people to jail over what happened, and those involved need to be punished for what they have done. They saw an opportunity to cause trouble and they have. They have, however, in the process, caused a great deal of pain to a great many people, and shown a negative image of their country. They will face the full brunt of the law and this will set an example for those who follow.
The British authorities cannot be blamed too much for what has taken. It would have been hard for them to have expected such a turn of events after the initial protests. But it has happened and it will be reminder to them that they should always be on the alert.
London is not in any April Spring. This is August and it is summer. The protests show that the authorities cannot be complacent.
Many persons are now counting their losses. Yes, the insurance will pay. But insurance money never compensates for what is lost. It never compensates for having to start over, for the many who will be out of jobs and for those who have seen their buildings set alight. There are hundreds of persons who are going to be poorer because of what happened. London’s image has taken a hit just one year before the Olympics and the response has to be of such as to send a message that British society considers the violence as wrong and will not condone it.
When the evidence begins to roll in, a great many youths are going to end up in jail and are going to end up in jail for a long time, and rightly so for the guilty. Those who committed these crimes, who robbed and burnt the buildings of innocent people, deserve to be put away for a long time.
And the law will take its course, because no amount of protest is going to prevent the authorities from charging those involved. The British are not going to compromise when it comes to law and order.
Things for many will not be the same. But the response to these riots has to be about maintaining law and order and allowing all the other forces who are moaning about employment and social problems to deal with those issues at the political level.
The riots in London are about pockets of persons taking advantage of a situation. That situation will now be reversed and the heavy hammer of the law will rightly fall on the perpetrators. This is how it will be and this is how it has to be.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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