London riots

For a third night there has been rioting by anarchists in London. It has now spread to Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool. The ostensible cause was the shooting of a man in Tottenham who allegedly had shot at a policeman, the policeman only escaping death because the bullet lodged in his police radio. However, the family of the shot man have condemned the violence and it is clear that the so called cause is only an excuse.

Millions of pounds worth of damage have been done and most of the perpetrators as well as the victims are black. This black on black crime is nothing new. Most of those killed and killing with guns and knives in our great cities are black. Most unemployment, most failure of education, most gang warfare is among the young black male community. These young men are brought up by unmarried or deserted women, for whom the state supplies social housing. The only male role models are criminals. The police have been intimidated by liberal intellectuals into a PC attitude and been called institutionally racists. Yet the victims are themselves black and David Lamy the local black MP has described the actions of the rioters as 'sheer criminality'.

Unfortunately, the Labour Party leadership has blamed the rioting on the austerity cuts. People whose livelihood has been threatened by 'cuts' might be stealing food or money, but not designer sports clothes of flat screen televisions.

In truth, the numbers involved are not great. In Hackney last night there were 50 rioters and 250 police, who soon (3 hours) had the situation controled. The Anarchists are using the social networking sites to conspire to group in set places so that they can inflict the greatest damage with small numbers. It looks to me that a criminal charge of conspiracy might stand up in Law. Under-cover policing might work. What we don't want to see is weak punishment by the courts when these people are prosecuted. Is it time to bring in the army? Perhaps. Water cannon with indelible dye might be another option.