"MP's are proved to be swindling expenses on a grand scale"
A point made last night on a fascinating special edition of Question Time.
The argument put forward was that if your role-models are corrupt and incompetent politicians who, as if by right, helped themselves out of the public purse and considered themselves above the law, which to a degree, they are, why not behave in the same way. Nobody attemptd to defend the looters and arsonists, but comments like these put the present situation in Britan in perspective.
"Jim described him as a "petty criminal"
Based on the little information we have so far, that is what he appears to be - a drug dealer, and until we know any different, that is how we have to consider him. Pre-empting that situation with evocatively misleading language (I am fully aware that it was from the Guardian - that's why I didn't accuse you of making it up) doesn't help us to understand the situaton that gave rise to these events.
To suggest that the police don't over-react is nonsense - yes they most certainly do - I seem to remember a public execution in Stockwell not so long ago!!
The eye-witness report put up by Mayo-Man presents a picture of a peaceful demonstration turning up at a police station in Tottenham, demanding to know why a young black man has been shot, only to be confronted by a group of baton-wielding, riot shielded police - I think they call it "community policing!!".
Can't remember exactly how many major riots were said to have taken place in Britain comparatively recently in last night' programme (9-10, something like that), but I do know that on a number of occasions trouble has flared up exactly because of police insensitivity.
Jim Carroll