It's a riot

Who remembers Dixon of Dock Green - Fair and quality policing without fear or favour?
With the upsurge of violence in our towns and cities where looting is being widely reported, perhaps we need to stand back and review where we are regarding this situation. It is so easy to waffle on about the criminality of the individuals involved in the looting, theft and the other criminal activities, but why are they doing it and how can it be stopped.
The police and in particular the Metropolitan police have not had good press lately with the bribery and phone hacking sandal and they are now leaderless at present.
The handling of the shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham may have been the trigger but they are lots of other reasons for this build up of pressure.
Its high time the police and in particular the Chief Constables disengaged with the higher echelons of the establishment and re-engage there police force with the general public at large.
The banking crisis and the subsequent demonstrations during the G20 meeting which resulted in the death of Ian Tomlinson, clubbed by the Metropolitan police on his way home just serves to indicate how disconnected some police are from the community they purport to serve!
It was the police that warned during the start of the austerity measures that cutting the police force budget when youth unemployment was rising was a dangerous move where they may not have sufficient numbers or budget to maintain the rule of law.
This year alone we have seen the student demonstrations against the tuition fee rises and the loss of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) soon followed by the TUC march last March which brought teachers, court workers, NHS and Social Services workers together for a united stand against the cuts. During these protests they have been other pressure groups in action. The direct action group UK-Uncut and the Internet based 38 Degrees and again the Metropolitan police could be accused of being heavy handed in the way they have dealt with the UK-Uncut group by detaining them for some 36 hours for a peaceful sit-in.
Of course the government does not help by promoting one of the business leaders targeted for tax avoidance by the UK-Uncut group to a government advisor! This again indicates that the police have disengaged with the public and are happy to fly there standard with the ‘big money’.
Youth unemployment is very high and jobs in short supply, students are forced to pay much more and many new graduates have a degree and a large debit with at best a low paid unskilled job or none at all. The bankers still get there bonuses and the rich just get richer with many more people slipping into poverty. Something has to change, we only need to look at the Middle East and the Arab Spring uprising to see the sea of change that people demand when things are corrupt and unfair.
Its high time the police and in particular the Chief Constables disengaged with the higher echelons of the establishment and re-engage there police force with the general public at large. The shooting of Mark Duggan, justified or otherwise and the apparent contempt for his family are another systemic failure of the police.
Now is the time that people are the priority rather than business and property and the police now fully engage with the society and community they are suppose to serve.
However on the political front just how many people voted for this Coalition government and the austerity measures they are engaged in. The role of News International may have had an undesirable effect on the election result, but we will never know. If politicians ignore the voters and decide to go down a different path without a clear mandate then how are people supposed to relay there disapproval and anger at this situation. And young people when angry let it be known and it would be unproductive to demonise them even more; they need to be engaged in society and be stakeholders in our future.