I don’t understand the frustration in this article at all. The review being talked about on the websites mentioned is completely believable. If you don’t think the youth in Salford hate the police, you don’t know Salford. They weren’t rioting to steal expensive gear, they wanted a fight with the police. The report merely says anger towards the police was a significant factor. Because it was.

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Have you read the report?

• Many rioters conceded that their involvement in looting was simply down to opportunism, saying that a perceived suspension of normal rules presented them with an opportunity to acquire goods and luxury items they could not ordinarily afford. They often described the riots as a chance to obtain “free stuff” or sought to justify the theft.

They were stealing and they knew it, but the willingness to step past such a significant boundary comes from somewhere. Even the Met’s internal report says “Either the violence was spontaneous without any degree of forethought or … a level of tension existed among sections of the community that was not identified through the community engagement.” The first seems much much less likely than the second.

These events began with the police shooting a suspect dead and then issuing a string of (at best) deeply misleading statements which shifted any blame from themselves – contrary to what was said the man hadn’t fired a shot, and indeed wasn’t even in possession of a firearm. A lot of what followed felt very much like opportunistic criminality (as is acknowledged by the rioters reported in The Guardian/LSE report) but a lot of that seems to have happened because of a very quiet police response – it’s almost as though, after years of being accused of treating peaceful protesters like rioters, they decided to treat rioters like peaceful protesters.

The cliche is that the police never do anything wrong and are never to blame. The truth is going to be elusive and complicated but if you’re going to argue that rioters were common criminals without any motivation other than to steal for the sake of it then you’ve got nothing but redundant simplicity to contribute to the debate.

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Deport them all.

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There are some very academic observations here. They reflect an ignorance of humanity. Try dealing with chaos, naked aggression and mindless bloodshed – it has a salutary effect upon your perception of reality. Why did those questioned hate the police? Because they were starving and their relatives had been snatched and murdered? No, their lives were just an undisciplined mess, they don’t recognize the standards by which most people live and the police represent an authority which is alien and therefore, offensive to them. Everyone deserves a chance, but the reality is that eradicating the environments and social attitudes which spawn this hopelessness and anarchy verges on the impossible and tackling them is usually attempted at the expense of decent folk, so who deserves the greater sympathy and support? I think the law abiding citizen. I’d also make the observation that to the barbarian, conciliation is often seen as a weakness to be exploited whereas the big stick firmly and consistently applied earns respect, however grudging, and promotes stability. I’ll take that over the “rights” of ne’er do wells any day.

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