As several others have already said the vast majority of the rioting that has taken place had absolutely nothing to do with the Metropolitan Police shooting a suspected drug dealer (who happened to be armed himself). Personally I think the only rioting directly related to that wa the first night (the Saturday) in Tottenham, North London.
Unfortunately the Police struggled to maintain order in Tottenham that Saturday night (failed is probably a fairer word to use than struggled) and that probably prompted large numbers of individuals to engage in "copy cat" rioting over the next few days, but to reiterate, that had absolutely nothing to do with the initial shooting. To quote Legbreaker...
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Originally Posted by Legbreaker
I've heard it mentioned a large number of rioters have been armed with things such as blackberry's, expensive clothing and even more expensive cars. Add in that a large number of rioters arrested include such upstanding citizens as teachers aids (one example that springs to mind) and, well, I'd say it's not just a social underclass behind it all. My guess is yes the first night was a reaction to the shooting, but ever since it's mainly been an excuse by those who are just plain bored to get out there, trash the place and pick up a new plasma TV on the cheap.
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Agreed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
In my mind there is NO excuse for the behaviour we've all seen splashed across the TV world wide.
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And again agreed.
I don't claim to be any sort of expert on this, but as you can imagine it has generated pretty much non stop news coverage ever since, and consenus seems to be that a) intially there weren't enough police officers on duty to actively deal with the situation and b)
some of their tactics were flawed, partly because of their lack of numbers and partly for reasons that 95th Rifleman has already alluded to. Action was taken to correct both of these issues at the start of last week - for example the number of officers on duty in London was increased from 3,000 (Monday night) to 16,000 (Tuesday night) by cancelling all leave, pulling in off duty personnel and drafting in officers from other forces. Tactics also became more "robust"; arrests taking place continuously since the middle of last week with the vast majority of suspects being remanded without bail. Consequently things have been relatively quiet since last Tuesday, the 09th. Obviously the challenge for the police at the moment is that they cannot sustain 16,000 officers on the streets of London indefinitely.
On the subject of calling in the Army, there was a clamour for this in some areas at the start of last week but senior Police Officers stated that this was an absolute last resort (correctly in my opinion).
Now, all that said...with regard to a T2K Setting...whilst I agree with 95th Rifleman and think rioting in the streets of the UK would be unlikely
before the nuclear exchanges,
after the nuclear exchange I think it becomes much, much more likely...the have nots would attempt to take from the haves, by force if neccessary. However I think that unlike the current situation in some parts of England where it was the shops selling electronic gear, mobile phones, and designer clothers, in December 1997 it would have been the food shops, the camping gear shops, supermarkets, etc that would be the target. And to be fair, the response of the authorities could be expected to be even more robust, with the most common sentence quite possibly being either 5.56N or 7.62N.
Just a few thoughts on the matter...