Who is the sick one here?
[Photo: A disabled victim of the British London police was dragged from his wheelchair. (From an earlier London demo)]
On 10 August our vainglorious pm announced that the communities from which it is alleged the ‘rioters and looters’ emanated from were “sick”. But more on who is really sick in our society later. In the meantime I’d like to pick up on an aspect of the state’s response (or apparent lack of) to the uprising that I referred to earlier, namely my assertion that the forces of ‘law and order’ deliberately allowed fires to burn and shops to be looted, as it served to demonize the people involved as well as justifying the use of heavy firepower and a complete lockdown (which happened yesterday).
Meanwhile, Cameron, who has come under fire for the apparent lack of response by the forces of ‘law and order’ had this to say to the assembled MPs on the subject:
● “There were simply far too few police were deployed on to our streets and the tactics they were using weren’t working.
● “Police chiefs have been frank with me about why this happened.
● “Initially the police treated the situation too much as a public order issue – rather than essentially one of crime.
● “The truth is that the police have been facing a new and unique challenge with different people doing the same thing – basically looting – in different places all at the same time.” — David Cameron, BBC News, 10 August 2011. (My emph. WB)
The actual difference escapes me as far as it comes to imposing law and order on the streets between public order and crime but perhaps Cameron knows something I don’t?