They’re saying most of the trouble was caused by anarchist groups who were taking advantage of the chance.
It also sounds like they are using facebook and pictures to ID the perps.... lets have a round of handcuffs!
It also sounds like they are using facebook and pictures to ID the perps.... lets have a round of handcuffs!
Watch the videos and see if those look like anarchists to you.
I’m sure some anarchists came along for the fun as soon as they heard about it, but the people burning the cars and smashing windows seemed to be mostly teenage and 20ish white guys, most of them quite middle class looking.
When we tolerate riots from one group...as we tolerate the riots from the usual anarchist groups, as we tolerate black “flash mobs” raiding stores and beating people, as European countries tolerate “youths” destroying their cities...it’s not surprising that other people feel they should get in on the act, too.
It’s just one of those pesky “breakdown of common society” things.
In all of these things, there should be no tolerance and the police should have been out there with the rubber bullets right away. But as someone pointed out, the last time there were a firm response to riots was in the late 90s...and the police are still being sued by “victims” (i.e., the rioters who got hit with the rubber bullets).
The point is that we don’t expect order and respect for our common property or even our lives from certain groups, so the police back off from enforcement; and after a while, any group who wants to can get do things like this with impunity.
I hope they identify these thugs and charge them. But the thugs clearly aren’t worried about it, since they were busy taking pictures of each other and posting them.