Some are linking the London riots to Britain's austerity measures; do you think the US could experience similar events?

@JLaughbon

I'm not making any connection to African Americans, no, because African Americans don't live in England. The comments I made about "street culture" are based on the way the rioters are dressed - lots of hoodies & baggy pants. I doubt they listen to 60s folk music, prog rock, or country & western. I would also bet that there's a high statistical correlation between the rioters and, say, graffiti artists.

I made the comment about rap music because I listen to it almost every day. I work with at-risk youth in and out of juvenile hall. These kids are addicts, drug dealers, murderers, thieves, home invasion perps... And 100% of the music they listen to is rap. The message is about getting what you want, and f*ck everybody else. Trust me, they're not listening to to KRS-One.

As far as race, there's certainly correlations as the majority of rioters were black. Most recent riots in the US have also involved a majority of African Americans - Watts, LA, and the recent flash mobs in Chicago and Philly. But no, I don't think this is about race. It's about a cultural mentality shared by many races.

And of course, as other posters have mentioned, it's also about being poor, hopeless, young, male, and disenfranchised. The power elite don't care about us, true, but randomly lashing out in VIOLENCE is supremely counterproductive.

We already had the L.A. riots. Anything can happen.

If mass riots do come to the USA it will be very ugly, since there are more guns on both sides. Such a development would be tragic, as the Police State will clamp down swiftly. Extensive video surveillance and sophisticated crowd control weaponry have been developed with just these circumstances in mind.

I agree with the other comments about austerity, bankers & corporations, but let's not forget that these **ARE NOT** thoughtful, conscientious, nonviolent students at an organized protest we're talking about. This **IS NOT** the proletariat rising up to demand class equality. This is spontaneous, violent, reptilian brain thuggery, with innocent people being caught in the middle.

It's not all about poverty and despair, either; there are also cultural and moral components. You never see Native Americans inciting chaos, despite their destitution, and you don't see rural West Virginians up in arms either. In London I personally doubt that many rioters are East Asian or Indian, either, since their cultures are ingrained with a sense of respect for authority, respect for property, and yes, a sense of RIGHT and WRONG.

These riots are partially a product of urban street culture as reflected in rap music and video games like Grand Theft Auto (not to get all Tipper Gore on you), and partially a product of modern Western nihilism.

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"Yes, it’s terrible about what’s happening in the UK... similar seeds are being planted in the U.S. ... only a question of time before what’s happening in the UK becomes an American story too."
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I can't agree. The 'angry', 'heated' reactions of Americans to our dire circumstances are, by comparison to the rest of the world, mild and complacent. The same super-rich powers (corporations are people) that are represented by the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, don't fear the masses in our streets - because there aren't any.

Yes, if the disparity between classes continues to widen. Nature and society seek equilibrium and if things become skewed too far in one direction, nature, and populations, will attempt to restore balance.

Not sure. There is still lots of money flowing thru our economy. If one breaks out due to anger, it will most likely be for the wrong reason. Unfortunately, there is a silent civil war in the USA, between extreme voices leaving those of us with our senses caught in the middle.

experience similar events...

ya
if the wealthy and corporations and investment banking get away with
no austerity measures
and
it's loaded onto the backs of lower and middle class
you will see very similar results if not worse

It should happen here. Here's the deal. It has taken years for us to get to this place. We need to have this story simplified. Let's review.

First, years ago, the Corporate Party took over the Supreme Court.

Next, (starting with Reagan and ending with Bush 2), the
Corporate Party, through manipulation of the military, foreign policy and the media, started "rigging" presidential elections in order to elect a Republican president at all costs so they could strengthen their grip on the Supreme Court and increase their squeeze
on the middle class.

When THAT worked, they ginned up the non -issues (abortion, "big government", the war on drugs, the "wastefulness" of lifelines for the peon classes which they call "entitlement", the attack on immigration if not for which most of them would've been born elsewhere, the attack on gays and the attack on non-white races) in order to pit one group against the other. To divide and conquer their "piss-ant enemy" the common man.

Then the Corporate Party with the help of the Republicans (patricians) and some wimpy Democrats, gutted regulations that had been in place for decades to help keep the Overlords from taking the common man down another rat hole as they did at the Great Depression.

Now, they have upped the squeeze by revving up our ignorant, bigoted, religious common-man fervor against each other over the good 'ol social issues by once again turning us away from what unites us and helps to keep their squandering of humans and planet in check. Their smack-down is a lot more visible and insidious than in past successes. They have bought and hog-tied a lot more of those we "elect".

The result will be...after we spend years without jobs and homes; after they have long-since taken away Social Security and healthcare; after the average American can no longer afford to drive a car; after education funding is so severely cut that our kids will be as ignorant and helpless as those in third-world countries; after we watch our elderly die early for lack of healthcare, decent food and housing, and after we watch our planet destroyed beyond repair - they will bring back the jobs. But only when those who knew what it was like to live in a country with real freedom and happiness were long-gone and silenced - leaving the uneducated generations to clamor for a slave existence.

This is where we are headed. So, hate your neighbor because he's different than you. Be self-righteous and suspect of everyone who doesn't believe in the same God as you do. Be wasteful and thoughtless and selfish and teach your children to be the same.

Believe the things the rich and powerful tell you cause it's easier and less painful than to stand up for doing the right thing. What "right things"?

Things like...Why should you have to pay for healthcare for that big fat person who doesn't know better than to stop eating and drinking too much. Why should you pay into unemployment benefits for that lazy, stupid person who managed to lose their job. We had better build more prisons to house all of those people with different-colored skin who are taking our jobs and stealing us blind. The person who doesn't believe the way I do is going to hell - my way is the only right way. The life of that woman isn't nearly as important as the fetus she carries. The life of that man should be relegated to solitude and shame because he loves another man. We know this is the way the world should be because the Corporate Party tells us so and plays on our fear of each other to keep us this way while they play comfortably behind the scenes to shape our future of pain and servitude.

This is what the reality is now. We are beyond choice, freedom and happiness. They are deciding for us now - and we are gladly following along.

Americans are too woosy to act up like the Brits have...they are too scared of the national guard and the army and SWAT teams that would surely be called in to put a stop to the demonstrations.

Yes, definitely. However many have been unemployed for however long...
And even those too young to have been self suporting for more than 1/2
their lives...They all had parents and grandparents who were integrated
into a Democratic society where they knew honest Government derives
its legitimate authority from their consent to be governed, That's a given.
Hoever bad it gets with a corrupted illegitimate Government not their own,
cheating them of all they & theirs have earned to steal it, then surrender
it to their puppetmasters like crooked attorneys, they won't be put off.
I was in Los Angeles in 1965 when the Watts riots were still fresh in the
minds of Californians. They rioted again in 1992, carrying signs saying:
No Justice, No Peace. after a gang of L.A.police tried to beat Rodney
King to death in public. Imho, it would be absurd to assume it couldn't
happen here, no matter how many para military try to repress people.
People are like gunpowder. Compress them badly enough, and all it
takes is one spark to ignite them to explode. What we're witnessing
runs a close parallel to the oppression the original American colonists
tolerated for only so long before they reacted violently. Taxation without
Representation. The USA is a very violent country. All it takes is for social
Justice to degrade far enough, and you'll start to see thinks ferment into
Revolution. The rotten to the core, depraved status quo is crushing the
middle class to death. Survival is the only law superceding all other laws.

Yes please, now?

CLASS WAR NOW
( Marx would say prophecy,....or analytic prediction,.....I cant be more optimistic that to think "prayer".

Hey! my fellow Americans I have to be honest here as and African American and Independent voter and a Veteran of the United States Army & Navy,who loves his country and have two sons who did and still are serving our country have to say this,I was proud to see the first African American become the first President of the United States in my life time but now that I have seen how tepid and balless he is by caving into the Republicans and those sorry fucking Tea Party people I am beginning to wonder like all Americans are if we made a big mistake in voting for Obama,to be the President in 2008.
Do not get me wrong I am a big fan of Bill & Hillary Clinton,and the one thing I have always admired about Hillary is that she does not take any shit off of anybody including her husband she has balls something Obama,does not seem to have or cannot find because Michelle,has taken them,and if is wasn't for the fact that Obama,ran in 2008 Hillary would have definitely gotten my vote for President,and maybe she should run against him this time because she would definitely win I am sick of his lack luster give in too throw the people under the bus by putting social security,medicaid all these things that seniors need to survive in there golden years,not helping the Veterans with the Veterans Affairs in how long we have to wait for benefits if we ever get them the man has really piss me off and maybe he does not deserve a second term because he has proven he would rather throw us under the bus than stand up and show some balls to these mother fuckers in the House,so maybe it is time for Hillary to take a run at him because I do not feel Obama,deserves a second term or my vote and that is the bottom line at least Hillary,has proven she is up for a fight with anyone and she has a person who can help and back her up Bill!!

We could only hope. Maybe it will wake some people up around here.

The young people of the world are getting angrier by the minute. We were brought up in a world where we were told we would do fine in any profession, then 9/11 happened, then the multiple economic crashes, and now this. Our entire lives we have seen the older generations take a massive SHIT on the world. The gunpowder has been set, the wire laid down, just waiting for the match to light up.

if all the unfairness and greed continue it is very likely to spread

Hi,
I am an independent film-maker based in London; I was in the street filming while the riot was happening.
I would like to send you the link of my story. it has been shot with a mobile phone.
Unfortunately it's just a part of it, because my camera got stolen a few seconds after the end of the video.

vimeo: http://vimeo.com/27516803
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv2CnuCeQPs

Absolutely. I have been waiting for people to become angry enought to do the same. It's only a matter of time. Just think, "French Revolution." Our power elite have become the old French dynasty. We the People will not tolerate this much longer.

I do think riots are possiable in the US because when money is worth more than people anything can happen!!!

I think we have become to complacent in this country. We cannot escape our Puritan past. Having said that, I think we need a large scale demonstration to speak up for the underclass. If we do now we will see our social safety nets taken away so that big business can have more tax breaks.

Let's see: major unemployment, no hope for young people to move up, increasing desperation as the security net benefits dry up or are cut, a long, hot summer and then a triggering incident to get a neighborhood up in arms against the police...no doubt about it and if it could happen in Merrie Olde England where the summer ISN'T hot (look at all those people running around in jackets in the video), it will happen here. Just let the TeaParty traitors continue in the path they have chosen and it won't take very long.

Yes, it’s terrible about what’s happening in the UK, but the Cameron gov’t has been sowing the seeds of this discontent now for some time—it was bound to occur, it was only a question of when; similar seeds are being planted in the U.S. with the Republican T-party’s madness for slashing spending, again being enacted primarily against the disadvantaged for ills perpetuated by the big banks & Wall Street financiers—there are no JOBS & people are becoming desperate—it only a question of time before what’s happening in the UK becomes an American story too.

Police brutality perpetuated against Duggin in the UK may have been the spark, just as Mohamed Bouazizi was in Tunisia, but all of the volatile ingredients, the kindling, had already been in place via PM David Cameron’s conservative draconian austerity measures enacted primarily against the impoverished for the ills perpetuated by the big banks & stock financiers through their fraudulent stock manipulations—there are no JOBS & people are becoming desperate—how much longer with our new super-congress of 12 & it’s pending mandatory triggered spending cuts before this UK story morphs into an American version with lots of guns!

London riots in a nutshell—an attractive young articulate Tottenham resident puts it directly,“the system is fucking"; people have been impoverished under Britains PM Cameron’s conservative draconian austerity measures enacted primarily against poor for ills perpetuated by big banks & stock financiers—there are no JOBS & people are becoming desperate—how long before this becomes an American story;@1:43m/2:12 m video http://t.co/YMklEoT

The existence of special interest money in politics poses an equal rights violation and fundamentally conflicts with our constitution. Equal voice is equal rights. If the volume of the voice is dependent on the depth of the pocket then the voices are no longer equal and thus nether are the rights. Our constitution calls for a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Legislation shaped by special interest money violates this most sacred part of our constitution. These rights can only be restored by the removal of special interest money from politics without silencing the voice.

No one is mentioning the Brazilian who was shot and killed after 7/7 where the police lied about a long black coat and wires and jumping turnstiles etc. The total loss of respect for authority after hearing the police were taking bribes from Murdoch news bureaus, then police shot father-of-four Duggin, according to one eye witness, while face down on the pavement MUST have something to do with it all.

Austerity measures after billions spent on fake wars and bankster bailouts could certainly have relevance there in the UK, and here if the Republicans bully Obama into even more massive spending cuts to education, infrastructure and health care.

Riots seem to be more of a response to police brutality than congressional action here, though. We've had regions go up in flames over national pressures ignited by local events before. Could happen again.