DC Trawler

Give a man a fish, and he’ll riot for free fish

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If you think things are bad on this side of the pond, at least it’s better than in London. Associated Press:

British Prime Minister David Cameron recalled Parliament from its summer recess Tuesday and tripled the number of police on the streets of London to deal with the crisis touched off by three days of rioting.

Cameron described the scenes of burning buildings and smashed windows in London and several other British cities as “sickening,” but refrained from more extreme measures such as calling in the military to help beleaguered police restore order.

Instead, he said 16,000 officers would be on the streets of the capital Tuesday night — almost tripling the number on the streets Monday night…

A wave of violence and looting raged across London, as authorities struggled to contain the country’s worst unrest since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s. Some 450 arrests have been made.

New events have just been announced for the 2012 London Olympics: the Molotov throw, synchronized looting, and the 400-metre dash for your life.

And the chaos is spreading. ABC News:

The violence and arson attacks that have rattled north London since the weekend have now moved across all parts of the capital and are spreading on a smaller scale to other British cities, the first time the recent unrest has flared outside the U.K.’s capital.

The wave of rioting now entering its third day was sparked by the shooting death of 29-year-old Mark Duggan in the Tottenham section of North London on Thursday. Police have said the man had shot at them first. Angry protesters demonstrated against the fatal shooting in the multi-ethnic neighborhood on Saturday, and the march soon degenerated into chaos.

After spreading across London Monday, violence soon ignited in the British cities of Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool.

Hey, you’ll never guess why this is happening, according to the left. Okay, you can probably guess. Here’s Nina Power, one of the miserable communists at the Guardian, to confirm it:

Those condemning the events in north London and elsewhere would do well to take a step back and consider the bigger picture.

Since the coalition came to power just over a year ago, the country has seen multiple student protests, occupations of dozens of universities, several strikes, a half-a-million-strong trade union march and now unrest on the streets of the capital (preceded by clashes with Bristol police in Stokes Croft earlier in the year). Each of these events was sparked by a different cause, yet all take place against a backdrop of brutal cuts and enforced austerity measures. The government knows very well that it is taking a gamble, and that its policies run the risk of sparking mass unrest on a scale we haven’t seen since the early 1980s. With people taking to the streets of Tottenham, Edmonton, Brixton and elsewhere over the past few nights, we could be about to see the government enter a sustained and serious losing streak.

Hence my headline. Is that really how it works? Is that really how you want it to work?

Remember:

Nonviolent protest = “SCARY TEABAGGERS!”
Violent protest = “THIS IS WHAT WE GET FOR CUTTING SPENDING!”

Either way, it’s proof that we need more government control of our lives and less of our own hard-earned money in our pockets. No matter what happens, it can be offered as proof that leftism somehow works in the real world.

Speaking of those terrifying, terroristic American Tea Party freaks, who somehow manage to leave the site of a protest in better shape than they found it and without hurting anybody, let’s take a look back at MSNBC’s Martin Bashir a mere three months ago. Here he is pontificating on… well, just watch:

“Isn’t this a wonderful example, as well, of British restraint? Would this happen in America with so many people? Really? …Look at this orderly movement by ordinary British people. I think it’s hugely impressive. Obeying the orders of the police…”

Wonder if the NHS treats loss of clairvoyance.

P.S. “No, no, can’t have you helping with the tidying up, luv. You might not know that broken glass is sharp.

P.P.S. I want this woman to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. I am not even kidding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SHKhvVjLIc

P.P.P.S. Brendan O’Neill: “The political context is not the cuts agenda or racist policing – it is the welfare state, which, it is now clear, has nurtured a new generation that has absolutely no sense of community spirit or social solidarity. What we have on the streets of London and elsewhere are welfare-state mobs… This is not a political rebellion; it is a mollycoddled mob, a riotous expression of carelessness for one’s own community. And as a left-winger, I refuse to celebrate nihilistic behaviour that has a profoundly negative impact on working people’s lives.”

P.P.P.P.S. You know things are bad in England when it’s too dangerous to hold a soccer match.