(10-01-2014, 05:10 PM)Kezzieboy Wrote: I'm glad you see that there is an underlying issue, and that it wasn't just mindless violence and thievery from the start, unlike most people seem to think.
I doubt I'd cope well in that sort of situation, I'm fairly sure I'd freeze in panic and get shot, but as I say, that's why I'm not in the armed response and I don't think it's unfair to expect those chosen to be in those situations to be incredibly calm, focussed and prepared.
I still think you're wrong about the treatment of ethnic minorities though. Racism is still rife in this country, and I'm sure the police are better than most segments of society, but I still think it's fair to say that minorities are treated unfairly by the authorities. You also have to look further back to why there are more black youths committing crime, and that's due to their socio-economic backgrounds, stemming from their disadvantages in employment and careers, which is at least in part due to racism. It's a bit of a chicken and egg argument, but the more marginalised those committing crime feel, the more likely they are to commit crime, and so that feeds the statistics, it's a vicious cycle.
I definitely don’t agree with the Racism argument here, I also don’t agree minorities are treated unfairly, we are probably the most tolerant country in the world, comparing the UK’s human rights record with almost any other country on the planet will demonstrate this.
I do agree that generally socio-economic conditions breed crime and ultimately civil unrest, but this isn’t necessarily caused by race, you only have to look around the world, every country in the world will have areas that have high unemployment, poor housing, deprivation or some sort of oppression, ie shanty towns in Brazil, unemployment in Greece, social oppression in Russia and China etc , all of these have areas which are equally or more ‘charged’ than Tottenham, ever will be, the fact that there isn’t as much actual civil unrest in these places is largely down to the extreme response of the local authorities remember the peace protests in tiananmen square ? this wasn’t to do with race or minorities, in the same way organised crime in the Baltic’s isn’t about race, fact is the way we respond to adversity is human nature it's just in the UK racism is the perfect excuse.