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Kerim Okten / EPA, file
Police officers detain suspected rioters in Enfield, North London, Britain, on August 9, 2011.
LONDON -- British police expect another outburst of rioting in London -- possibly even this summer as the country prepares to host the Olympic Games -- as economic hardship pushes more people towards social unrest, a study found on Monday.
Thousands of angry young people rioted through the streets of London and other big cities last August, looting shops and burning buildings, prompting pledges from government to crack down on crime.
The joint study by Britain's left-leaning Guardian newspaper and the London School of Economics was based on interviews with 130 officers caught up in the riots.
It found that the police expect more trouble but feel their ability to respond could be weakened by austerity measures. Last year a riot in north London, which started after a peaceful protest against the killing of a local man by police on August 4, triggered similar scenes across the country's capital and in cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.
Sad truth behind the London riot
"Police expect a repeat of the riots that spread across England last summer, and are concerned about whether they will have the resources to cope with future unrest on that scale," the study said. "Officers said further disorder was likely, with many citing worsening social and economic conditions as the potential cause."
The government wants to make cuts of about 20 percent to police budgets. Like all public sector workers, officers also face pay freezes and higher pension contributions.
Meanwhile, security is under international scrutiny in London as it prepares to host the Olympic Games from July 27 when thousands of tourists and sports fans are expected to flock to Britain.
No direct correlation?
A former high-ranking member of London's Metropolitan police, the country's largest police force, cautioned against drawing a direct link between economic hardship and civil unrest.
Rioters in London torched vehicles and buildings and looted shops in response to the fatal shooting of a local man by police. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.
"It is accurate to say that police funding is coming under a lot of pressure," Bill Tillbrook, the former head of the specialist firearms unit at the Met told msnbc.com. "But it is not as simple as saying that if there are fewer police officers, there will be more riots."
Nevertheless, the study showed many of those interviewed felt more riots were likely or even "imminent." In a response it described as typical, the study said one superintendent from Manchester police said he expected more disorder "within the year."
"I think if you have bad economic times, hot weather, some sort of an event that sets it off ... my answer is: yes, it could," he told the study.
"Because I don't think anything has changed between now and last August, and the only thing that's different is people have thought: riots are fun."
Police were accused at the time of being too slow and ill-prepared in their response but many officers now feel budget cuts could only weaken their ability to deal with another wave of unrest, the study said.
The vice chairman of the country's largest association of police officer agreed with many of the study's conclusions.
"Clearly we are in an austerity program. We are losing 20 percent of our budget over four years," Simon Reed told msnbc.com. "And the since disorder have lost 5,000 officers."
Indeed, more painful measures are expected as the coalition government makes cuts to plug the budget deficit. Public sector borrowing is due to fall from about 128 billion pounds ($200 billion) last year to 98 billion in 2013/14.
Al-Qaida to Occupy: UK preps Olympics security
The economy fell back into recession around the turn of the year and while overall unemployment has fallen in recent months, the rate of joblessness among those aged 18-24 remains as high as 19.9 percent.
The HMIC independent police watchdog, in a report on Monday, said police forces planned to cut six percent -- 5,800 fewer officers -- of frontline roles as a result of spending cuts.
"In addition, plugging the outstanding 302-million-pound funding gap might require a further reduction of officer numbers," it said.
Msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Economic times are tough, I have no job and life is pretty bad. Let's go burn down our shops and homes, yeah that will solve our problems. Young Idiots should have stayed in school.
Spoken like someone who doesn't know what he's talking about. How do you know if they graduated from school or not? You MUST be joking!?
Mike in IT, do you know what the unemployment rate is in Europe? Do you know what the literacy statistics in England are? No you don't so stick a cork in it. This problem is always linked to education, government welfare, and a poor state of a economy.
Go away Mordac the Preventor of Information Technology !!
Anyone else think that the photo at the top of the article has an album cover feel to it?
British invented their own problems by trying to be too smart.
They permitted on asylum and other means many criminal Muslim radicals and terrorists wanted in their own nations. Even when requested they did not hand over them talking big about British values!
They also have huge Paki population, who are not used to working hard and most are freeloaders taking advanatges of liberal doles!
Hope people know about the background of the major riots!
British have ended up as jokers.
Now they want to cut police forces!
I expect the UK will get more & more like the US in the coming years. More people will be packing (despite the gun laws) which means the bobby on the beat will be packing as well.
The Brits seem to copy everything about us anyway. Even their police sirens sound like ours. They didn't used to.
Last time I was there, London was looking more like Atlanta or Houston and I expect the homicide rates will start closing the gap there too.
302 lb gap. Yet they still have to money to keep pouring it into the Euro to shore up the other countries who are also socialist society.
A government can not hand out equal of anything to everyone, if everyone is not paying taxes. It just has to come to this end. There can be no other.
An "economist" can spin the numbers any way he/she wants, but in the end, it comes down to common sense. Something that has been lacking in Congress and the White House for many years.
This is where the liberal social Democrats are taking us. Who leads them. Obama.
With all the Obama written Supreme Court rulings and us so far in the hole we will never see daylight for maybe another generation, this is what we can expect.
Nothing more, because unless there is more taxes or LESS social programs, military war spending, the trade agreements stop or in our favor, foreign aid stopped, Corporations that hide overseas and pay no taxes, that is what we have to look forward to.
You are a cretin !! I live in one of these so called socialist country ! We are not socialist, stupid, we are capitalist democracies ! Europe is in a mess because of SPECULATORS AND BANKS !! and it includes in a mess because of WALL STREET !
It is republicans that took you where you are, not president Obama !!
You are now paying for republican's policies that will affect your lives for a long time !
They had monies for Iraqi wars and Afghan war.
Now they are getting ready to police in Syria and Iran.
In Britain, they want to cut police forces as austerity measures!
I need more money and I am too lazy to get me one of those things called a job. So if I can't have anything I am going to run in the streets screaming and start a few fires. This way nobody else will have anything. The people will then see how bad I am and give me lots of money and a house. Seriously now, a few thugs can make a worthwhile protest worthless.
If you have too many Pakis as in UK, it may happen in the US too!
I remember a sport called "Paki Bashing"
We will see the same in the U.S. Soon.
That's nothing new here.
Socialism has destroyed the economies of many countries. It is time for the people to remove socialist politicians from office. Europe is about to enter an age of violence. Labor union members will be attacked. Socialist politicians will be run out of office.
Wait a minute!?!? Europe's problems can be directly corelated to the budget cuts they've made. The US took a different approach which has actually worked out much better than cut cut cut. If you want to end up like Europe. Do what they did. They slashed their budgets... and look where it's got them? Political unrest and high jobless rates. We were much wiser to cut some spending but also maintain certain programs to continue to generate revenue. BUZZ!! It doesn't have anything to do with Socialism silly!
Socialism is simply the belief that the government is the solution to problems rather than the cause of them. Hitler and Lenin were both Socialists.
And yes; government spending, meddling, regulating, taxing, etc. is the cause of the failures of Europe and soon the US as well.
The only useful hope is to vote LIBERTARIAN
right wing brainwashed parrots, repeating the lies of faux news.. so what's new ??
It is capitalism that has destroyed world economies, not socialism, you uneducated morons.
Jamie you are an idiot.. go back to school !
Socialism has nothing to do with this worldly crise, but capitalism do !!
It is capitalism that has destroyed europe's economies, not socialism !
UNREGULATED CAPITALISM DOES NOT WORK !
And by the way, I spent 25 years in the usa, believe me, I feel much safer in France than I do in the usa.. ALL my friends in the usa, are telling me not to move back to the usa, because it is so bad there !
You will never equal our quality of life and freedoms !! I love living in europe and more americans are moving here !
While I strongly oppose the SCOTUS ruling on Obamacare, in a strange way I was relieved by it. As is the case with any "entitlement", once people feel they are entitled to it they are very hesitant to give it up. I was anxious to hear the ruling, and was concerned that if the legislation was overturned we might see riots here. When the day comes that our government has totally exhausted its ability to tax and borrow we will see riots here, and riots the like of which have never been seen. That day is not far off, with the global economy imploding, our sovereign debt now over 100% of GDP, taxes and fees increasing all the time, and the Federal Reserve making our dollar worth less and less with each passing day. The government knows that this day is coming, one need look no further than the expansion of the TSA to buses and trains, the HSA and DHS implementing more and more wire tapping measures and using unmanned drones to "spy on farmers", our government buying hundreds of millions of rounds of hollow point ammunition, armored vehicles, our government passing legislation that says they can arrest and detain or even kill American citizens without trial, and the military preparing for domestic operations including manning reeducation camps. We are in trouble folks, but as it has been in the past so it will be in the future.
"Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" - Patrick Henry
I agree with you. Americans will riot and there will be many deaths.. the government, like it has done during vietnam, will not hesitate to send the police and BLACKWATER to shoot you down because they know you have weapons ! You are far from being free.. if you riot against your government they will shoot you !
Hey, republicans have built their own right wing private army, blackwater.. 20 000 mercenaries, enough to keep you in check !
And they used your tax dollars for that !
Your protest have always made me laugh.. when you walk in circle with your little signs.. how ridiculous ! You are like school children, obey your masters or else... Do you even realize that ?
England is a sh*thole anyway. Another strict, classist society that keeps certain folks on top and holds everyone else down. England = America....Don, rather than them trying to emulate us, we have fallen all over ourselves to become British. I am convinced if JFK would have lived longer the masses would have crowned him King and Jackie would have been made Queen. The let them eat cake crowd needs to go, but as always the masses are often ignorant arses (usually because the elite prevent them from getting a "real" education about society, social roles, and social conniving).
Uh that's changed a lot. There's a large middle class there now. The days of Charles Dickens is long gone.
Now you see the endless strip malls, Pizza Huts, MickeyD's and other assorted American junk that you find here. Why fly 6,000 miles away to see it when you can get the same cultural boredom that you see in your own back yard?
When I first went there in the 80s I didn't see much of that. Not at all. It's changed a lot in the last 20 years or so.
LOL...well that might make for a good novel.
Yea well I wasn't around then and most other people weren't, so it's an irrelevant point.
Well that happens here too. So what. Big deal.
Could this be due to unchecked immigration from Islamic countries and due to their behavior and skill sets they have no marketable ability in the UK?
Does anyone even realize that England and other EU countries are capitalist and their economy was destroyed (starting with the pensions and safety nets who invest) from purchasing toxic fraudulently rated CDO's from Wall St.? The same as our pension losses here for public unions. Capitalism (criminal)destroyed their economies not socialism as it has ours. Second I think this rioting has more to do with their encouragement of third world African immigration with no skill migrating into their society due to their view years ago of declining birth rates.
These are more closely related to race riots then any societal structure issues IMO. Its supply side capitalism which England (EU) and the US walk hand in hand with that has created inequality, low wages and stagnant demand and therefore employment with concurrent bubble capitalism.
Hell Thatcher and Reagan were crony capitalists who advanced this policy in the 80's.
right wing brainwashed parrots, repeating the lies of faux news.. so what's new ??
It is capitalism that has destroyed world economies, not socialism, you uneducated morons.
The tendency towards civil unrest is yet another reason it was stupid to stage the Olympics in London this year. Not to mention Britain's inherently bad summer weather.
You are a cretin !! I live in one of these so called socialist country ! We are not socialist, stupid, we are capitalist democracies ! Europe is in a mess because of SPECULATORS AND BANKS !! and it includes in a mess because of WALL STREET !
It is republicans that took you where you are, not president Obama !!
You are now paying for republican's policies that will affect your lives for a long time !
And america is becoming a 3rd world country because it has NO SAFETY NETS !!! SAFTEY NETS HAS ALLOWED MILLIONS TO ACCESS MIDDLE CALSS STATUS.. SO EDUCATE YOURSELVES, not only you're ignorant, but stupid too.
JEM-1989317
Socialism is simply the belief that the government is the solution to problems rather than the cause of them. Hitler and Lenin were both Socialists.
Hahahah ! Hitler was a fascist just like your republicans, are and Lenin was a communist !!
Your brains are so empty, you can't even make the differance between a communist, socialist or fascist ! How can anyone take you seriously ?? Most of you on these boards have no clue of what these words mean !
The intellect of most american is so low, it won't take much longer for america to become a 3rd world, country.. You are totally uneducated and ignorant.
The monarchy has stolen from the people for hundreds of year.. the royal family is one of the richest in the world... How do you think did they accumulate that wealth ??
Their charities are not reaching the people in need ! It is why it is the government' job to do what's necessary so people have a better quality of life.
There is one thing for sure, when people go hungry, the rich won't survive ! and if you don't agree, look at what has gone in egypte and other middle eastern countries.
just so you know, countries like France, england, germany and others have a much larger middle class than yours ! social programs have raised many to middle class and when people are middle class, they fuel the economy... Having so much poverty as it is the case in america, does not help your economy... but you have such little common sense and you are so endoctrinated, that you just cannot get it.
A lot of Americans are being tortured right in their own homes, with microwave weapons, and they are being harassed psychologically. It's called Gangstalking, and just like they called the detainees mentally ill and schizophrenic for saying they were being tortured, the call Gangstalking victims crazy for saying they are being tortured. Unfortunately, when you are in this country and a citizen, there is nowhere to go for help, and all the court system is corrupt. Thousands of Americans are being tortured, even children, and they have nowhere to turn.
The problem is not socialism or capitalism- the problem is too much labor. Cheap labor in China, cheap labor in immigration (Latin American in the US, Eastern European and Arabian in Europe and England). It will take a while for the world economy to settle down- Africa has barely come in to play. Perhaps the next half of the century.
Cut foreign aid and send immigrants both legal and illegal back to their home countries. That way more money could be made available for actual citizens of the UK. Welfare rolls would decrease as unemployed aliens went packing and wages would go up due to supply and demand. With stable demand for workers any reduction in those workers would result in higher wages.
More would certainly need to be done to improve the economy but this would be an obvious part of the solution.