Been following them with a morbid curiosity as they are headed our way in a year or two once people's entitlements start to get cut and they are no longer getting their free stuff from the government.
Someone over there has a pair -- from the Financial Times:
Ministers plan removal of rioters' benefits
Ministers are drawing up controversial plans to remove benefits from those convicted of taking part in the riots that engulfed England last week, in a move Liberal Democrats and independent experts have condemned as counter-productive and overly expensive.
Officials in Number 10 and the department for work and pensions are putting together plans for the harsh punishment of those found guilty of even the most minor infringements during the riots after a public petition calling for such a move gathered nearly 200,000 signatures.
And of course, the liberals are clueless:
Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, is pushing a system that would see some benefits removed from looters, and others made conditional on attending a rehabilitation programme, which would include counselling and regular behavioural checks. It would apply only to those receiving lesser sentences, as anyone who goes to jail already automatically loses their benefits.
Nudge nudge wink wink. We all know you have been a naughty boy. Here is what we are going to do. You sit nicely in this classroom for two weeks and we will give you all of your benefits right back again.
Rehabilitation my sweet ass.
Give them this option: you will be given a battery of aptitude tests and after the results come back, you will have four weeks to choose a trade. If you choose a trade, you will be given two years of free schooling and a four year apprenticeship in the field while you are earning a minimal wage. If you do not maintain a B grade average, your school funding is terminated.
If you choose to not participate in this program, you get your dole back again but it will be 70% less. Were you getting free housing and $500/month for food? You will now have to pay $100 rent and you will get $200/month for food (no booze or tobacco).
Government assistance is not supposed to be comfortable -- it is supposed to incentivize the recipient to get their ass in gear and join the workforce.
Also, now who didn't see this coming -- from Yahoo/Associated Press:
UK gangs thrive in August riots
The Burger Bar Boys. The Cash or Slash Money Crew. The Bang Bang Gang. These names sound straight out of a dime-store novel, but they're real-life Birmingham gangs - some of the underground armies that spearheaded England's worst riots in a generation.
As Britain comes to grips with the causes of the past week's descent into anarchy, Prime Minister David Cameron has identified the growth of gangs as a key factor and is recruiting high-profile American anti-gang experts to help bring them to heel.
Some more:
British law enforcement authorities admit that, until only a few years ago, they sought to minimize the scale and violent potential of their homegrown gangs. They promoted their preferred label of "delinquent youth groups" and billed full-blooded street gangs as an American phenomenon.
In the wake of the August riots - when gangs used text-messaging to deploy break-in artists to breach steel-shuttered shops - politicians now use the "G'' word pointedly.
"Territorial, hierarchical and incredibly violent, the gangs are mostly composed of young boys, mainly from dysfunctional homes," Cameron told the House of Commons in an emergency debate on the riots. "They earn money through crime, particularly drugs, and are bound together by an imposed loyalty to an authoritarian gang leader. They have blighted life on their estates, with gang-on-gang murders and unprovoked attacks on police."
That's it -- keep your fscking head buried in the sand. That will make the problem go away for sure...
Oh, and the Police shooting that triggered all the riots in the first place?
The north London borough of Tottenham, where the fatal police shooting of alleged gang member Mark Duggan on Aug. 4 triggered the first riot two days later, has at least a dozen gangs rooted in the vicinity.
Duggan was a reputed member of The Stars gang in Tottenham and a relative of a major crime family in Manchester, northwest England. Police say Duggan, 29, was transporting a loaded Italian handgun hidden in a sock at the time of the police ambush. His last recorded words were a text to his pregnant girlfriend: "The Feds are following me."
Like I said, these riots are going to happen in large urban areas in the US in the next few years -- it will make the riots of the 1960's on look like a walk in the park -- our last riot of any scope was Toledo, OH in 2005 and that only lasted four hours.
The clock is ticking -- very glad to be living in a rural area.
