Riot Van

Saturday night i was sitting by a fire while London was in flames. However the bliss that is ignorance wouldn't last long as the news spread somewhat quicker then the fires which it was reporting and then there were the torrents of tweets and every one's 2 cents. So there i was a midst the hundreds of voices saying everything but what needed to be said. Politicians doing their best to make this appear as an A political issue and the half hear-ted humanitarians of the Internet talking about everything but the issues. The Cyber Utopians praise the Internet for it's alleged ability to politicize the masses however i can't help notice the somewhat A political nature of the statuses posted following the London riots for example "Yeah it's a real travesty... Just when things started looking up for Britain this goes and happens. Cunts the lot of em". This is not an opportunity to pick apart the comments of one person among a cacophony of voices posting similar statuses. It is also not some hypocritical attack on those who use social media as a way to comment on current events. I am simply bringing into question the potential for the Internet to better society and

politicize people. There is either a lack of people who can properly diagnose the problems present in the current situation or a complete lack of interest in doing so, maybe sociology students and anthropology experts don't have the free time to throw their hats into the ring(I am not suggesting for a moment that i have anywhere near the intellect or qualifications to provide the insight i am talking about just drawing the attention to the lack of it among the most popular of the social medias). So far the most effective role the Internet has had to play in the London riots was as a tool to assemble masses of looters and rioters, identify targets and spread the violence throughout Britain. The Internet is also functioning a way to identify youths caught on CCTV Internet users can access pictures of those involved and offer forward information which will be used to identify and convict those caught on tape. Some may applaud this action but Evegeny Morozov in his book "The Net Delusion" reveals that there is a similar method being employed in Iran to identify and locate protesters and so there is a potential for the Internet to be utilised to persecute people for practicing their right to freedom of speech and protest. http://youtu.be/Uk8x3V-sUgU. There has been a tendency during the period in which the London riots have been receiving coverage, to brand rioters as "mindless thugs" and vandals with no political affiliations or motives. While i will admit that it is a bit rich to suggest that looters have economic issues weighing heavily on their minds while they sprint around London causing an endless amount of damage which will in no doubt land insurance companies in the red and not to mention the bill which is being racked up due to the massive amount of overtime required by law enforcement all over the UK. However to insinuate that the dissatisfaction, confusion and anger created in the wake of budgets, bailouts and bankers does not contribute to the mentality of those involved in looting and rioting across Britain seems somewhat deluded. There seems to be a common view among the House of Commons that this is an issue of criminality and not a political one. There seems to be a lack of "Honorable members" questioning the origins of this criminality. There have been British administrations in the past such as the Blair administration who have in my opinion actually criminalized the youth of Britain. The "Nanny state" has let the youth of Britain know what is expected of it CCTV cameras watch them closely picking out from the crowd their pre-agreed idea of the criminal youth, the hoodie, the geordie, the chav and the ASBO. There exists a somewhat overused literary idea known as a "Self fulfilling prophecy". Put simply if you treat people like criminals they will act like criminals