[Cerek]

Originally Posted by Memnoch There appears to be a slight difference in opinion between US and UK police authorities on how to deal with these types of riots. David Cameron has apparently hired some bigknob US police chief, Bill Bratton, to advise him on an unpaid basis on the "zero tolerance" approach. Excerpts from the Telegraph below. This has been in turn met with criticism by the Met police. From Boston.com. Comments? Police by force or softly-softly approach?

The more hard-line approach of police in America is not the reason we have so many gangs. Feeling like outcasts in society, coming from broken homes, feeling trapped in a never-ending cycle of poverty and many other social issues are the normal root causes for gangs to form. And most of the violence by gangs are directed at rival gangs. Innocent bystanders sometimes get caught in the crossfire, but it is relatively rare for the innocent bystanders to be the intended target of the gangs to begin with.

While we do have many more gangs than Britain, they aren't rioting in the street or vandalizing and looting businesses. Gang members here may act defiant towards the police, but they know if they push the line too far, they can and will be shot, so there is still some fear-generated respect of the police by the gang members.

Sounds like the teens over in London have no fear of retaliation from the police and, indeed, DO feel empowered to do whatever they want and basically dare the police to intervene.

While the softy-softy approach does have it's place and uses, there also comes a time when criminals have to know there WILL be consequences for their actions and those consequences will NOT be pleasant. It may mean jail time or it may mean forcible restraint by the police, but until there is a real threat of consequences, the teens will have no real reason to stop their lawless acts.

I don't think the answer has to be an "either/or" approach. It would be far better to find a middle ground between the two while addressing the root causes (such as those mentioned in the article you posted) that began the riots in the first place.