London riots: the best of the legal blogs roundup
A tumultuous August week, to say the least. As scenes of violence, rioting and looting spread across the capital and into the English regions, legal bloggers had plenty of fodder on which to opine.
Among the most prolific was David Allen Green, author of the Jack of Kent blog and legal correspondent for the New Statesmen, who vetoed the extreme measure of bringing in the army to restore calm and why we should just keep calm and carry on. But, by far the most popular item in the current affairs magazine this week was his reporting on a riot that never took place.
Legal blogger Obiter J asked who will pay for the damages under the 19th century Riot (Damages) Act while a saddening eyewitness account is offered by a third-sector lawyer working in Hackney.
Blogging under the moniker Inspector Winter, a law enforcement officer gives a graphic online account of the powerlessness and terror he and other officers felt as the looting took place around them.
Irish blogger Deirdre Duffy argues that the removal and lack of youth clubs lies at the heart of the rioting in her human rights blog and One Crown Office Row pupil Matthew Flinn questions whether publishing photos of alleged rioters infringes their human rights.
Barrister Rupert Myers equated England’s cities to a Lord of the Flies nightmare in this week’s opinion piece arguing that “without power, organization and authority the law is merely a taboo”.
A magistrate - who goes by the blogname Bystander - reminds us that defendants are entitled to be dealt with properly and self-confessed caffeine-fuelled technology, media and telecoms lawyer Andrew Sharpe asks whether the UK Government could order an internet blackout and mobile phone network shutdown in future cases of disruption that depend on social media to rally masses.
Twenty-something in-house lawyer Matthew Taylor hails the e-petition calling for rioters to be stripped of benefits as “everything that’s wrong with democracy encapsulated in one neat package” and, lastly, we have the ever-brilliant ‘Without Prejudice’ podcast chaired by Charon QC, barrister Carl Gardner and David Allen Green plus guests. This week’s topics cove the Riot (Damages) Act 1886, what criminal offences rioters and looters are being charged with and why and whether rioters and looters should be denied social housing. Listen to the podcast here.
Readers' comments (5)
Anonymous | 12-Aug-2011 2:39 pm
One of the interesting things about the riots for me is that they happened before the economy really nose dives.
We are headed, over the next 12-18 months, for circumstances which will make the last three years look like a boom. I wonder what will happen then in London and the other big cities?
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Andy Capp | 12-Aug-2011 3:55 pm
Dear The Lawyer,
Are you aware that there has been unrest in places other than just London? It has been grim up north.
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Lynette Joseph | 12-Aug-2011 8:08 pm
The reason for the riots? An underclass of youngsters from different ethnicities but allied in their 'thrill seeking to avoid narrowness of their lives.' There are many more persons living as 'poor' in the UK. The number of 'white poor' has increased dramatically. The problem is no longer about race. It is about a widening margin of 'no hopers' across the racial divides.
The descendents of Caribbean immigrants are now wholly English. they only look black. They are poor white with black skins.
The scale of the looting is an indication of how far the 'them and us' of British society has moved.
There appears now to be a small 'upper class' scarcely any real 'middle class' and all else just 'poor people' who have to face the fact that they are expected to 'know their place.' There is no upward mobility unless you are gifted at sport or in the entertainment industry.
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Peter Baxter | 14-Aug-2011 9:49 am
Name & Shame
Posted on August 14, 2011
Rob a bank and you get 10 years The Bank robs you and they get a seven figure pension.
Factors that contribute to rioting are population size, the breakdown of respect for social order, poverty, the lack of opportunities for personal advancement and Debt.
Today the people that led the world into debt by their corrupt practises within the Banking, Insurance, and Financial sector have been reappointed by President Obama to head his financial team. No one has been brought to justice for the debt all the world is now paying and rioting about.
All the banks had AAA status just before they collapsed from Standard and Poor the same people who have just downgraded USA economy?
University Professors who advised the governments were working without declaring their paid interest for these corrupt banks etc. just before the crash.
If you check the facts you will find a transfer of wealth from the poorest to the top one percent and these crooks are still running all our economies.
This was achieved by getting companies like standard and poor to give false assessments of bad debt which was then sold to our pension funds.
Whilst ever these crooks go unpunished and are rewarded by huge golden handshakes riots will get worse.
We all have a remedy it is your vote and a free press. Make sure you give it wisely and all the politicians who supported crooked bankers, insurance companies, are swept from power. The press should name and shame them.
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Gary | 20-Jul-2012 0:36 am
Can we expect more of the same or were the riots a one off? I fear the worst!
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