What's happening - continued.

We do not have a large, armed police force - as many other countries do.  Our police can only police by consent - that is, they can only police effectively if the population is prepared to be policed.  If that consent is not there - for whatever reason, or indeed for no reason - then the police are in trouble.  At present there are clearly sections of the population who are not willing to be policed, and that is the root of the present disturbances. Whether this is just natural adolescent rebellion against authority or something more is open to question but until the "rioters" accept that the police are there for the good of us all - whether we like them or not - and that the alternative is that none of us are safe, including those who are rioting, then this mayhem is likely to continue.  The looting - although the most serious aspect of all this from society's point of view - is I think just opportunism piggy-backing onto the general disturbances.