Rioters/Looters - they are NOT all the same, as much as some politicians and posters wish to have it that way.

[Pan]

We seem to be having a tendency to see all of these offenders as being a homogenious group, and then having the freedom to call them scum, bastards, need sterilising, 10 years hard labour as a sentence, and all else of ill-informed, foamy-mouthed abuse being thrown at them, as a collective.

so. a 12 y.o boy steals a bottle of wine.
so. an adult drives a car killing 3 innocent men.
so. someone starts a fire in a building with no concern about who lives there. so. a 15 y.o turns up at court with no parent with him.
so an 11 y.o girl appears in court and is bailed back to her foster-carers home.

I guess this is an appeal to stop castigating everyone who offended/may still offend in these riot situations as if they are all the same, when court appearances in the last two days show they really aren't.

to do so lets any sense of justice down, lets MN down, and most of all....

oh do us a favour Pan, with your tricky notion of moral turpitude. They are all scum and need wiping of the face of decent society.

Granted, all weare looking at are those who were the most eligible to get caught. The v. young, those who were 'opportinists', those who are pretty much criminally unsophisticated. Much later we will see a whole other group who will be identified by cctv, or be informed on by those already arrested and being questioned.

You know, when you start talking to yourself, it's probably time to call it a day....

good advice. It's a day.