A map linking rioting and looting against various measurements of wealth and poverty.
The fourth night of rioting in London is smaller, with a huge police presence, but continuing in other towns and cities.
The Guardian maintains an updated blog HERE as Day Five begins.
They also maintain an interactive map of verified incidents HERE.
Some commentors are saying the rioters are the "ignored underserved" that have seen significant reduction in government-provided services.
Poverty, Police, Reduced Social Services
"I don't call it rioting, I call it an insurrection of the masses of the people.
It is happening in Syria, it is happening in Clapham, it's happening in Liverpool, it's happening in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and that is the nature of the historical moment."
–Darcus Howe interview with the BBC
(poor sound quality on clip)
Jorge Rivas, writing for Color Lines, provides this related narrative:
68-year-old Darcus Howe, a broadcaster and columnist, who lives in South London where riots have been taking place offered some context this morning for BBC News viewers.
Howe told a BBC News anchor that political leaders had no idea what was coming but if they had taken a moment to “look at young blacks and young whites with a discerning eye and careful hearing” they would of heard messages of what to do to prevent this.
The Trinidad and Tobago native who says he’s been in London for more than 50 years goes on to tell viewers about his young grandson who can’t count how many times he’s been stopped and searched by London police.
And when the news anchors asks if he condones the riots he gives her a piece of his mind. “Have some respect for an old West Indian negro and stop accusing me of rioting. Have some respect, I have grandchildren. You sound like an idiot.”
Howe is a notable British writer and is the former editor of the magazine Race Today.
68-Year-Old West Indian Man Schools BBC Anchor on London Riots
Are Chicago Flash Mobs similar?
Julie Jargan and Ilan Brat, writing for The Wall Street Journal described this challenge:
CHICAGO—Police here are girding for another weekend of "flash mob" attacks after arresting 29 people in connection with a recent rash of assaults and robberies in and around the city's tony shopping and dining district.
Twelve crimes involving large groups of young men were reported last weekend, in addition to others earlier this spring.
The incidents are some of the first major problems confronting newly appointed Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
The attacks have received wide attention in Chicago because they have occurred around the city's affluent north side, including near the "Magnificent Mile," a Michigan Avenue strip popular with tourists.
June 09, 2011 "Chicago Police Brace for 'Flash Mob' Attacks"
You may need a WSJ subscription to read the article.
Here is a Huffington Post article covering the same incidents:
Chicago Flash Mobs Apparently Robbed, Attacked Four Men Over Weekend
Philadelphia Imposes Stricter Weekend Curfew
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter: Anyone under 18 in those areas must now be off the streets by 9 PM.
Change in the city’s curfew for two key areas — Center City and University City — on Friday and Saturday nights.
Some say that social networks like Twitter and Facebook, more and more so-called flash mobs are materializing across the globe, leaving police scrambling to keep tabs on the ‘spontaneous assemblies’.
In London, recent rioting and looting has been blamed in part on groups of youths using Twitter, mobile phone text messages and instant messaging on BlackBerry to organize and keep a step ahead of police.
Flash mobs have reappeared on the streets of Philadelphia – Center City where groups of youths gravitate to a designated location at an appointed time.
Once there, they become a mob that gathers force as it roams the streets, wreaking havoc on businesses while terrifying and sometimes attacking pedestrians.
They are roving groups of teenagers, flash mobs of Philadelphia, out to steal, assault, and destroy. Sometimes, the lawless acts of the flash mobs are spontaneous. Other times, they’re planned and premeditated.
“They’re 12 years old and not around the corner from their home. Where’s their parent?” said Chitwood, the Upper Darby police chief.
“If they’re out doing flash mob thefts when they’re 12, what the hell are they going to be doing when they’re 16?”
August 09, 2011 "Philadelphia Flash Mobs, Rampage 2011" ModernSurvivalBlog.com
Could flash mobs be headed your way? How would your map of wealth and poverty match with rioting and looting?
Mike "FossilMedic" Ward
The Voters Do Not Really Care …
Comments Off… unless it DIRECTLY affects them.
Dave Statter broke the story on a Monday death of a PG County, Maryland, resident. He was recovering from heart surgery and was having trouble breathing. When his wife called 9-1-1 at 11 am, the nearest fire station, 1.3 miles away, immediately sent an ambulance. The nearest fire station usually has a county-staffed paramedic ambulance, but that crew was furloughed for 12 hours, part of a budget-crunch response that will require every county employee to take 80 hours of unpaid leave by June 30th.
The nearest staffed paramedic ambulance was eight fire stations and 7.1 miles away. While dispatched the same time as the ambulance, it took an additional 8 minutes travel time. When the ambulance crew got to the patient’s side, they called in a “working code” that added a fire company. The (probably) two-person engine company arrived one minute after the paramedic ambulance. Go to HERE and HERE to get Statter’s well-documented report.
While this issue raises passion with insiders, it has no significant impact on the public. Unless you are directly affected. Here are two examples.
SEATTLE MEDIC ONE
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The Seattle paramedic program delivers a clinically excellent service. Most of the pre-hospital care research, as well as dozens of EMS medical directors, have come from the program designed by Doctor Michael Copass. We talked about the program HERE.
It also has a long history of struggling to maintain funding:
1970 Medic One research initiative. Partnership between Seattle Fire Department, University of Washington and Harborview Hospital.
1972 City Council declines to fund continuation of program.
Members of IAFF Local 27 scramble to fund the life-saving project from 1972 through 1979.
1974 60 Minutes runs “Best place to have a Heart Attack” feature
1979 establish a Metropolitan King County tax levy to fund Medic 1. Voted on every six years. Special Medic 1 tax levy funds the 22 paramedic ambulances in metro King County, including Seattle.
1997 only 56% of the voters approved the renewal of the levy, defeating Medic 1 funding.
Special referendum in Feb 1998 to restore funding.
IAFF Local 27 in high-profile campaign to pass the 2001 Medic 1 tax levy with enough funding to add four paramedic ambulances.
2007 Proposition 1 “Medic One Emergency Medical Services Renewal of Existing Property Tax Levy” passes with 83% approval after an 18 month campaign by labor and others.
THE PHILADELPHIA WORKLOAD
The Philadelphia Fire Department paramedic ambulance service has transport units exceeding 8,000 responses a year. For years the local media has run stories similar to Statter’s, documenting 40+ minute response times. The IAFF advocating that the city add 20 ambulances. I wrote about the problem HERE when a resident died New Year’s Day 2008. The department had to send two fire suppression rigs to provide enough oxygen while waiting over an hour for the first ambulance, that broke down onscene. She died by time the second ambulance arrived.
Long before the current economic crisis, both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were in a muncipal version of bankruptcy. Legislation or court orders are merging city and county agencies and reducing the delivery of municipal services. While Philadelphia is getting some resources this fiscal year, most of their ambulances will continue to respond to 7,000+ calls a year.
Emergency services are facing budget cuts and resource restrictions of a magnitude that has not been seen since World War II. Monday’s experience in Largo, Maryland, will probably be repeated throughout the country. Municipal budget planners are warning that Fiscal Year 2010 (July 2009 – June 2010) will be worse than this budget year.
Mike “FossilMedic” Ward