Lovely leafy Hackney

News is full of riots. It's weird to think that these events are happening all over London, but without TV we wouldn't know about it. Honestly, where we are, we hear helicopters and sirens regularly. It's hard to tell if I've heard more than usual - I may only be noticing them.

But so far, we're fine.

The nearest outbreak to us was on a high street about 10 mins walk from our flat - this is miles from the location of the original violence on Sunday, which was vaguely related to an angry family being poorly treated by police, after a black guy was shot. Whether he was a known ganglord or a loving father of four depends on who you talk to. Why he couldn't be both is what nusbacher  would call a narrative question.

However, the mass outbreaks across London and other cities are purely opportunist.

There's no heatwave to wear people down;
there's no great roaring sense of injustice over a death or an event (the grim cynicism and feeling of being screwed by bankers/politicians is normal);
there's not been a series of ugly confrontations that have built into a single flashpoint.

This is just greed and the excitement of being bad. One of the W Midlands police said, 'this wasn't an angry crowd. It was a greedy crowd.'

And that's what it looks like from here; pure greed, but very shortsighted greed, extended only as far as the nearest big-ticket items that can be hauled home from the nearest shops; TVs, computers, shoes, clothes, mobiles. Torching cars and buildings is just a novelty.

Some crowds want to see justice; this one just wants to see how much it can carry away.

What it reminds me, though, is that I live in a civil society that, most of the time, works.

In a civil society, order is maintained by common consent. Most of the time, most people behave in a civil manner, and work, live, exist within the law.

That consent is maintained, in part, by inertia and habit. So most of the time, you only rarely need cops, for occasional breakdowns of that order.

Here, for whatever reason, there's been a breakdown of that order, and a whole lot of people have decided that they aren't worried about cops or consequences anymore. Sheer numbers, and mobile technology have proved more powerful than the police force.

Part of the reason the cops are overwhelmed is the very existence of our civil society; most of the time, we don't riot. We don't smash into shops and grab whatever's on offer, and we don't generally seek justice through a mob. We moan about the police not doing their jobs, but most of the time, we leave them to it. And they do it, to some level of competence and reliability.

We don't live in a police state, and we don't spy on each other - that's why so much damage was done so freely. We're not accustomed to curfews, document checks, or limits on travel, communications and association with others.

So on the rare occasions that many individuals decide they want to break out, there's only so much the available police can do, and I cannot blame them for being stretched. I'm sad to see it, but I'm not surprised.