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    London mayor: Most in riots had criminal records

    LONDON (AP) — Three-quarters of those arrested in Britain's riots last month had criminal records, London's mayor said Tuesday, blaming the U.K.'s criminal justice system for failing to turn offenders away from crime.

    "What was going to make you more likely to riot? It was previous contact with the police, and that's the problem that we need to tackle," Mayor Boris Johnson told the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee.

    The four days of rioting, triggered by a fatal police shooting Aug. 4 in north London's Tottenham neighborhood, were the worst civil disturbances to hit Britain since the 1980s. Five people were killed and scores of stores were looted and buildings burned in several cities, including London and Birmingham.

    The Ministry of Justice says more than 1,500 people have been arrested and have appeared in court to answer charges from the riots. Some 22 percent of them were aged 10 to 17, and 91 percent were male.

    Johnson said three in four had a criminal record, but a full 83 percent of those arrested have had previous contact with police.

    Johnson's comments echoed those of Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, who said in an article in the Guardian newspaper that Britain's justice system was failing to deal with a "feral underclass, cut off from the mainstream in everything but its materialism."

    "In my view, the riots can be seen in part as an outburst of outrageous behavior by the criminal classes, individuals and families familiar with the justice system, who haven't been changed by their past punishments," Clarke wrote.

    Tim Godwin, the acting head of the Metropolitan police, said police initially focused on known offenders including gang members. As more suspects are arrested, he said the proportion of those with criminal records may decrease.

    He added it was "absolutely essential" analyze the type of previous offenses committed by rioters.

    "We have in London been seeking to speed up justice, make it more relevant, make it more relevant to communities, and that's something that we need to do," Godwin said. "The amount of people who have previous convictions does pose questions for us."

     

    80 comments

    • greg  •  8 mths ago
      Would there be a "Criminal Class" if these rioters had good paying jobs? This is"blaming the victim " nonsense. London will not be the only city in the world to have riots. I expect rioting to become common place all over the world because people have woke up that they have been taken advantage of. The NWO has hit a brick wall and has achieved 80% of their goals. However they will discover the remaining 20% of their goals have not achieved--and the average people of the world will reverse their position --eventually . With so much anger in the world toward the rich and multinational corporations they will only be able to run --but can't hide with 6 billion people looking for them.
      • Speedfreak 8 mths ago
        Can you say "Looney Tune"???
      • Dave 8 mths ago
        Billion-Pound extention funding for "The Tower of London"
    • A Ashtar  •  8 mths ago
      Brits have no idea what happened. First it was "not a cultural or racial thing," then it was a "gang" thing, now it's "criminals." Still no understanding of what happened.
    • Mark  •  8 mths ago
      "Most in riots had criminal records," Lodon mayor says. No kidding? Was he expecting Ph.D's and M.D.s? "83 percent of those arrested have had previous contact with police," said Johnson. Yea, that ought to do it. One "contact" with the police was enough to make me hate their F'n guts, too! This story was just full of surprises!
    • Loki  •  8 mths ago
      Rock my world! Who would have thunk it??
    • STFU  •  8 mths ago
      RIOT SHOCKA - MOST RIOTERS HAVE A CRIMINAL RECORD!!!

      Deport any non-citizens.
    • Black free thinker  •  8 mths ago
      Oh..so it's the systems fault not the rioters. This is typical blind liberal mindset !!!!! If it's any bodies fault it's the liberals who send the wrong message to people that this type of behavior is debateably justified, which is exactly what he's doing. Poverty pimp !!!!!!!!!!!!
    • MEL  •  8 mths ago
      Is it surprising that three quarters of the people rioting have police records or have spent time in prison. How do people live and eat and have a roof over their heads when they can't get jobs. they can't get jobs because employers won't employ ex criminals, and why ? Because they steal, they fight, won't get up in the morning, are irresponsible, and generally a waste of space.
      Most of the people caught stealing were not youths, most of them were over 18 years old and supposed to be responsible. Those who read books may be aware that for many years in 18th century criminals were transported to the colony in America and Australia because England was over run with criminals, like we are now. Big problem now is we can't get rid of them, we're stuck with them. We don't have enough prisons and when we do send them to prison the EUSSR complains that we send too many people to prison. Of course we do but if they aren't sent away they'll just grow like weeds. They need a prison sentence with hard labour, so hard that they will be too scared to break the law again because if they get caught they'll get even more hard labour. That's the only way, the velvet glove didn't work, now they need the old hard boot
    • Democracy Rules  •  8 mths ago
      So 83% of all the people arrested had previous contact with the police. Hey England how is all that diversity working out for you' As well as a liberal court system. LOL
    • mahmoud  •  8 mths ago
      Iran, Iraq, Syria, and all other oppressive goverments brand their rioters as criminals. the real
      criminals are the onesthat have caused poverty and unemployement for their own financial gains.
      • Dave 8 mths ago
        Education is available for all, Hadji... Go to school, struggle, put in your time and get a job. Work for the common good, not against it.
    • Jim  •  8 mths ago
      I hope you do hire former NYC Police Commissioner William Bratton. He truly cleaned up NYC. When he was hired there were close to 2,500 murders per year! His strategy was "big time criminals also do little crimes". His tactics for busting people smoking pot on the subway or jumping a turnstile had huge results and hauled in huge numbers of these really bad scumbags. These dirt-bags figured that they could get away with anything. Bratton proved them wrong! I would say that he and Theodore Roosevelt were the best Police Commissioners NYC EVER had!!!
    • Raw and the cooked  •  8 mths ago
      There are some people who are criminals simply because thats what they do for a living. Period! I was told this by someone who worked in a prison for 25 years!
    • I've a Big 'Un  •  8 mths ago
      You mean the English didn't know that already? England is DEAD. Invite 1,500,000 of those wretched Somalians and Nigerians and Congolese to live in England and get the thing finish once and for all. And make sure your white English women are waiting for the blacks with OPEN LEGS. Genetic extermination will be the coup de grace.
      • Dave 8 mths ago
        Two words......Rubber bullets
      • I've a Big 'Un 8 mths ago
        Rubber bullets bounce off of the knucklewalkers. Nothing short of hollow-point large caliber will do.
    • KLAM GUN  •  8 mths ago
      In other news, the tide goes in and out.
    • Paul  •  8 mths ago
      Previous contact with police made you more likely to riot according to Boris Johnson. How about that logic! This guy is not all there. Why did they have previous contact with the police? Maybe because they were uncontrollable miscreants in the first f'ing place.
      • Dave 8 mths ago
        Right to a point, on "average" and "other" than a moving violation (Car),the "normal citizen DOESNT have contact with Law Enforcement. They are there (hired by us) to keep the criminals at bay.
    • pitufo  •  8 mths ago
      No kidding!
    • Doubter  •  8 mths ago
      Widespread, violent civil unrest indicates the need for major change in government, no matter what kind of idiotic partisan spin you try to attach to the unrest. Our nation was born of such unrest, and British newspapers of the time ascribed it to criminals.
      • pitufo 8 mths ago
        What you say is partially true only. It signals generations of people used to handouts who now want more. Unfortunately, there is no more.
      • Doubter 8 mths ago
        Late 18th century British Empire: The mega-rich and the mega-poor. Handouts? Idiotic partisan spin.
      • Speedfreak 8 mths ago
        Do you work in academia? They are renowned for shoveling this stuff.
    • DanC  •  8 mths ago
      imagine that...most were blacks and had criminal records!!!! that would never happen in the USA huh? ya right,,,,,,,,LA riots!!!!! we know the problem we just dont have the guts to fully fix it!!!
    • Eric  •  8 mths ago
      If that happened in America the Liberals would say its not called a riot it is civil disobedience. Of corse most if not all arrested will be voters of a particular political party.
    • Old Pilot  •  8 mths ago
      It's time to reopen the tower of London. That will make them think twice before they riot.
    • orions stars  •  8 mths ago
      How dare they abuse their criminal records, Ban them from using those records for at least 6 months
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