There’s a lot wrong with England right now. Rates to colleges have been jacked sky-high, unemployment has gone up, racial tensions are only getting worse, and it all culminated in a minor argument most of the broke in London had with the entire Metropolitan Police Department.
So, David Cameron, being leader of a country far, far too comfortable with Big Brother tactics (this is the nation with the most security cameras per capita, after all), has decided to make a decisive stroke and … throw some people off Facebook and take away their BlackBerrys.
It’s undeniable that social networking played a role in “organizing” the riots, to the degree one can “organize” a riot, but at the same time, it’s kind of baffling that this is Cameron’s big idea. All of this got started when the police shot a Black man and basically told his grieving family and angry community to get lost. Yeah, social networking may have helped people coordinate, but it’s not like somebody started the event “Massive Riot! LOL!” on Facebook and they had more people show up than they were expecting.
No, this happened because a lot of people were angry and felt they had no other option. But, you know, throwing them off of Facebook and taking away their phones, that should calm them right down. Can’t have them destroying the property of their betters, after all!