First of all I'd like to say I'm very worried at the moment as I currently live in the outskirts of Manchester and I work late-shifts in Liverpool. Both of which are currently very volatile areas. While where I live and where I work are not near the city centres, my main worry is that the Police are getting stretched very thin and their weaknesses are very exposed. The local shops have no guarantee of any kind of protection at all.
I'm as safe as can be for the moment and there are many people in greater peril right now than me. But this whole crisis is getting everyone worried. I personally have lost confidence in the Police to protect us, the general public.
Perun said:
I didn't realise the UK police was more lax than the German one. Here, they go after harmless protesters with valid demands with water cannons and pepper spray.
By experience, I usually tend to side with rioters, because I often see how they evolved from people demanding reasonable things who weren't heard. But in this case, I completely fail to understand their point, or lack thereof. Maybe it's an outburst of frustration like what happened in France in 2005, but that doesn't warrant this sort of violence. The problem is that you can't really talk to these people, because they don't seem to have any interest in that sort of thing.
The "cause" of these riots is a deep-rooted problem with UK society going back many years now. Multiple factors and the general way society has evolved is what has contributed to this happening.
This is not a protest, it is not caused by the recession, its not caused by anything the current government in particular has done and its not caused by a so called lack of respect of the police. These are all factors, but not one of them is a cause on its own.
I think to put it very basically, the reason(s) these riots are going on is a complete failure of society to properly bring up and teach a generation of children combined with a "benefit culture" and a slow but steady loss of respect for the community, the police, the government and society in general.
As ever, it is a minority that is doing this, but a significant minority almost certainly from poorer backgrounds.
The general public's reaction to all this is one of complete disgust. Thankfully a lot of the public have been getting together to help clean up and repair the damage so all is not lost with society.
I don't think the Police are handling it very well due to (again) a variety of reasons, not least of which is because they are typically worried that if they act to harshly, they face major criticism. But also because they are completely under-resourced and not prepared for this kind of situation. I mean who is? This is really unthinkable stuff - for the youth of a nation to suddenly riot in the streets is almost unheard of I imagine! The Police appear to be stretched very thin and are limited to trying to contain the looting and violence but they are seemingly powerless to preventing the initial riots each night.
Another thing I fear at the moment is street warfare as the general public do not feel protected by the police and feel the need to defend themselves and their property.
Really? They're proud of burning down a shop and ruining the life of an honest man trying to make a living?? Disgraceful 
