http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14489984
The link tells just who, so far, has been charged mostly seems over 60% are 24 or younger.
I remain convinced while our population is less these children some times in adult body's exist in every country.

Dear Belly, 

That was probably a similar age range for our ANZACs when they rioted. Bit hard to blame fatherless homes for that one.

 What did they have in common though? Withdrawal of services/conditions/social contract could be one. Mob mentality? Obviously. The attitude of the young toward authority? Again obviously. A triggering event to galvanize the malcontented? Yup.

People can pontificate all they want but if you get enough pissed off young people with a plummeting respect for authority and throw in a match who should be surprised if a riot results? 

At least they know how to riot in a distinctly British way. In most other places the body count would have been a lot higher. Take the LA riots after the Rodney King video was released, 53 dead, thousands injured, and over a billion dollars of damage done.

Csteele as we know we do not see eye to eye lets give it another go ok?
I retreat from past remarks but note my right to think as I do.
I read your post, drank in those pubs both still exist[or did twenty years ago]
It was a far different time, but my pride in those soldiers is strong.
They created this country's union movement in a time class ruled us.
They confronted poor leadership and worse to come as England put the most useless in charge.
Based on class and seeming stupidity our men and those of other country's died for a Royal family fight.
I remain proud of them, their bravery and including the riot, but this country suffers still.
Those dead men never had the generations of children who would have made us even greater.
And the officers who treaded them so badly got what was coming.
I doubt we today can compare those men with todays of the same age
Continued.

I can only hope my frankness is not going to offend you.
My mum came from 13 kids, her dad had two family's both 13 kids.
We had 16, 8 lived to grow up, mums sister had 13 others 5.
Life was hard for ww2 baby bombers in the bush.
I *and do not think it was just my family*
Eat pumpkins and potatoes for tea and the skins for breakfast, we did any work for any wage and worked our guts out hoping for more work.
Middle class, Church of England mostly, seemed to not care.
Funny but Catholics took us all to get polio injections and fed us.
I never not ever blamed any one for our hardship, mum and dad talked every day about the importance of getting a job and lifting our selves up.
Csteele in my life I have given freely helped many.
Went to court with kids transported them very long distances home.
My union days quite apart from why I was paid I got hundreds jobs.
Help, yes we all should, but gee be realistic!
A 60 year old killed.
3 young men Muslims, murdered
I fear, yes Csteele fear, the greens idea that it is some one Else's fault.
those soldiers fought unfairness these thugs and yes mugs ? it is an insult to compare them, they went on to die for?
An England that considered them some thing it owned.

Dear Belly,

I suppose if one man's terrorist can be another man's freedom fighter then one man's rioter can be the next man's working class hero.

Perhaps the point I am trying to make might get lost in the 'Dreamtime telling' so I will use another example if I may from around the same era, although it too has striking workers as a pivotal part of the narrative.

In 1923 half the Victorian police force went on strike over better pay and conditions. From Wikipedia;

"On Friday and Saturday nights riots and looting occurred in the city, resulting in three deaths, trams being turned over, plate glass windows being smashed and merchandise looted from stores. Constables on point duty were jeered at and harassed by people until they retreated to the Town Hall, where the crowd taunted them to come out. Tramways staff and uniformed sailors helped to direct traffic in the absence of police."

"The rioting and looting was quickly attributed to Melbourne's criminal element by all of Melbourne's newspapers, but subsequent court records show that most of the offenders who were apprehended were young men and boys without criminal histories. After the strike, the Monash Royal Commission into the Victoria Police strike brought down its findings. The government subsequently increased pay and conditions for police, including a bill to establish a police pension scheme before the end of 1923."

So "young men and boys without criminal histories", I mean really what is the difference with what happened in England except that with gender equality we are seeing women and girls also facing convictions?

Cont

Cont

Some of us will have experienced in our youth being "on the tear" with your team mates after a grandfinal win, or loss, and mucking up terribly. In more sober moments we might briefly think of those members of the public who were annoyed and worried about our behavior, but there was something about being in a pack that made one feel invincible.

So when your mate nicked a couple of bottles when the rest of us are buying beers for the night the reaction wasn't to dob him in but to think of him as a cheeky bastard with a lot of hide. Not something you would ever do yourself but you think since you and the others have handed over a few hundred dollars legitimately it is about even.

Having owned and operated retail businesses I hardly feel that way now though just this Saturday gone I was having a drink with a few past team mates, we get together once a year, laughing at those who had spent the night behind bars on particularly boisterous occasions. Never had the pleasure myself but that was only through luck rather than sainthood. However knowing it was a possibility was naturally a check on behavior. (Yet the conservatives in England want to cut the police by 20%?).

I am also sick of hearing the youth of today have lost respect for authority. Anybody spending New Years Eve at Lorne during the early eighties would have seen the local divvy van showered with bottles as it made its dodging run down the main street. For 15 minutes after midnight the police were kissed by the girls and had their backs slapped by the lads before hostilities recommenced.

 The primary difference between a bunch of out of control footy mates or NYE revelers and what happened in England was pack size. Many of these youngsters will be responsible adults with families on day and they will ruefully shake their heads at what they got up to during these riots.