Two weekends ago, a riot in Tottenham followed a peaceful protest over the police shooting of Mark Duggan. The violence escalated in the streets of London and soon spread to other cities around the British country. The spectators looked in shock as young British people acted out in complete anarchy.

As England deals with the aftermath of the worst street riots in decades, musicians react on London riots on Twitter. Musicians M.I.A., Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, Example and many others, made statements about the situation on their personal Twitter accounts.

Kapranos, the lead singer and the guitarist of the Glasgow band Franz Ferdinand, asked the Prime Minister to do something about all these riots and widespread looting. He said, “Where the fuck are the Bullingdon boys? What’s wrong you cunts? Would you only end your holidays if it were Fortnum & Mason being looted?”

M.I.A brewed contention with a riot-sympathizing tweet “I’m going down to the riots to hand out tea and mars bars.”

Example, with humor and frustration said, “All these Nandos on fire? That’s some over cooked chicken wings. Pull the army of Afghanistan and stop all this bullshit now please,” before adding, “If you’re gonna set fire to any house in London please make it the Big Brother house.”

Moreover, as Spinner previously reported, a Sony warehouse where thousands of records were stored for many indie labels was burned to the ground (on Tuesday 9 Aug), undoubtedly affecting independent music throughout Europe.

“What music fans can do to show their support for the indie label community, and help them survive this disaster is to buy a digital download of an album from any one of the digital retailers in the UK, as well as going to their local record store while stocks last,” the Association of Independent Music has stated in a press release (via NME).

In the face of continuing violence several artists have now taken to the streets in an effort to help clean up London. ”At the Bethnal Green clean up, nice to see so many people ready to help in the community!” pop songstress Kate Nash tweeted about helping out.

Scroobius Pip, poet and musician, simply posted, “This is Britain punching itself in the face. Repeatedly”

The fact is that many theories have been posited about the underlying causes of the riots in England — from moral decay to excessive consumerism. According to criminologists, the reasons for the riots are many, including social exclusion, welfare dependence, spending cuts, weak policing, racism and opportunism.

The situation in England has been reflected in foreign publications, from Europe, Asia, Middle East, U.S. to Africa, all of which try to explain what exactly happened in the streets of London and other cities, and why. Anthony Daniels in the New York Daily News said:

“The riots in London and elsewhere in England have confirmed what I long knew and have long preached to my disbelieving but totally unobservant countrymen: that young British people are among the most unpleasant and potentially violent young people in the world.”

Rovenko Design / Shutterstock.com

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The Casey Anthony trial has illuminated a strange pattern with the American public. The same America that has been blasé about so many injustices over the past decade is now outraged about one trial and one inconvenient truth. I do not know whether to applaud that America still gives a damn, even though it seems very misplaced, or if I should be horrified.

This is what we chose as Custard’s Last Stand. As a mental health counselor, I have been fascinated with the overblown reaction that people have displayed after Casey Anthony was acquitted of the serious charges. I can’t quite figure out the outrage. It is clearly not that the crime strikes close to home. When children are abducted and killed by strangers, parents become fearful it could happen to their children and often overreact. I get that.

These people believe that Casey killed her own child, certainly nothing for them to worry about. It can’t be the fact that a two-year old girl died tragically. Yes, that is horrible. But, that happens daily unfortunately. So that does not explain the outrage.  I am not sure how finding someone guilty of murder equates justice, but people will assert that they are angry that Casey got off scot free and there is no justice for Caylee, her daughter. What does that mean exactly? If there is a higher power, and trust me most of these angry people believe that, than if Casey killed her daughter she will be taken care of in the next life.

The legal system is designed to be black and white. There cannot be any gray area in law. It doesn’t work. The justice system is blind to the victim. If the case was different and the victim was a 65-year old pedophile, would any of these same people feel so angry? I think not. The justice system is also intended to be rational and logical. You cannot judge someone based on emotion, only reason. Those on Facebook and Twitter outraged are looking at this from a purely emotional standpoint. No matter what your “gut” tells you, you cannot condemn someone based on a gut instinct. That is insane.

The evidence was clear. The state did not even tell the jury how Caylee died. How can you convict someone of murder when murder was not even proven? THAT is not logical. Speculation and theories do not equal proof. Not in the United States. The people outraged over the verdict have sat by idly while the number of children around the world dying of hunger has increased fourfold in the past decade. They have said nothing as the United States waged two unending wars, sending thousands of young soldiers to their deaths.

They have been quiet as our economy crumbled, sending millions of children to the street, and the people responsible have not been charged with one single crime. Not a peep as the government plays chicken with people’s unemployment benefits and more and more children live in poverty. When a child dies because of lack of healthcare, these same people do not cry “foul” that the federal government is not charged with murder.

Michael Vick should get a second chance at becoming a millionaire but Casey should be gunned down in the street. The income gap between the richest rich and the poor is widening every day, leaving no middle class and a banana republic but everyone seems fine with it. What the hell is going on? As tragic and senseless as this crime may be, there are far bigger crimes being perpetrated by our government daily.  And it kills more than one little girl, even a cute, white innocent girl like Caylee seemed to be.

But, we sit by and do nothing. If Casey’s defense had been that she did not have the money for her daughter, we would all be rightly angry. But, if the federal government blabs about sacrifice and cuts a program for children, no one posts annoying statuses on their Facebook or turns on their porch light to save those kids. Screw those kids. They are poor.  Sorry for the hard truths but our country and justice system is far from perfect.

If you feel that the system was wrong with Casey Anthony, trust me, she is not the first failure of the system or the last. There are innocent people on death row, like Troy Davis and Jeremy Echols. You can be upset with the outcome, just not surprised. Nothing is surprising in this case. Children die in America, far more than they should. The justice system is not perfect. People act really weird when grieving and do things that make no sense.

There are bad mothers with cute kids and good mothers with ugly kids. It is time to WAKE UP!!  Nancy Grace does not know everything, or even a little and life isn’t fair. End of story.

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