New York Times (June 9)
“America, this is your chance: We must get it right this time or risk losing our democracy forever.” Amid protests, police violence and riots, “our democracy hangs in the balance. This is not an overstatement.”
USA Today (February 11)
“Food shortages, sky-rocketing cheese prices, grounded airplanes, traffic jams, riots and yes, a repurposed Cold War-era emergency exit route for Buckingham Palace’s most famous 92-year-old wearer of colorful big hats, are just some of the warnings being sounded in Britain if the nation leaves the bloc it joined 46 years ago without securing a withdrawal deal with the EU that’s also acceptable to British lawmakers.”
Tags: Airplanes, Cheese, Emergency, EU, Food shortages, Lawmakers, Riots, Traffic jams, UK, Warnings, Withdrawal deal
Washington Post (April 30)
It is misleading to compare recent U.S. riots to “the unrest that followed the verdict in the 1992 Rodney King police brutality trial…. The fact is that steep increases in income inequality and mass incarceration, as well as racial disparities in school discipline that start in preschool, mean that the prospects of young African American men are worse now than they were then.”
Tags: Incarceration, Inequality, Misleading, Police brutality, Racial disparities, Riots, Rodney King, U.S., Unrest, Verdict
The Economist (June 8)
The riots in Turkey have less to do with religion and more to do with concerns over unchecked power. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has racked up numerous successes in governing Turkey, but his power has grown to uncomfortable proportions. “The real lesson of these events is about authoritarianism: Turkey will not put up with a middle-class democrat behaving like an Ottoman sultan.”
New York Times (August 17)
In the UK, “the thousands who were arrested last week for looting and for more violent crimes should face the penalties that are prescribed by law.” It is, however, petty and misguided to try to further persecute them as Prime Minister Cameron has suggested by “cutting off government benefits even to minor offenders and evicting them.” The Prime Minister should focus on restarting the economy and creating jobs. “Making poor people poorer will not make them less likely to steal. Making them, or their families, homeless will not promote respect for the law. Trying to shut down the Internet in neighborhoods would be an appalling violation of civil liberties and a threat to public safety, denying vital real-time information to frightened residents.”
Financial Times (August 12)
“England has had a torrid week,” exclaims the Financial Times. “Wanton destruction” damaged the nation’s image to “those abroad who still look on England as a country of civility and tolerance.” Riots amongst the downtrodden are nothing new, but these were altogether different. They were not political protests “about an intolerable deterioration in their living conditions. They were taking advantage of serious policing errors in order to steal mobile phones and trainers.”
Tags: Politics, Protests, Reputation, Riots, UK
Financial Times (September 5)
The world needs to awake to the threat posed by global food crisis. After all, we’ve had two in the past 2 years. Riots sparked by food shortages in 2007-08 brought down governments in Haiti and Madagascar. Last week, a 30% spike in the price of bread, caused unrest in Mozambique. “Steps should be taken to mitigate the severity of crises when they strike.” Larger reserves are one of the first steps that we should take.
