David Cameron's 'Katrina moment'

Members of the British parliament were called back from their vacations for an emergency session yesterday to deal with the country's riots earlier this week. The past two nights have been quiet - a combination of bad weather and a surge in police forces seems to have done the trick. But now the political storm begins, with the public demanding to know how the situation could have gotten so out of control.

The focus of much of the public's ire has been prime minister David Cameron. He was seen to be back-footed during the crisis, spending the first few days of the rioting insisting he would not cut short his vacation in Italy, and only returning to the country after the riots got very serious Monday night. The media has been referring to it as his "Katrina moment", referencing the back-footed response of US president George W. Bush to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The incident is being seen as a defining moment of his premiership, and he has been much maligned for it. The above gag photo of his speech on Tuesday from photoshoplooter illustrates the public's perception of his response.

Cameron has been working overtime to dispel that image over the past few days. In yesterday's emergency session he aggressively denounced the riots, saying the behavior of this bad element of society could not be excused by social factors or circumstances. And though his party often criticised the opposition Labour party for introducing "knee-jerk legislation" after crises during their time in government, he floated no fewer than six new policies. These include a ban on face masks in public, increased curfew powers, allowing courts to ban children from gathering in certain places and, most controversially, he said he is considering allowing temporary bans on social media during times of social unrest.

Britain's teenage riot

London was ablaze last night as an unprecedented wave of violence and looting spread throughout the city, spreading to other cities in England. It was the third day of rioting in London, initially sparked by the police shooting of a young black man in Tottenham last week. But last night saw the situation explode and quickly spread after the government and the police appeared to lose control of the situation.

The rioters carrying out the violence were mostly children, teenagers in hooded sweatshirts covering their faces, bashing in store windows and setting cars on fire. I've written before about how Britain is terrified of its own children. Last night was a shocking manifestation of that problem. A 2008 poll showed that more than half of British adults are afraid of British children, believing they behave like animals and pose an increasing danger to themselves and others.

The images from last night are truly shocking, particularly the fires. It was the largest number of simultaneous fires London has seen since the blitz. There were reportedly children as young as seven taking part in the violence. What precipitated the violence was the fatal police shooting of a young black man last week in Tottenham. The police say he had a gun and was shooting at them, but his family says he was unarmed. The facts surrounding the case are still unclear.

British Adults are Terrified of Teens

So far this morning the currency markets seem to be ignoring UK Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne's comments on Saturday. Despite predictions that the pound would take a dramatic plunge once currency trading opened this morning, it is actually slightly up against the dollar as of noon. Phew! Safe for now. But according to a new report receiving a lot of press coverage this morning, Brits may be fearing something even more insidious than a collapsed currency: their own children.

A poll conducted by a British charity shows that more than half of British adults are afraid of British children, believing they behave like animals and pose an increasing danger to themselves and others.

The behavior of British young people has been increasingly in the news, with public perceptions of children growing worse and worse. Recently a product was launched in the UK called the 'mosquito,' which emits a painful noise that only people under 18 can hear. The device is being sold to British shop-owners and other people, with the idea that they would install them on their premises to keep away young loitering hooligans. The popularity of the product has caused many British pundits to question people's attitudes toward British children.

According to the study, words like 'animal', 'feral' and 'vermin' are used daily in reference to children by British adults. The charity launched a TV advert this morning to accompany the report, showing a group of men seemingly talking about hunting a group of meddlesome animals. But then at the end of the advert it is revealed that all of the comments they used were actually comments British adults wrote about children in the comments sections of British newspapers.

But though the group is condemning these attitudes, many on the other side say that the fear expressed by these adults isn't the problem, but is rather a symptom of the real trouble - the increasingly shocking behavior of British youths. Incidents of young people being involved in violent crime or anti-social behavior have become frequent fare on the front pages of British newspapers, particularly several high-profile cases. In one of the most shocking cases, three teenagers were found guilty in January of murdering father of three Garry Newlove, who was beat to death after he confronted a group of youths making trouble outside his home.

So which is the real problem? Is the media needlessly fear-mongering by focusing so heavily on these youth crimes, or is it highlighting a legitimate social issue as British children drift into widespread anti-social behavior? The answer is probably a bit of both. As a foreigner living in the UK I have to say I noticed right away a dramatic difference in the behavior of British teenagers versus those in the US - and I reached this conclusion without the aid of the British media. When I first moved to London I was truly shocked by how British children behaved, and how accustomed adults seemed to have become to the behavior. My office in London was near a school, and every day in the mid-afternoon we would hear a chorus of shrieking, screaming and obscenities like I had never heard. I can say without exaggeration that it literally sounded like like people were being murdered outside. The first time it happened I ran to the window to see what was happening, and my coworkers looked on with mild bemusement. They had grown accustomed to this kind of display, whereas I thought some kind of horrible crime was being committed on the street below.

I should point out that when I moved to London I was coming directly from New York City, so it's not a question of being in an urban area rather than a suburban one. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky. But I've had this conversation with many other Americans living in London and they've all said they've independently observed the same thing, that British children seem to be bizarrely out of control compared to youths in the US. But then again, who knows how much the British media influenced our perceptions in this area.

Clearly the fact that so many adults seem to be terrified of children is not good, but it seems to me that blaming the media entirely for this fear misses the bigger point. The current generation of British teenagers has somehow ended up feeling alienated from and unaccountable to society. I don't know how this came about, but people's fear in this area isn't entirely irrational. Then again, one should also keep in mind that complaining about the "youth of today" is a trend that will probably never go away, so matter which generation is being discussed.