Riots in Britain

I would suspect that decades of neoliberal-created hopelessness, combined with recent austerity, combined with evidently racist policing, are behind this.

Riots are an expression of anger. Anger isn't a synonym for happiness, or politeness, or mercy. Anger is anger.

And revolutions aren't always led and fought by idealistic, enlightened people. The fact that mobs kill innocent people doesn't mean that the social-political causes for the violence have been validated.

Here's an account of the fall of the Bastille:

At this point, the Bastille was nearly empty of prisoners, housing only seven old men annoyed by all the disturbance:^[4] four forgers, two "lunatics" and one "deviant" aristocrat, the comte de Solages (the Marquis de Sade had been transferred out ten days earlier). The cost of maintaining a medieval fortress and garrison for so limited a purpose had led to a decision being taken to close it, shortly before the disturbances began. It was, however, a symbol of royal tyranny.

The regular garrison consisted of 82 invalides (veteran soldiers no longer suitable for service in the field). It had however been reinforced on 7 July by 32 grenadiers of the Swiss Salis-Samade Regiment from the troops on the Champ de Mars. The walls mounted eighteen eight-pound guns and twelve smaller pieces. The governor was Bernard-René de Launay, son of the previous governor and actually born within the Bastille.

Arrest of de Launay, by Jean-Baptiste Lallemand, 1790

Arrest of de Launay by an anonymous artist

The list of vainqueurs de la Bastille has 954 names,^[5] and the total of the crowd was probably fewer than one thousand. The crowd gathered outside around mid-morning, calling for the surrender of the prison, the removal of the guns and the release of the arms and gunpowder. Two representatives of the crowd outside were invited into the fortress and negotiations began, and another was admitted around noon with definite demands. The negotiations dragged on while the crowd grew and became impatient. Around 13:30 the crowd surged into the undefended outer courtyard, and the chains on the drawbridge to the inner courtyard were cut, crushing one unfortunate vainqueur. About this time gunfire began, though some stories state that the Governor had a cannon fire into the crowd killing several women, children, and men turning the crowd into a mob. The crowd seemed to have felt it had been drawn into a trap and the fighting became more violent and intense, while attempts by deputies to organize a cease-fire were ignored by the attackers.

The firing continued, and at 15:00 the attackers were reinforced by mutinous gardes françaises and other deserters from among the regular troops, along with two cannon. A substantial force of Royal Army troops encamped on the nearby Champs de Mars did not intervene. With the possibility of a mutual massacre suddenly apparent Governor de Launay ordered a cease fire at 17:00. A letter offering his terms was handed out to the besiegers through a gap in the inner gate. His demands were refused, but de Launay nonetheless capitulated, as he realized that his troops could not hold out much longer; he opened the gates to the inner courtyard, and the vainqueurs swept in to liberate the fortress at 17:30.

Ninety-eight attackers and one defender had died in the actual fighting. De Launay was seized and dragged towards the Hôtel de Ville in a storm of abuse. Outside the Hôtel a discussion as to his fate began. The badly beaten de Launay shouted "Enough! Let me die!"^[6] and kicked a pastry cook named Dulait in the groin. De Launay was then stabbed repeatedly and fell, and his head was sawed off and fixed on a pike to be carried through the streets.

Failing social-political systems produce revolutions and then they follow their own course. The world is facing the biggest revolution in human history. These riots are, I think, a small side-show and a precursor a genuine revolution in Britain. I think they're motivated more by immediate anger than by long-term goals.