Leader for The Sun

Future riots? No, thanks.

The riots seem to be over. But for how long? This country needs to diminish any chance of future riots, and to do that we need to go straight to the source.

The immature thugs who were involved say they did it ‘to get back at the rich’, they see themselves as ‘under privileged’ and feel that with violence comes power.

The police did what they were ordered to do whilst the riots were happening. Was it enough? No, but it was not in their power to do more, so they should not be blamed.

It is now that we need to stop any chance of these horrific events happening in the future. We need to show these hooligans that we are the ones with power.

All they have been given is a slap on the wrist, this will just spur them on to do it again, believing they will once again get away with it.

They need to be stopped. Jail time at least. We need to show them that they committed crimes and they will be punished for those crimes.

Our government also needs to show that the ‘racism’ theories are just that- theories. Not fact. We need to punish everyone who was involved for what they did, no matter their race or age.

Although some rioters have been punished, there are still many people out there believing that ‘if they can do it and get away with it, so can we’.

Punishment must be given, not warnings. Trying to warn them will not work. Punishing one rioter and expecting that will stop the rest will not work. Letting them off will not work.

What will work? Proving that we mean what we say.

We need to show these low-lives that ‘under privileged’ will not equal ‘under punished’.