经济学人下载:平息暴乱,英国警方遭猛烈抨击

In their defence, this week’s disturbances were of a new, if not wholly unexpected, kind. The police’s old tactical manual is based on two principles that were suddenly irrelevant. The first is the assumption that rioters want to attack the police themselves. It makes things a lot easier if you know that they will be where you are. The second is that the main objective is to control ground rather than people. But now, Mr Innes points out, the police have to find “flash mobs” who use social media to gather and grab loot in one place, disperse, then meet somewhere else: “You have to follow them, harry them and channel them away.”

但话又说回来，本周暴动即便不是完全出乎意料，其类型也是前所未有的。警方原来的抗暴策略是建立在两点原则之上的，而现在这两点突然不适用了。第一，警方设想暴乱者的攻击目标是警察本身。若你在哪暴动者就会在哪，那就好办多了。第二，警察主要任务是守住阵地而非控制骚乱人群。因尼斯指出，现在暴乱者利用社交媒体聚集人群，在一处砸抢之后马上分散，再到另一处聚集，警方必须找到这些“快闪”暴众。“你得跟着他们，阻止他们，然后将其疏散。”

The problem with that approach is that when looters are chased, they split up and police resources are dissipated. Even if officers catch and arrest one (tying up at least two policemen who may be needed elsewhere), they might only be able to charge him (or her) with a minor disorder offence.

这种方法的问题在于，暴徒被追赶时会分散，警力也随之分散。即使警察逮到暴动者（至少两名警员，而且其他现场可能还需要警员），并将其拘留，也只能给其定个扰乱社会治安的小罪。

Mr Waddington thinks that the police may have been right to rely mostly on CCTV cameras and their own photographers to gather evidence, with the aim of nabbing culprits later in their own homes with the stolen goods in their possession. As long as rioters are part of a street mob they feel strong and invulnerable. Once individuals are arrested in large numbers (well over 1,000 had been by the time The Economist went to press), powerful peer networks and the groupthink that goes with them can be broken.

沃丁顿认为，警方主要依靠闭路电视摄像和警署摄影师来采集证据也许是正确的，这样可以随后在暴动者家中将其逮捕，并连同抢劫来的物品一起缴获。暴动者在一大群人中会觉得自己实力强大，一旦有大批人一个个被逮捕（截至本刊出版时，被捕人数远不止1000），原本强大的团体连同集体盲目看法都会崩溃。

If that is right, the rioting is unlikely to be stamped out by rounding up the feral mobs and giving them a good hiding, popular though that might be. Rather the key is to demonstrate through the courts that their behaviour brings with it serious and long-term personal consequences.

如果以上言之有理，对这些肆无忌惮的暴动者仅通过逮捕拘留来让他们改过是很难平息暴动的——尽管这种看法非常普遍。相反，应让法院告诉他们，其行为情节非常严重，会给个人带来长远不利影响，这才是解决问题的关键。