The anger may have subsided on the streets as hoodies, gangstas and other members of Kenneth Clarke’s ‘feral underclass’ retreated into the shadows after last month’s riots, but it soon burst out in courtrooms across England. The most egregious instance was the judge at Chester who gave two men without criminal records four-year prison terms for trying (and failing) to incite riots via Facebook, but it was among magistrates that the rage was most sustained. Thus August saw not just one but two outbreaks of unlawfulness – and the magisterial disorder was in its way just as shocking as the violence and opportunism of the rioters.

LRB 22 September 2011 | PDF Download