[user104658]

I've never understood why people take such issue with the term "black lives matter". It's almost like people get defensive about it, like "what about me??". Personally, I've always considered the slogan to be about saying "black lives matter too". A lot of people seem to take it as "Only black lives matter" but I don't think anyone has ever been saying that?

And yes I also agree that this sort of escalation was inevitable. For those saying "well this won't help anything"... That's not really the point. The point is that it's reaching breaking point and people are snapping. They don't think it will help, but they don't think that ANYTHING will help. When people feel unheard, powerless and under attack it is only a matter of time before they snap.

The absolute worst thing you can do is "pull an LT", throw your head in the sand and demand to see "concrete evidence" of a link before you will even acknowledge the legitimacy of people's grievances. This is what I've been talking about for the last couple of weeks. When there is a clear escalation in tensions in any situation you HAVE to acknowledge it and try to address it quickly before it rolls completely out of control. This is a lesson that Britain should be learning from the US right now, before we learn it ourselves the hard way.