Police are preparing for a "summer of rage" as victims of the economic downturn take to the streets to demonstrate against financial institutions, the Guardian has learned.

Britain's most senior police officer with responsibility for public order raised the spectre of a return of the riots of the 1980s, with people who have lost their jobs, homes or savings becoming "footsoldiers" in a wave of potentially violent mass protests.

Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan police's public order branch, told the Guardian that middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

1. Fr. Dale wrote: It could also happen here in the good old US of A. February 23, 12:17 pm | [comment link]

2. libraryjim wrote: Dcn Dale, Assuredly, especially as the Stimulus Plan fails to alleviate the problem and actually cause deeper debt, stagflation and higher unemployment. February 24, 5:00 pm | [comment link]

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