On August 4, 31 youths were arrested in connection with violence that transpired at the Wisconsin State Fair grounds on the opening day of the fair. The racially motivated crime, which saw young black men and women antagonizing white fairgoers, landed 11 individuals in the hospital with injuries. Seven of those were police officers who tried to stop the violence. According to witnesses, dozens of black youths attacked white people as they were exiting the fairgrounds. They punched and kicked the innocent bystanders and shook their cars, which were stopped in traffic.

Following the violence, the fair immediately implemented a policy in which no one under the age of 18 would be allowed onto the grounds after 5:00 p.m. without a parent or guardian at least 21 years old. The policy went into effect on the second day of festivities as a timely response to the crimes in hopes of breaking the problem. It seemed to work, since the rest of the fair ran its course peacefully.

The reasons for the random outbreak of violence are unclear. According to an article on Salon.com, Milwaukee is named as the most segregated city in the country. The socioeconomic disparities between the youth who committed the crime and the targeted individuals may be a contributing factor. The Guardian sites the work of economist Ed Glaeser in a recent article. It reads, “According to work on U.S. race riots by the economist Ed Glaeser, for example, ethnic heterogeneity in a neighborhood increases the probability of unrest. So does unemployment.” The recent budget cuts in the state of Wisconsin, which some individuals believe disenfranchise poor people, may have been a contributing factor to the outburst of hate-related activity.

No more than a few days later, unprecedented riots erupted throughout London for several days and featured acts of vandalism, arson, and theft. The bulk of the rioters were youths under 20 who never completed their education and were living in poverty. According to an August 10 article in the Huffington Post, the Canadian paper quoted Matthew Goodwin, a politics professor at the University of Nottingham, who stated, “There’s a fundamental disconnect with a particular section of young Britain and sections of the political establishment.”

Goodwin elaborated, “The argument that this doesn’t have anything to do with expenditure cuts or economics doesn’t stand up to the evidence. If that’s true, then what we have here are hundreds of young, crazed kids simply acting irrationally. I don’t think that’s the case.”

British courtrooms were filled with those who were caught up in the mayhem and they now face charges that will put them at an even greater societal disadvantage. Pictures of the youths, according to the Huffington Post article, included a 17-year-old who followed his cousin into the riots; a 15-year-old Ukrainian whose mother had passed; and an 11-year-old who was arrested for stealing a garbage can. Similar to the economic divide apparent in the United States, Britain has an economic disparity that even surpasses our country. Monumental government debt has led to harsh cuts to welfare and other government programs in recent days, which promises an even bleaker outlook for London youths.

Britain has one of the highest violent crime rates in all of Europe, in part due to the lack of education and the feelings of hopelessness many of the youths share. Approximately 18 percent of young adults under the age of 24 are out of work and nearly half of the black youths in Britain have no jobs.

In today’s bleak economy, everyone is going a little bit crazy, but violent behavior directed at the haves by the have-nots is a lose-lose situation for all. Economics and crime often go hand-in-hand, and if Britain and America keep trending towards an economic tailspin, we’ll likely see many more of these sad stories in the coming days. ¶