This is the result of social problems that have been building up in this country for a couple of generations.
The so called underclass have effectively formed a scapegoat that is entirely acceptable for the political classes to deploy as it doesn't form around racial lines, and exploits some of the worst tropes about 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor that should have been left to rot, where they belong, in the days of the poor law.
Yes, this is 'criminal' activity, and it's often justified (or not rather) by participants in crude terms of boredom, lack of money, bare anger, etc.
To take this at face value is to ignore that social/political factor do have influence people's lives. These people often can't put words to this, or really even have any critical framework to view their situation. Yes it's shitty behaviour, but it's just the eruption of violence from an area of society that has been cast as not worthy of dealing with for the last 30 years.
Fair enough, be angry at what's gone on, but I doubt most people on here have grown up in a fucking waste shithole where every second person is on smack and everyone at school is always brawling; everyone's parents are alkies or junkies. These impoverished places really are fucking shitholes...
Who bothers to take seriously what these people say? They are inarticulate and don't vote so they just get ignored. But it doesn't take a genius to see their conditions are shit. And if you call people scum for 20 years, it's no surprise that they live up to that expectation. Just chuck them onto the streets I suppose, that should do the trick.