“Civil Unrest”

Tom Stamatakis is president of the Canadian Police Association. He represents more than 60,000 front-line officers. He has decades of experience in public-order policing. He has personally navigated riots, international summits, and the full chaotic repertoire of crowd dynamics. He is, by any reasonable measure, exactly the sort of person whose voice ought to count for something when Canadians ask why their streets have become a theatre of tolerated intimidation.

And what does Mr. Stamatakis have to say for himself?

That it’s complicated.

The feral idiocy on the streets of Clapham speaks to a dangerous corrosion of adult authority.

You couldn’t ask for a better state-of-the-nation snapshot than the one coming out of Clapham in south-west London right now. Those clips of young, dumbfounded cops trying and failing to stop a mob of masked TikTok twats from running riot is Britain summed up. The dystopic vision of families barricaded inside shops as entitled delinquents swarm the streets for sport speaks to our crisis of social order. To see what lunacies the corrosion of adult authority can unleash, look no further than Clapham.

CHAOS IN CLAPHAM CONTINUES

Videos are being uploaded to social media of the latest mayhem caused but huge groups of youths in Southwest London

A small number of police tried to stop the crowds but to little effect.

Unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/dBPquwRKWx

— Kiera Diss (@KieraDiss) April 1, 2026

But critics object, equating lawlessness with free speech.

Lawmakers in Arizona and Utah have introduced bills toughening penalties for civil terrorism—illegal activities undertaken to achieve political goals through intimidation or coercion. Blocking a road, for example, is already illegal, and for good reason: people have to get to their families and jobs, not to mention the needs of emergency vehicles. But Arizona’s HB 2136 and Utah’s HB 331 raise the costs of doing so intentionally in large groups or in especially disorderly ways, because current law treats road-blocking as a minor crime, and troublemakers have been exploiting it.

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, whose Day One memo had ordered prosecutors to give armed robbers a pass, has announced that he’s looking into prosecuting ICE agents.

While Bragg had let a man accusing of raping a teenage girl go with 30 days and probation so that he went on a “sex-crime spree” attacking four different women until one of his victims hit him on the head with a hammer, he aggressively pursued President Trump and subway hero Daniel Penny who had prevented a crazed homeless man from attacking fellow passengers.