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Americans have watched in astonishment, along with the rest of the world, the violence that's erupted in England as young, disaffected Britons take to the streets to vent their rage.

But could it happen in the United States as it grapples with a 25 per cent youth unemployment rate and a double-dip recession potentially in the offing?

The current bleak landscape in the United States is littered with all the same disturbing elements at play in the U.K. _ racial tensions, high unemployment, a growing income gap between rich and poor, a gloomy economic outlook and a feeling of hopelessness among youth.

Recent statistics reveal that 39.2 per cent of black teens and 36.2 per cent of Hispanic youth are jobless. In New York City, black and Hispanic youths are twice as likely to drop out of school as their peers, have a poverty rate that is 50 per cent higher than other ethnicities, experience an unemployment rate that is 60 per cent higher, and make up more than 90 per cent of young murder victims and perpetrators.

Although the biggest riots in the United States have involved race and civil rights, some observers think throwing a Great Depression-esque economic situation into the mix could spur America's youth to rise up too.

"There is a direct correlation between the violence here in Chicago, which is off the charts right now, and the lack of investment in inner cities and inner-city youth," Phillip Jackson, founder of the Million Father March, said in an interview on Wednesday.

"In Chicago and other major American cities, the violent acts are singular and isolated. The violence in London has become collective and focused, but the underlying causes are the same, and as soon as American kids figure that out, we're in trouble."

But others point out that America has evolved in a far different direction than the country it broke away from in the 18th century. Class divisions are not as pronounced as they are in the U.K., they point out, and America's lower classes generally don't regard the upper classes with the seething contempt that their British counterparts do.

"In the U.S., if you're born into a lower socioeconomic class, there is still the perceived possibility of transcending that, of achieving wealth," said Sean Snaith, the director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Economic Competitiveness.

"The upper classes, the celebrity class, the wealthy _ to the average American, they're what royalty is to the British. Americans consider that something to be admired and held in esteem and awe. So that's a pretty good anesthesia in a lot of ways."

Youth might also be nervous taking to the streets given the tendency of American law enforcement agencies to respond to force with even greater force.

"Our police are much more willing to use brutal force," said Snaith. "There is no bobby mentality here; American police officers carry guns. If there's violence going down, they're going to respond with violence." http://finance.sympatico.ca/home/could_uk_riots_happen_in_the_united_s
tates/6b2ea178 Nightline last night we sat down with PBS and radio talk show host Tavis Smiley and Princeton University professor Dr. Cornel West about their Poverty Tour.
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"One percent of the people owning and controlling more wealth than 90% of Americans, that's unsustainable. That math won't hold up long-term. There is a bubbling, there is a restlessness."

"If you don't treat poor and working people with dignity now, chickens are going to come home to roost later," West said. "And it won't be about love and justice. It will be about revenge, hatred, and then we all go under." http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/08/smiley-and-west-povert
y-income-inequalities-in-us-could-lead-to-uk-like-riots.html

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The only places where UK-like riots could happen (for longer than a day) are in places like Chicago, NY, California, and Mass.

Typical liberal strongholds that have high unemployment, low morality, and gun control.

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