Thin Blue Line

I occurred to me watching the trouble around the country last night (I hesitate to call them riots) that the troublemakers are missing a trick.

So far they've leant that several distributed hotspots spreads out the Police, thins them out and prevents them from doing any effective Policing.

But what they're missing is that in each area there are far more looters than there are Police. Once they learn they outnumber and can overwhelm the Police in each of these areas, then there will be real trouble. What would be the next move by the government if we begin to see Police swamped and beaten up (or worse) during these outbursts of violence? Would those images spur on more lawlessness around the country once other groups learn the same tactics.