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- WORLD, Page 37World NotesBRITAINSeason of "Hotting"
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- On the bleak housing estates of northeastern England, where
- unemployment runs as high as 40%, the closing days of summer
- produced an outbreak of "hotting" -- the teenage sport of
- racing stolen cars. Last week, during four nights of
- disturbances, one full-scale riot raged for five hours on an
- estate in Newcastle-upon-Tyne that is locally known as "the
- Bronx." Hundreds of youngsters fire-bombed buildings, wrecked
- and looted shops and stoned the police.
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- The violence was apparently touched off by the death
- earlier this month of two young men who were killed while being
- chased by police at speeds of up to 125 m.p.h. Relatives said
- the youths had been taking part in another form of automobile
- delinquency, "ram raiding," which involves driving stolen cars
- right into stores and then looting them.
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- Although this year's violence has been widespread,
- involving similar incidents in Oxford, Cardiff and Birmingham,
- the Times of London concluded that the worst was over. All would
- be well when the weather changed, an editorial predicted,
- because "the best policeman of all is rain."
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