I sometimes tell a story from my High School years that still gets a good laugh. It involves myself and a few friends throwing snowballs at cars from a fence at the bottom of a big grassy hill in a park. We had a pretty rubbish aim but for one poor driver, each snowball hit the target – the driver-side window which was rolled down halfway. We thought nothing of it after the cheers and carried on until we heard a roar from behind us. Said driver was careering down the hill towards us, having driven his car (deliberately) through the fence at the top of the hill in a rage. My friends ran off to the side and got away easily. I, stupidly, ran up the hill, one slip no doubt resulting in a well-deserved beating from this man. A series of garden runs followed to get away and we survived intact. What great fun. We were fourteen.

The violence and thuggery that we are seeing on London’s streets is of course a far cry from throwing a few snowballs; however, we disrespected this man’s car as much as the rioters disrespected a family’s furniture shop last night and we disrespected wherever it was he might have been going as much as rioters are disrespecting the impact of families being homeless.

The activity over the past few nights has been mindless but it is tiring and frustrating to be the same person for the entirety of our lives and getting out of our minds is something that we all do. Getting drunk on a weekend night, playing Grand Theft Auto, blasting music at top volume, grooving like a maniac on the dancefloor or even just going to the cinema. Escaping ourselves has become a modern necessity and for some people that escape is less easy than it is for others.

I’m no psychologist so I won’t embarrass myself by trying to talk about the correlation between a lack of strong parental figures and a disrespect for private property, police and other people and the frustration and boredom that that can bring but families that have broken down in some way shape or form have to come into this somewhere. A marriage tax allowance won’t fix it but the police asking the public ‘Where are your kids?’ is getting closer to a solution.

Don’t get me wrong, the violence and damage that was visible last night, the two nights before and, no doubt, for the next few evenings is indefensible and intolerable. It is a choice of whether you’re with Cameron, Boris and May or the rioters and I am firmly with the former camp, whatever they choose to do. I’ve believed for a while that gangs of youths up to no good should not be indulged with the softly-softly policing approach that is no doubt employed with good intentions but, rather, these groups should be hit for six by a no-nonsense police hardcore to get them off the streets, interrogated individually to understand what drives them to cause problems and then solutions proposed by the state accordingly.

I see no reason why similar tactics shouldn’t be employed tonight including, if need be and safely employed, water cannons, tazers, rubber bullets, the army and tear gas. Kids throwing snowballs is one thing but David Cameron is back at the helm now, a COBRA meeting is taking place as I type and the kids need to know they don’t run the streets.

So, mindless violence? Yes. Understandable? In our heart of hearts, it has to be a yes.

Cast your mind back to when you were in your teens and I’d be surprised if, even a tiny bit, you couldn’t appreciate how fun it might be to play cat and mouse with police and be on tv each night.