London acid attack injures at least six

[Tintrlvr]

Link doesn't work, but if it's a random act than it certainly is terrorism. A fifteen year old does not need to be in ISIS chat rooms to be a terrorist. If his goal was to inspire fear - regardless of whatever motive - he has committed a terrorist act.

This is obvious nonsense. Terrorism has to have an ideological (political/religious/ethnic) motivation. Random gang violence to inspire fear is not terrorism.

[Tintrlvr]

Link doesn't work, but if it's a random act than it certainly is terrorism. A fifteen year old does not need to be in ISIS chat rooms to be a terrorist. If his goal was to inspire fear - regardless of whatever motive - he has committed a terrorist act.

This is obvious nonsense. Terrorism has to have an ideological (political/religious/ethnic) motivation. Random gang violence to inspire fear is not terrorism.

Yes it is. Terrorism is a tactic. It can be used by anyone against the general public for any reason. A Mexican cartel setting off a bomb in LA for example would be a terrorist act, even if a criminal gang rather than an ideological outfit set it off. Terrorism is a symptom of a larger problem, whether that problem be crime, religious fanaticism. Only mental illness or an individual motive (say for example a feud between the attackers/victims) preclude an act designed to terrorize the public from being labeled terrorism.

Dylan Roof for example is a terrorist. The church shooter in TN may very well have just been mentally ill. The Houston cop killer was a terrorist. James Holmes was mentally ill. See the contextual differences?

Yes -- The difference is that Dylan Roof and the cop killer had ideological motivations for their actions, while the others did not. Your insistence that gang violence is terrorism has no basis in reality.

[Tintrlvr]

The popular theory is that is it came after an increased crackdown on guns and knives meaning criminals search for an incognito weapon, and once higher ups in the organised crime and semi-organised rings realised the acid's power as away of intimidating rivals it sort of exploded, to the extent it's become copycatted by all sorts of people.

Most of it is male on male, and the victims don't seek prosecution, presumably out of fear of retribution.

Or because they were engaged in illegal activity at the time/going to the police requires admitting to illegal activity, and the police may view the victims' drug dealing/arms dealing/pimping/whatever as being a bigger crime than acid attacks and not guarantee them a deal.