The London Riots

Just a little rant, because the whole thing pisses me off. It all started because a supposed drugs baron got shot because he refused to be searched and opened fire on the please. The police shot back and he was killed. A protest mounted over his death, and then during this peaceful protest a violence between the police and protesters kicked off. Loads of people not even related to the shooting incident decided to join in, vandalising and looting the streets of London.

2 Days later, the violence has spread all the way across London, mainly in the South and North West, reports this morning show that violence is also present in other major cities. The police presence is somewhat poor, there have been over 250 arrests, but the police have really not been doing enough to stop it, and now it is starting to spread, and get a lot worse. Fires raged across London last night, peoples home's and business, mindless violence I cannot tolerate nor understand.

Sounds like something from a movie, but it is so real. It's about 20 minutes away from my best friend, with whom I stayed very recently. He basically can't leave the house from fears of safety. All local shops are shut and secured to halt the vandalism and protect the public, busses and the underground have ceased to run or been diverted. It makes me sick when you put stuff like this in context of the Norway things, where one person ruined a lot of lives. This, this is just unorganised and illogical and stupid violence, with no purpose or aim. It makes me feel ashamed and embarrassed to be British.

How long is it before they have to send the army in? Seriously, something needs to be done.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/08/london_riots.html

Am I the only one who's almost unsurprised by the public reaction?

The human race is just one big pile of idiots now and then.

Maybe the army is exactly what London needs right now. Boost the wanted level up to 6 stars.

I don't know why anyone is surprised by this, people are animals, and most animals will often attack without the slightest warning or reasoning why. A lot of people thrive on destruction and this was a great opportunity for it.

It's sad, depressing, and I hope someone steps in and sets things right again. :c

Yeah, maybe a dork with cool sunglasses and a legendary Pokemon could set aside their differences for an afternoon to clean things up.

Aww, that's sweet. You know, the Germans even stopped their fighting to appreciate Christmas.

This is indeed ridiculous; especially since most people involved are just taking the opportunity to indulge in a little vandalism and looting rather than actually being annoyed that some cops decided to defend themselves against someone shooting at them.

It's the same sort of assholes you get whenever there are riots, whether you're in London, Vancouver, Dublin or Paris.

Personally, I'd bring in the army.
Just drop all the SAS on them, with riot shields and batons.
The ensuing problem would only be charging, processing and accomodating all the new prisoners.


EDIT: Parliament is being recalled because of this.

About riot-stopping tactics. Hell, they've deployed the army in Belfast, they can do it in London.

Pictures. Just look at this shit.

Holy shit, a relevant and positive story about social networking. I thought that was the demon of the press at the moment.

Other cities too

Live updates

What other countries' news guys think

The apparent spark that caused the fire

...wow...

Wait, I thought UK police weren't armed with guns, or at least Law & Order: UK would have me believe so.

I say issue an evacuation warning for people uninvolved, have them evacuate through military-manned checkpoints, and the next morning just go through as if it were a battle zone. Military targets in a guerrilla civil war. []

The riots in London remind me a lot of the L.A. riots, and the rioting and looting after hurricane Katrina.

I am sad to say the death of that man you shot at police wasn't the reason, it was just an excuse. Looting and setting fire to major buildings is not protesting his death.. You have people who cause riots and people who use riots. Why? I don't know. We are all animals in the end.

The prominent feeling I feel from the riots is shame. I thought as a London-dwelling Citizen, this kind of stuff would never happen. The police are doing their best, but ultimately, there should never have been anything like this in the first place.

The place that got hit worst last night was Croydon, which is where I go to school. Any of those buildings shown in flames are a minute's walk from my school. Honestly, I fear that I might not have a school to go to if the rioting lasts any longer. Most of my friends all live by the school, and many of the citizen's livelihoods have been destroyed by mindless thugs. It's a really disconcerting situation to know that people are attacking things only 5 minutes away from where you live. Being in Portugal doesn't make the situation any better. I only hope that those committing these acts get what they deserve, and the police get more power to deter and deal with this kind of thing for the future.

@Sam: Well the LA Riots were caused by racial tensions exploding, and the police had their part in instigating everything back then. I'm certainly not justifying mindless violence of any form, as in the end, it all pretty much becoems the same, no matter how "noble" the cause is.

Of course, perhaps we can all take just a little bit of comfort in knowing that, while degenerates who would use violence as an excuse to cause violence exist, so do the people who see that and say "That's batshit insane."

Since the shooting is only a pretext (and a flimsy one at that), there really isn't a reason for such destruction. They're committing several serious crimes at once just because they feel like it. Personally, I would first step up the police numbers and if that doesn't stop the riots after 2 days, bring in the army, send out warnings for a day (somewhere along the lines of "If you even look at these guys funny, you will die") and then start letting them use live ammo on anyone still stupid enough to attack them.

I'm a dictator like that.

The one thing that bugs me about what I've seen the police over there do is that they have these round shields, yet they're all just wandering about, barely making any use of it. I'd expect some phalanx action from my police forces in a situation like this. Just form up at one end of the block and force everyone to where you want to round them up with the impenetrable shield walls of the law.

Gorgro wrote:Since the shooting is only a pretext (and a flimsy one at that), there really isn't a reason for such destruction. They're committing several serious crimes at once just because they feel like it. Personally, I would first step up the police numbers and if that doesn't stop the riots after 2 days, bring in the army, send out warnings for a day (somewhere along the lines of "If you even look at these guys funny, you will die") and then start letting them use live ammo on anyone still stupid enough to attack them.

I'm a dictator like that.

Same thoughts here, Glorious Leader. If someone so much as even curses at the guy with the gun, they're pretty much asking to be taken out of the gene pool. Shooting the more idiotic idiots would very likely get results REAL quick.

I feel I have to say that if this was in Belfast the army would be all over this shit.

If we kill everyone no one will ever know!

That'd be my strategy at least.

I heard a sound clip on the radio of a reporter who was standing at a store while it was being looted. A woman/girl walked past, and he asked why she was doing this. Her reason? "I'm getting my taxes back."


...


...............


....blinding stupidity. How are those your taxes? You pay taxes to the government. That's private property you're defacing and stealing. That's not yours. You're not entitled to it. Get a job, get a life, and get over yourself! []

I've been following these 'ere riots really closely over the last few days, as with all people who live in the UK I have plenty of friends who live in these areas.

The few things that I would say;

It's now been stated that the man who was shot was not firing at officers or indeed using his gun at all. Obviously was not a nice character as he did have a gun on him but all the same, as with the Menezes (terrible speeling I'm sure) shooting on the tube a few years back warrants a community to question the way in which police work. I would have hoped that people might have learnt that however well intentioned a 'peaceful protest' will always be taken over by some bellends who want to get in a fight.

The media coverage of the events has been nothing short of hideously damaging to the way in which a lot of people in this country will view 'young people'. They are rioters, vandals, looters, thugs, thieves...all these things. I accept that these are NOT the sort of people I would invite roun my nan's house for tea. But by the media adding 'hooded youths' or 'young people' or 'kids' to their coverage, it means that everytime Joe Bloggs in the street sees a teenager in a tracksuit he's going to think of him in an even more negative way than he already might! Fair enough, there are a lot of 'chavs' in this country, God knows there are where I live (Chatham, the home of the word Chav I'll have you know (It means Chatham Average)) but just because you dress like one and maybe have a bit of a swaggery, numpty looking walk it doesn't mean their going torch your car.

Grr, rant over.

Dewmann wrote:@Sam: Well the LA Riots were caused by racial tensions exploding, and the police had their part in instigating everything back then. I'm certainly not justifying mindless violence of any form, as in the end, it all pretty much becoems the same, no matter how "noble" the cause is.

Of course, perhaps we can all take just a little bit of comfort in knowing that, while degenerates who would use violence as an excuse to cause violence exist, so do the people who see that and say "That's batshit insane."

Yes I know what caused the L.A. riots and it wasn't just racial tension. A lot of factors are involved. Yes the verdict over the Rodney king trial was a factor but it was only an excuse. The US in the early 90's was in recession and only reached recovery in late 92. That meant a lot of people lost their jobs and were on one form of assistance or another. You also had illegal immigration being the hot button issue it always was and you had soldiers coming home from the ever unpopular Gulf War. All of that sound familiar?

Europe and and a whole lot of other places are having the same problems. Dealing with a sluggish economy, immigration, government spending, the gap between the rich and poor, and the general ass-hatery people will do when they feel there will be no personal consequence for their actions (you can't arrest them all right?)

What shocks me most about this is that the MET have published some advice to business and home-owners stating that 'reasonable force' can be used 'including with weapons' in your feel your property is under threat, without provocation of attack. How ambiguous (and badly worded) is that?!

Oh man that's gonna lead to some long-ass court cases.

AJ wrote:What shocks me most about this is that the MET have published some advice to business and home-owners stating that 'reasonable force' can be used 'including with weapons' in your feel your property is under threat, without provocation of attack. How ambiguous (and badly worded) is that?!

Yeah...in America, at least we have it more unambiguous...we have the second amendment, and self-defense can include lethal force if the threat includes possible lethal force. []