Tottenham Riots

[MrJonno]

Considering the state of the economy someone burning down your shop and claiming insurance is probably about the best that could happen to many people

[Tyrannical]

Considering the state of the economy someone burning down your shop and claiming insurance is probably about the best that could happen to many people

Insurance companies certainly don't mind since they can charge the British government for riot expenses.

[Cormac]

When Britain first, at Heaven's command
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sang this strain:

"Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
"Britons never will be slaves."

Ooops.

Makes me wonder how a population reproduces when the males have no balls.
Grow some balls, grab a club, and chase the looters away.

In point of fact, that began last night, with hundreds of people coming onto the streets to oppose the riotous mob.

Three of these were murdered in a hit and run incident.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

...Democracy is founded upon people who were willing to confront the forces of the existing power...

That's not what's happening here. These vermin are criminals and glamorisers of crime, only out for themselves and doing what there are doing because they sense they can get away with it.

...Arson isn't a capital crime on this side of the Atlantic...

No, but it does carry a mandatory life sentence if lives are placed at risk.

...Live ammunition against petrol bombs? I would hope not. It is not legal for police to use deadly force pretty much short of being shot at. There arent any armed riot squads and if it really got that bad I would hope the police would just back up and film the rioters destroying shops until they got bored. Then arrest them later...

There are a whole range of options that lie between the police standing around looking gormless and the police opening fire with live rounds you know.

...The police are no more authorised to use deadly force against people damaging property than anyone else is (ie they arent)

The police are authorised to use deadly force where people's lives are threatened.

Why are the Birmingham rioters trashing sweet shops and coffee bars and not electrical shops?

Reverting to their mental age I would suggest.

...I want them to riot and attack fascists is all.

Well I guess if they attack enough people there's bound to be some "fascists" among them. I mean what does it matter how many ordinary people are hurt as long as those nasty "fascists" learn their lesson huh?

In terms of priorities personal safety and security, the right of ordinary people to go about their lives unmolested and safety is topmost as far as I am concerned. The police need to be allowed to do what must be done to restore that...

...Don't lecture me please. These are our cities and what is happening is a total disgrace. It shows something deep and fundamentally wrong has happened to a whole generation of young people who simply don't give a shit about the society they live in.

Which is not to excuse them. I think the army should be out there now and stomping on them hard.

That.

The key phrases there being "ordinary people" and "our cities".

...However..the kids who are doing this know how bleak their futures really are. The graph goes downwards from here on in, at least for a while. This may not be planned, may not be intellectualised, but basically they are in a position where they have nothing to lose and they don't give a fuck...

I can't quite agree here. It's true that there are countless young people (and some 30 year olds!) facing a seemingly bleak hopeless future, but when it comes to the people behind this violence, most of them have the same aspiration now as they would have done even if the credit crunch had never even happened.

They wannabe a gangsta' innit?

This isn't a race riot. Plenty of white *gasp* and asian kids have been looting as well. If anything these riots are a great example of racial harmony amongst my generation.

[sarcasm][/sarcasm]Multi-racial vermin? Doesn't it just warm the cockles of your heart?[/sarcasm]

...That's right, bring on the iron fist. I have seen the light on my road to Damascus. Syria a-la-UK is clearly well overdue...

Anyone drawing cheap comparisons between cracking down on these criminal vermin, and the tragic scenes in the middle east has fallen foul in spirit (if not in letter) of Godwin's Law and proven themselves too lacking in perspective to take part in a debate such as this.

...(Is that right wing enough for everyone? I'm new to this atheism thing)

Obvious Concern Troll is Obvious.


Right that brings me to page 12 - the rest'll have to wait. I've less than 8 mins library time left.

[Tyrannical]

When Britain first, at Heaven's command
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sang this strain:

"Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
"Britons never will be slaves."

Ooops.

Makes me wonder how a population reproduces when the males have no balls.
Grow some balls, grab a club, and chase the looters away.

In point of fact, that began last night, with hundreds of people coming onto the streets to oppose the riotous mob.

Three of these were murdered in a hit and run incident.

I wasn't referring to the Muslim, Sikh, or Turkish population. Though that may have been a news reporting slant.

[Exi5tentialist]

Democracy Now Have a good video including an interview with journalist Darcus Howe who calls for Operation Trident to be disbanded, also blogger Richard Seymour, who among other things says:

there has been, over the last generation or so, some efforts to overcome the antagonisms between the police and black communities in Britain, but that didn’t, obviously, get rid of institutional racism. Institutional racism was acknowledged in the outcome of the Lawrence Inquiry, but the steps undertaken to deal with it were obviously inadequate. And the result of that has been that there has been a disproportionate amount of stop and search of young black men, a disproportionate amount of harassment and violence, and of course, as you mentioned, deaths in police custody.

Just a different slant on the news there from the usual hang 'em flog 'em wallpaper you get on the BBC.

[laklak]

Does no good to hang them and then flog them, they're already dead. The idea is to flog THEN hang. Unless it's a hang, draw and quarter scenario, of course.

Gibbets, that's the ticket.

[Ironclad]

This has to be amongst the worst of the rioting I've yet seen. Is this where Dev has been these last few hours...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cbVW_QS ... r_embedded[/youtube]

[Rum]

I needed that to lift the gloom a bit!

[Bella Fortuna]

Reposting elsewhere...

[PsychoSerenity]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cbVW_QS ... r_embedded[/youtube]

FUCKING SCUM DESERVES A BULLET IN THE HEAD! SEND IN THE ARMY! BRING BACK HANGING!! RAAARRGH!!!!




Feeling a bit better now.

[Bella Fortuna]

Go get 'em, tiger!

[Atheist-Lite]

This has to be amongst the worst of the rioting I've yet seen. Is this where Dev has been these last few hours...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cbVW_QS ... r_embedded[/youtube]

Reminds me of toppling statues on Easter Island for some reason.

[Coito ergo sum]

I am not sure what to make of the riots over there in England. The world seems to be going crazy. I hope such nonsense doesn't begin over here in the US. Energies are better served going to work and getting shit done, rather than rioting.

I realize this all began with some racial issue of which I am only vaguely familiar, but it seems to have spiraled into some Quadraphenia-like teen angst "eat the rich" rampage. It all just seems so pathetic and sad from over here. I can't even joke about it.

[Ironclad]

Wasn't even that really. A few worried family members, with friends went to the police station to demand answers to a shooting (of a suspected armed gang-member), there were quite a few of them and while the popo had their hands full a micro riot took off as all the old bill were tied up. Somehow it just went mad as the kids suddenly realised - wow there are more of us than them, gunna grab me an ipod.
The original family (of the dead guy) are furious at the looters because their issue was hijacked and scrubbed out. They want a police enquiry but the courts are going to be full of twattage, for a rather long time.