Riots in London and England
- Thread starter AdrianCubed
- Start date
Well to say its anarchy last night was an understatement. It was chaos. Rioting, Looting, Stealing, Mugging, Mass Arson, petrol bombs and overall destruction. All the belligerents are young people as young as 7 as old as 25+ Mostly teenagers from impoverished locations or families.
The riots kicked off after a man was stopped and searched in Hackney... Tensions were already high due to the events in Tottenham a couple days before when Police shot and killed Mark Dugan, after which protest ensued... in where Tottenham rioted/looted/burned etc.
The MP and Mayor are back, and now It's feeling like the country is back under control. Social Networks, Text messaging, and BBM services are all on 30min delays going live from when you post them. In an effort to slow down the rapidity of social networks being used to rally attacks by the criminals.
A Mass clean up around some of the more posh areas of London have been underway.
Rubber bullets, an additional 16,000 Police, armored vehicles deployed, talks of watercanons, curfews etc. Its like nothing i've ever seen before.
The sad part is, its moved so far away from the initial event that sparked it all off. Now its become just mindless attacks everywhere on everything. We're ALL (countries West of Dubai) in a massive economic strain, what good will burning down rows of buildings, looting shops, destroying homes, destroying stores and shops around the City, and around the country do? (Its spread from London to Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol). Talks of Manchester planning to make their move tonight.
Its terrible and massively embarrassing, especially as we are 1 year away from the Olympics. This is NOT the image of social unrest London needs nor wants to portray to the rest of the world... and as such. Only BBC in London is showing all the facets of the events that have happened where as outside of England, to the rest of the world news have been relatively mum, about it all downplaying the events.
Parliament gets back on Thursday. This week stands to be very interesting. We're on break from University, My job interview was just cancelled... So yeah... the search for a summer to winter job becomes more difficult now, because businessses are apprehensive.
I am safe, away from all of that chaos. But only time will tell, because when the government ups the ante and tensions are already high, the criminals will up their ante as well. Needless to say, my credit card is ready to be on the next train to Paris, or the next flight back to Miami.
The riots kicked off after a man was stopped and searched in Hackney... Tensions were already high due to the events in Tottenham a couple days before when Police shot and killed Mark Dugan, after which protest ensued... in where Tottenham rioted/looted/burned etc.
The MP and Mayor are back, and now It's feeling like the country is back under control. Social Networks, Text messaging, and BBM services are all on 30min delays going live from when you post them. In an effort to slow down the rapidity of social networks being used to rally attacks by the criminals.
A Mass clean up around some of the more posh areas of London have been underway.
Rubber bullets, an additional 16,000 Police, armored vehicles deployed, talks of watercanons, curfews etc. Its like nothing i've ever seen before.
The sad part is, its moved so far away from the initial event that sparked it all off. Now its become just mindless attacks everywhere on everything. We're ALL (countries West of Dubai) in a massive economic strain, what good will burning down rows of buildings, looting shops, destroying homes, destroying stores and shops around the City, and around the country do? (Its spread from London to Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol). Talks of Manchester planning to make their move tonight.
Its terrible and massively embarrassing, especially as we are 1 year away from the Olympics. This is NOT the image of social unrest London needs nor wants to portray to the rest of the world... and as such. Only BBC in London is showing all the facets of the events that have happened where as outside of England, to the rest of the world news have been relatively mum, about it all downplaying the events.
Parliament gets back on Thursday. This week stands to be very interesting. We're on break from University, My job interview was just cancelled... So yeah... the search for a summer to winter job becomes more difficult now, because businessses are apprehensive.
I am safe, away from all of that chaos. But only time will tell, because when the government ups the ante and tensions are already high, the criminals will up their ante as well. Needless to say, my credit card is ready to be on the next train to Paris, or the next flight back to Miami.
Over the last couple of days I've found it hard to concentrate and get work done - while I follow along via the BBC, The Guardian and Google+ with all the latest horrible news on the rioting in London and across England.
I lived in London and its near suburbs for over a dozen years. I lived in, played sports in, and went out in many of the affected areas. I also have good friends in some of the areas getting hit. I've been talking to them by email and IM and they are all OK, thankfully.
I've said this over on Google+ - my dad was English, I'm a British citizen, and these are days to be ashamed to be English. So much mindless, cause-less violence and seemingly such a weak and slow response from the government.
It's all just very sad. I hope all of you who live in the UK are managing to stay safe and away from the scumbags carrying out all this violence.
I lived in London and its near suburbs for over a dozen years. I lived in, played sports in, and went out in many of the affected areas. I also have good friends in some of the areas getting hit. I've been talking to them by email and IM and they are all OK, thankfully.
I've said this over on Google+ - my dad was English, I'm a British citizen, and these are days to be ashamed to be English. So much mindless, cause-less violence and seemingly such a weak and slow response from the government.
It's all just very sad. I hope all of you who live in the UK are managing to stay safe and away from the scumbags carrying out all this violence.
In response to glsda above:
It started last Saturday as a peaceful protest against a police shooting in Tottenham (North London). Since then it has degenerated into mini-riots and violence and looting all across London that seem to have no cause, but are just the acts of disgruntled, ignorant people (many of them depressingly young) who (in the words of a couple of them last night) 'just want to show the police we can do what we want'. Some say they are doing it to attack 'the rich' - but the fact is they are burning the cars and homes of their own neighbors - often not rich people at all. They're also burning down lots of local businessses. In Birmingham last night there were reports of a children's hospital being attacked and bombing of a police station.
It's ridiculous that this is going on and that the UK government has had such a pathetically ineffective response to it thus far.
It started last Saturday as a peaceful protest against a police shooting in Tottenham (North London). Since then it has degenerated into mini-riots and violence and looting all across London that seem to have no cause, but are just the acts of disgruntled, ignorant people (many of them depressingly young) who (in the words of a couple of them last night) 'just want to show the police we can do what we want'. Some say they are doing it to attack 'the rich' - but the fact is they are burning the cars and homes of their own neighbors - often not rich people at all. They're also burning down lots of local businessses. In Birmingham last night there were reports of a children's hospital being attacked and bombing of a police station.
It's ridiculous that this is going on and that the UK government has had such a pathetically ineffective response to it thus far.
I have been following this on BBC London Radio 94.9 on the iPhone. My heart goes out to all Londoners and those elsewhere in the UK. As you may know Los Angeles faced rioting in the early 90s. I lived through that, but the massive presense of the National Guard and a curfew really put a stop to it. It was surreal seeing military in Humvees with machine guns, but I felt much safer with them there.
I also wish to say that a majority of British are fine and decent people. There is scum everywhere regardless of country or nationality. You have nothing to feel ashamed of. The UK is a beautiful country with a rich history, and the most kind-hearted people you could find anywhere.
Here is an article about Apple emptying their stores in case of rioting.
I also wish to say that a majority of British are fine and decent people. There is scum everywhere regardless of country or nationality. You have nothing to feel ashamed of. The UK is a beautiful country with a rich history, and the most kind-hearted people you could find anywhere.
Here is an article about Apple emptying their stores in case of rioting.
You cannot fight violence with violence because if the Police start killing "unarmed, thugs... teenagers at that" It will be a MASSIVE public outcry and condemnation of the Police and British Gov't... and will ONLY increase problems.
I am Safe here in London... and ever since the government moved 16,000 troops into the capital all has been fine so far. Sad to say, Manchester is falling apart, Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol arent that far behind.
I am Safe here in London... and ever since the government moved 16,000 troops into the capital all has been fine so far. Sad to say, Manchester is falling apart, Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol arent that far behind.
