What. the. hell.
<div class="IPBDescription">London riots continue to escalate out of control</div>So, everything's gone bat-ish crazy in London the past few days. Pockets of criminal damage and looting are springing up all over the city, generally in the less well-off areas. The flashpoint was the death of a father of two, thought to be shot by a member of the police force in Tottenham, North London, for supposedly firing on officers from a taxi during a planned arrest. Early reports seem to indicate the bullet lodged in an officer's lapel radio was actually a police issue round.
The death sparked a local and initially peaceful protest march which got out of hand on Saturday and disintegrated into a full-scale riot with shops being burnt and pillaged while the homes, in some cases above the fires are evacuated by the local community.
But what's crazy is that in the days and nights that have followed the riots have continued, and they don't seem to be motivated by anything more than an underlying malaise in the teenagers of those boroughs affected. Now there is no organised demonstration which gets out of hand, this is chaotic destruction organised ahead of time via social networking, typically Blackberry Messenger. The youth are smashing the place up and looting whatever they can get their hands on. If they're angry, it's hard to tell what about. There seem to be no spokespeople, only secret cajolers, singling out where will be hit next by whoever will listen, namely a disaffected youth made up of thugs, thrill-seekers and opportunistic thieves.
<b>Video</b>
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14450248" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14450248</a>
Those are pictures of Croydon, a southern borough of London with a sizeable town centre just two stops down the train line from me. It's currently on fire in three different locations. On Saturday the initial rioting in Tottenham somehow broke out on the other side of the city in Brixton High Street. On Friday night I'd taken a bus back from there in the small hours of the morning after a night out.
This is mental. I've not seen anything like it in the 25 years I've lived here.
<b>Live coverage</b>
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14449675" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14449675</a>
More worryingly, Birmingham in the middle of the country has also had large-scale looting of a similar ilk in the city centre this evening. It's hard to see where this is going. It can only end badly, I just hope it ends soon.
The death sparked a local and initially peaceful protest march which got out of hand on Saturday and disintegrated into a full-scale riot with shops being burnt and pillaged while the homes, in some cases above the fires are evacuated by the local community.
But what's crazy is that in the days and nights that have followed the riots have continued, and they don't seem to be motivated by anything more than an underlying malaise in the teenagers of those boroughs affected. Now there is no organised demonstration which gets out of hand, this is chaotic destruction organised ahead of time via social networking, typically Blackberry Messenger. The youth are smashing the place up and looting whatever they can get their hands on. If they're angry, it's hard to tell what about. There seem to be no spokespeople, only secret cajolers, singling out where will be hit next by whoever will listen, namely a disaffected youth made up of thugs, thrill-seekers and opportunistic thieves.
<b>Video</b>
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14450248" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14450248</a>
Those are pictures of Croydon, a southern borough of London with a sizeable town centre just two stops down the train line from me. It's currently on fire in three different locations. On Saturday the initial rioting in Tottenham somehow broke out on the other side of the city in Brixton High Street. On Friday night I'd taken a bus back from there in the small hours of the morning after a night out.
This is mental. I've not seen anything like it in the 25 years I've lived here.
<b>Live coverage</b>
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14449675" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14449675</a>
More worryingly, Birmingham in the middle of the country has also had large-scale looting of a similar ilk in the city centre this evening. It's hard to see where this is going. It can only end badly, I just hope it ends soon.
Comments
The group probably has a similar organisation to Anon, with primary members calling targets, but being supported by the majority with no clear leadership, which makes it almost impossible to stop without either getting rid of the reason they're rioting, or arresting everyone that's involved, neither of which are practical. Unfortunately, I think the riots will continue for a few days, until the rioters run out of steam.
Interested to know how this is being portrayed in foreign media actually...
They could do with some water canons (not that they're licensed to use them) since it looks really bad even by our standards here in Northern Ireland.
I think its been building up to this for quite a while now but I wonder how long it'll last.
As a Vancouverite (remember the hockey riot?) I kind of get a secret pleasure that we're not the only ones. Mind you the reasons and the results are totally different in London compared to Vancouver but at least no-one is going to make fun of us for being 'that city wot riots over hockey'
However in fairness most are on a smaller scale and mainly directed at police rather than properties and such.
I think its difficult for the london police to quash the mobs since besides being spread so thin they don't have <i>any</i> specialized equipment nor training to deal with such large scale civil unrest.
Also NeonSpyder if it makes you feel any better I nearly went on a one man riot spree when the vancouver knocked the sharks out of the stanley cup =/
As a Vancouverite (remember the hockey riot?) I kind of get a secret pleasure that we're not the only ones. Mind you the reasons and the results are totally different in London compared to Vancouver but at least no-one is going to make fun of us for being 'that city wot riots over hockey'<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Me too.
First thought: People under 30-35 willingly opt for Blackberries? I'm tempted to call BS just on that alone. Only people I know with a BB have to carry them for work, or are old.
Second thought: At least the odds of shooting/stabbing casualties are fairly low, given the retardedly-draconian laws about carrying even pocketknives.
Third thought: I wonder how many of the rioters are wearing Guy Fawkes masks.
First thought: People under 30-35 willingly opt for Blackberries? I'm tempted to call BS just on that alone. Only people I know with a BB have to carry them for work, or are old.
Second thought: At least the odds of shooting/stabbing casualties are fairly low, given the retardedly-draconian laws about carrying even pocketknives.
Third thought: I wonder how many of the rioters are wearing Guy Fawkes masks.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's funny indeed that poor folks buy Blackberries but they are popular among younger people.
I wonder if this is what the US will look like in 10-15 years. It probably depends how much ###### my generation of Republicans and the older generation try to pull with austerity measures.
I'm suspecting that it's a news misrepresentation where they actually mean smartphones and twitter/other social medias stuff (The one report I saw only mentioned twitter).
That, or the pearl/curve/whatever the new 'hip' BB is, is surprisingly popular in London (and I have no idea why they would be).
I'm hoping we hear some actual news, everything I have read has had the ring of "We don't actually have any real information, so here is some random crap".
CNN has been reporting facts without editorializing much which is nice, although I did hear someone compare parts of London to a war zone.
Last night they were talking about the police trying to make small land grabs and push buck the rioters but they do not have the personnel to really hold on to much territory. They said many London residents want police to start using rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons to get things under control.
<!--quoteo(post=1867741:date=Aug 9 2011, 04:35 AM:name=Talesin)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Talesin @ Aug 9 2011, 04:35 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867741"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hadn't heard anything about it until just now; less surprising as I don't watch the news, though for the most part syndicated US programs don't tend to pay much attention unless there's a bombing or a significant body-count attributed to a single individual anyway.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
American news has been covering the riots, you just haven't been watching.
You can get blackberries on cheaper tariffs than most android phones, and the riots are happening in very poor areas of London, places where the removal of EMA and the increased difficulty of getting JSA have really effected the community.
How much do you pay in tariffs for a phone?
A lot of people in britain are kinda annoyed about various things, it's sort of what happens if you live here long enough, most people of course aren't inclined to be violent about it, but there's quite a few who would be glad of an excuse to smash stuff up and shout and run around being a nuisance and generally protest the government and the world in a relatively difficult to ignore way.
The idea that people will just take an excuse to go riot doesn't seem odd to me. I'd be angry if I had to live in london.
Is my assessment accurate and CNN is just avoiding the issue or am I wrong?
Also I am not aware of it being racially motivated, it's just people rioting for the sake of it, you get idiots who like to do stuff like that all over the country regardless of race.
Skin colour isn't as big of a thing here as it is in america, we prefer to hate people because they are immigrants rather than because their skin is the wrong colour.
Is my assessment accurate and CNN is just avoiding the issue or am I wrong?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->It's not primarily racially motivated. In London I'm not exclusively seeing black youths out rioting I'm seeing a mixture of ethnicities, predominantly black and caucasian. I'm quite angry at some prominent spokespeople for the black community such as Darcus Howe who are using these incidents as an axe to grind about racial targeting by the police. I don't doubt that young blacks are stopped more than others and I don't doubt there is a strong sense of injustice there. I also don't agree with stop and search powers as they currently stand, but this is not predominantly about race. On the surface there seems to be a mixture of opportunism, young-buck thrill-seeking and hatred towards the police (or the authority they stand for) fuelling things, but it seems the biggest issue is that the only way a lot of these young people have to keep status among their peers is to act big and join in with whatever the group is doing which, due to the continual erosion of provisions for the youth over many decades, is not in any way healthy or enriching. I genuinely believe that the odds are stacked against people from these communities and you have to work harder than average to elevate yourself from that position. Some are able to do that, but few ever strongly desire to invest back into their own communities because the community itself is so diluted.
That's what's deeply saddening about this all: they are literally ###### on their own doorstep. They may be flailing wildly against the powerlessness they feel within society, but they're actually making their own situation much, much worse. They have got the attention of the media and there will be discussion at length about the deep-rooted problems from which these riots stem, but this has to stop.
The damage done to their own communities and the larger community of England is detrimental to their own quality of life in the short and crucial term. The destruction and disruption caused so far is estimated at a <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b698df80-c28d-11e0-9ede-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1UZEsibZ9" target="_blank">£100 million</a>, a bill to be footed by the Police Force (which ultimately means the UK tax payer). Not everyone in the areas affected will be covered by riots in their insurance plans, many poor people will be further impoverished. Even though it's unlikely that insurance in general will go up nationally, according to PWC it could well do for those "worse affected areas".
Long-term, this will likely mean what's been happening in the past will go on unchecked. The poorer areas will get poorer with less companies willing to invest in business there. That means more likelihood of petty, or possibly more organised crime, and less money from local residents to put into the local government piggy bank in order to make improvements. The Olympics, up until now for the poorer parts of London's East End a catalyst for regeneration of infrastructure and outside investment into the local economy, are now a less appetising prospect for tourists in 2012 after outbreaks in Newham (Stratford, Canning Town) and neighbouring borough Hackney and Tower Hamlets (Bethnal Green). It's a downward spiral, and not one that needs accelerating during this prolonged economic crisis. Certainly not after the US's recent credit rating downgrade, which will have damaging repercussions worldwide and would already have been felt in the UK if this domestic trouble were never to have happened.
While I know it's unfair to claim they anticipate the finer points of the long-term damage this will have on their communities, it doesn't make it any less senseless or in any way defensible. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that the loss of a local supermarket takes money out of the local community and pushes customers outwards. For the poor, sick and elderly it could mean much more than simply driving further afield to get the weekly groceries.
Lastly, assaulting fire fighters and emergency services trying to help those in need is nothing short of barbaric. This is not the united action of the poor, this are the monstrous actions of a minority with no moral compass.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->We don't actually have many 'black' people in britain, at least, not like america does, the largest ethnic group here is probably middle eastern/central asian people.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->True, <a href="http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=455" target="_blank">as an overall percentage</a> White people made up 92% of the UK population in 2001 (when the last census was published) and the biggest non-White group after that was indeed Asian/Asian British. However, "the 4.6 million people from a variety of non-White backgrounds are not evenly distributed across the country, tending to live in the large urban areas". Even in 2001, you're talking about 1.2 million UK citizens who identify themselves as Black or Black British, <a href="http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=457" target="_blank">most of whom live in London</a> (Greater London's population is estimated to be around 8 million, above Birmingham at about 1 million). I'm sure a lot's changed in the last 10 years considering the non-White population increased by 50% on the previous decade. I've met people from more rural parts of the country who rarely come across a black person within their local communities, but in London this is really not the case. Also, <a href="http://birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite?c=Page&childpagename=Planning-and-Regeneration%2FPageLayout&cid=1223096353755&pagename=BCC%2FCommon%2FWrapper%2FWrapper" target="_blank">29% of Birmingham is non-White</a>, with 1 in every 30 being Black or Black British.
Anyway, I don't want to dwell on the ethnicity issue since I really don't think these riots are primarily racially motivated. I was just making a point about ethnic distribution versus overall population in the UK.
<a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112137-British-Media-Blames-Games-For-London-Riots" target="_blank">http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/...or-London-Riots</a>
<a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112137-British-Media-Blames-Games-For-London-Riots" target="_blank">http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/...or-London-Riots</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Trash. Years ago the <i>Standard</i> used to be good. The Escapist is naive (and guilty of its own form of attention grabbing) to imply it stands for what the "British Media" do and think.
Incidentally London was relatively quiet last night, probably due to the 16,000-strong police presence on the streets (almost triple the usual number). So far there have been 600 arrests here with 100 charges, 65 of which were burglary.