London Riots

tritiated said:
And these girls give a little taste of the 'motivation'.
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"Showing the rich we do what we want" should not really be that unexpected, given that Britain is increasingly growing into a place where (only) the rich are permitted to show off that they can do what they want - that would not be that bad a reason to riot.

The pointlessness of the whole thing is a bit frustrating for old-school leftists like me, but perhaps Britain gets the riots it deserves - they have tried their hardest to breed a generation of idiot consumers, and these seem to be the corresponding idiot consumer riots...
 
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Britain was becoming more equal as a society up until some point in the 70s and since then has gone back in the other direction, starting to look like America almost.

It's strange seeing these photos of places I am familiar with, all burnt out, I was even living in Hackney until a few months ago, and I am from Croydon. I'm not sure whether I'd be out taking photos or staying inside.
 
CNNY said:
It reminds me of similar riots in Brixton in the mid 90's.
I was working late in my studio in Covent Garden, and took the night bus home to Herne Hill. The bus kept diverting from the route to get to Crystal Palace and the driver kept changing his story as to where he was and was not going to stop while circumventing Brixton. There were road closures everywhere. I finally switched to a bus back to trafalgar square in Clapham, and slept under my desk.
I took the bus through Brixton the next morning, and there was a police officer standing every 5 meters lining the high street. I have never seen so much police in one place in my life.
And no, unfortunately I didn't bring a camera.
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I see that you live in New York now also.
I lived in Herne Hill/Brixton in the mid/late 90's Effra Parade.
Small world !!
 
I call foul play that the met let the buildings burn and just did nothing.
Seriously have you seem the average east end firey compared to the average looter opps rioter.

I think they let them, them being groups of basically school kids on the rampage, do as much damage as possible to draw as much negative pr to the protesters as they can. Takes the focus off of the guy that they shot.
 
daninjc said:
true, but they should know better than looting and rioting. UK is a democratic country and people can demonstrate pacifically in public spaces, as hundred of spanish young people did for days (los indignados de porta del sol in madrid for example).
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Indeed. I passed Pl. Catalunya back in May and the protests were really paceful. It was like a celebration. The Police did act unfairly in my opinion, generating some violence against them.

But the UK riots is a world appart. It seems just plain crime. (I don't know anything about UK politics, though)
 
Well its truly kicked off in Manchester. BBC reports state its Piccadilly area which is devastating as its likely our shop will be attacked

All I can hear in my City Centre flat is sirens. What a horrible turn of events.
 
As one looter (young woman) said during an interview,"We're just getting our tax back, aren't we."

It seems to me those responsible for the rioting are not just hardened criminals, but those disaffected for one reason or another; those who have a reason to feel left behind in this consumerism driven society, the perception being heightened during this period of austerity. Some people do have it hard and struggle to make ends meet and only those without a soul would not empathise during these difficult times; however, I suspect none of these people rioted. Those who blame others, society, corporations, anything rather than thinking, working, or waiting their way towards a better future (i.e. hardened victims) I suspect were rather well-represented.
 
I think that behind the riots is simple failure in:
1. Upbringing - their parents didn't teach them that behind success is usually hard work (aside from heritage and luck)
2. Education - failed to repeat number 1
3. Social system - failed to work on number 1 and number 2

And marketing as the fire starter - everyone need to have the new iwhatever, everyone need to have it now, everyone can have it as it is cheap, everyone need to have it because if you don't have it you are out.

Under no circumstances I am defending thieves but in essence it's not their fault as they learn from billboard and they are just the product of the society we are living in..
 
We keep being told that the closed circuit television pictures will be gone through in order to identify the culprits and bring them to book.

This cannot be very reassuring to the people who are watching their shops being looted and set on fire while the police stand by and do nothing.
 
Vobluda said:
I think that behind the riots is simple failure in:
1. Upbringing - their parents didn't teach them that behind success is usually hard work (aside from heritage and luck)
2. Education - failed to repeat number 1
3. Social system - failed to work on number 1 and number 2

And marketing as the fire starter - everyone need to have the new iwhatever, everyone need to have it now, everyone can have it as it is cheap, everyone need to have it because if you don't have it you are out.

Under no circumstances I am defending thieves but in essence it's not their fault as they learn from billboard and they are just the product of the society we are living in..
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I echo every word you say, but at the risk of sounding like a bleeding-heart liberal, I'd add

4: Ever increasing gap between rich and poor, leading to a feeling that they've very little to lose.

They're wrong, of course, but if as a group the poor and powerless become still poorer and more powerless, then the poor as a group willl riot more. Look at English history in the late 18th and early 19th century (urbanization after the Industrial Revolution).

Of course poverty in this sense is relative: I suspect that 99% or more of rioters have a roof over their heads, and that they also have enough (more than enough?) to eat. So maybe it's time to stop calling it 'poverty' (which it isn't, by any reasonable definition) and to start concentrating on the phrase 'wealth gap' instead. If people start realizing thast they are not, in fact, actually living in poverty because they have only one colour television, they might (but only might) feel less hard done by.

Cheers,

R.
 
Unfortunately at some level of riots it is not recommended to use force as the result will be the same as extinguishing fire with gasoline. Isolate, wait, brake into the smaller groups and then neutralise.
Health and lives of both police and rioters are always on the first place then property.
And the more rioters you need to manage the more police force is needed. It is not easy to outnumber the herd of 400.

So even if it doesn't look like doing "nothing" is sometimes the best thing to do.

Richard C said:
We keep being told that the closed circuit television pictures will be gone through in order to identify the culprits and bring them to book.

This cannot be very reassuring to the people who are watching their shops being looted and set on fire while the police stand by and do nothing.
Click to expand...
 
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