That makes me ill.
I live in south west london in a pretty good area and coming back from the gym today saw that the local petrol station had been cordened off by police. Someone had smashed in the front door, not sure if anything was taken.
I agree with a lot of what others have said, it seems the intial riots were a product of resententment on the part of cerain poorer communities that had been building up for years. Since then, the majority of trouble seems to just be opportunists, looking to make some money out of the chaos. There’s no political motive there, its just a bunch of assholes taking advantage of their own local communities. Pathetic really!
And as for the incident at the end of the road, like i said, i live in pretty decent area, miles away from any of the riots, yet this happens, obviously a bunch of kids who saw some of the violence on TV and thought we’ll have a bit of that.
Just shows the state the country’s in at the momemnt, pretty sad really. Very reminiscent of the riots in Paris 2005.
I think this situation has been coming for a long time. 13 years of a labour government, and the belief that everyone needs a degree has lead to move away from more vocational qualifications, and an unhealthy stigma in regard to apprenticeships.
There is a class system in this country, no matter how the government may try to insist otherwise. There will always be those who have, and there will always be those who have not. The flawed welfare system has lead to resentment from those who have not for a number of reasons:
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In hard economic times, the people at the extremes of the income scale are always hit hardest. Those at the high end of the scale have the financial capacity to deal with these changes, whereas those at the low end do not to the same extent.
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The recent economic mess has been widely perceived to be the fault of the high earners, with the bankers providing a convincing scapegoat onto which the blame for a fundamentally flawed/broken economic system can be shifted. This has clearly created resentment from those less financially able, as because of the high earners perceived failings, they are having to pay more taxes.
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The election of a conservative government, have inherited the country in a mess, and in need of some drastic changes. These changes will have to come mainly in the form of cuts, else we fall deeper into the financial black hole. You can’t spend money to make money if the money isn’t yours to spend in the first place. These cuts will affect public services, which again the lower classes will use the most. More resent.
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Political point scoring from the opposition in regard to cuts that are neccessary because of their failings. Creates feelings of social unrest, coupled with the history of the tories being less than fair to the working class. Unnecessary in times when the politicians should be showing solidarity for the good of the country.
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In good economic times, “boom times” if you will, due to the right to free movement within the EU results in many foreign workers coming to the UK to look for work. And why shouldn’t they, see as the jobs they take are the ones which the working class is too lazy to do, because before the recession, you could actually make more money cheating the benefit system, than working for minimum wage. But the feeling that “THEY TOOK OUR JOBS” is still going to remain, the fact they were too lazy to do them in the first place is irrelevant.
Without the jobs/the drive to do the jobs that are available, and the now flawed higher eduction system in regard to alternatives to degree level qualifications, plus the financial incentive to not work, we end up with an idle working class with no respect due to the reasons in my previous post; no prospects, and really very little purpose in the conventional sense of the word.
[quote]dre1986 wrote:
I live in south west london in a pretty good area and coming back from the gym today saw that the local petrol station had been cordened off by police. Someone had smashed in the front door, not sure if anything was taken.
I agree with a lot of what others have said, it seems the intial riots were a product of resententment on the part of cerain poorer communities that had been building up for years. Since then, the majority of trouble seems to just be opportunists, looking to make some money out of the chaos. There’s no political motive there, its just a bunch of assholes taking advantage of their own local communities. Pathetic really!
And as for the incident at the end of the road, like i said, i live in pretty decent area, miles away from any of the riots, yet this happens, obviously a bunch of kids who saw some of the violence on TV and thought we’ll have a bit of that.
Just shows the state the country’s in at the momemnt, pretty sad really. Very reminiscent of the riots in Paris 2005. [/quote]
Great post.
I have also thought about the Paris riots. It wasn’t on that scale though.
I said the same in PWI. But you are more eloquent than me 
Above post…
Good post, well reasonned. There is a shed load of resentment right here and not just amongst the ‘lower’ classes (ok read socio-economic groups) …as a relatively middle class worker (and public sector) too i feel that the part of society that i am part of is bearing the economic brunt of everything ie higher taxation, wage freeze, job losses, pension contributions up and pension benefits slashed—ok bankers are an easy target simply because of the ridiculous bonus payouts while it is the rest of us who will be paying off the fallout from their greed and incompetence.
No i am not justifying the riots but i can feel the underlying resentment and anger festering in this country right now.
[quote]big nurse wrote:
Above post…
Good post, well reasonned. There is a shed load of resentment right here and not just amongst the ‘lower’ classes (ok read socio-economic groups) …as a relatively middle class worker (and public sector) too i feel that the part of society that i am part of is bearing the economic brunt of everything ie higher taxation, wage freeze, job losses, pension contributions up and pension benefits slashed—ok bankers are an easy target simply because of the ridiculous bonus payouts while it is the rest of us who will be paying off the fallout from their greed and incompetence.
No i am not justifying the riots but i can feel the underlying resentment and anger festering in this country right now. [/quote]
Half of these kids are not even of the legal working age. Whilst there are no doubt some with legitimate anger, the vast majority are opportunistic thieves. I work with kids like these on a daily basis. Trust me when I say that they have minimal political awareness.
[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:
[quote]dre1986 wrote:
I live in south west london in a pretty good area and coming back from the gym today saw that the local petrol station had been cordened off by police. Someone had smashed in the front door, not sure if anything was taken.
I agree with a lot of what others have said, it seems the intial riots were a product of resententment on the part of cerain poorer communities that had been building up for years. Since then, the majority of trouble seems to just be opportunists, looking to make some money out of the chaos. There’s no political motive there, its just a bunch of assholes taking advantage of their own local communities. Pathetic really!
And as for the incident at the end of the road, like i said, i live in pretty decent area, miles away from any of the riots, yet this happens, obviously a bunch of kids who saw some of the violence on TV and thought we’ll have a bit of that.
Just shows the state the country’s in at the momemnt, pretty sad really. Very reminiscent of the riots in Paris 2005. [/quote]
Great post.
I have also thought about the Paris riots. It wasn’t on that scale though.
I said the same in PWI. But you are more eloquent than me :)[/quote]
haha thank you sir
Krebs–for sure i agree that there is total opportunism here, no way justifying that. If anyone should be kicking off here it’s not them that are already getting every benefit going but those of us that are paying for it all.
[quote]dre1986 wrote:
haha thank you sir [/quote]
Did you…just call me… SIR???
Hahaha!!! Ok.
[quote]rugggby wrote:
[quote]polo77j wrote:
[quote]krebcycle wrote:
[quote]Goodfellow wrote:
[quote]jasmincar wrote:
If this would happen in my little town I would enjoy being some sort of counter-rioter. I don’t know if I would really do it though.
Does anyone know why they are rioting?[/quote]
The funny thing is that you will probably be arrested before the rioters lol
Some thug shot at a policeman, so the police fired back and killed him, thats what started it.[/quote]
Apparently there was looting about to kick off in Dalston (NE London) but all the Turkish community were waiting with bats for potential looters! I think there is some vigilante stuff going on, but it’s not getting reported at the risk of London turning into a battleground![/quote]
Doesn’t this feel a bit scripted? I mean a year before the Olympics and all … oh look there’s looting … now look how well we’ve pulled everyone together for this uniting joyous international event! I swear this is what it feels like[/quote]
Well you are a fucking idiot then. Try being in the middle of it, seeing your community getting smashed by thugs, and then you will know what it feels like.[/quote]
A fucking idiot? Wow, thanks, I don’t think anyone’s felt that strongly about me in a long time … I was beginning to think no one cared 
[quote]rugggby wrote:
There is a video going around, with someone that looks like a tourist in a bloody heap on the floor, clearly attacked, with one thug helping him up, whilst others steal from his back pack.[/quote]
Seeing that I am ashamed to be English.
Actually I’m ashamed to be human.
Disgusting behaviour. No amount of poverty justifies this.
Ok i’ve seen alot of analysis of the situation, reasons why this happened etc.
Basically its like a forest fire, it takes a long hot summer to dry out the forest, but all it takes is one spark, spreads like wild fire and the whole thing goes up in smoke. The long hot summer for london is poverty, unemployment, and high density of people and crime in these estates where alot of streetwise and opportunistic youths are competing to climb out of that shit hole, or be king of it, no matter the cost.
At the end of the day most people are just highly evolved animals, the link to instinctive behaviour is hard-wired into their brains from millions of year of evolution.
One of these behaviours is mob mentality, what started out as a single spark (the shooting) and then the inital reaction (police cars burnt outside a station after a protest), evolved into criminal vandalism and looting. The looting is an organized response by criminals to capatilize on the chaos, and the rioting that creates this chaos is feeding and creating the right conditions in which to carry out these acts.
Fact is people don’t feel responsible for their own individual actions and will assume that mob mentality and common aim because its in human nature, and is probably quite thrilling to your average thug.
We know the system is broken, we all helped create it, and its not going to change anytime soon either. I’m just outraged at how impotent the police seem in the face of it, after all when buildings start to get burnt down, innocents, women, and children could die.
Sometimes sh*t just happens you know…
Point #5 reminds me of a docu I watched a few years ago. In it the guy explains, " England is, traditionaly a country of shops, however no one born in this country wants to work on weekends or late at night, people from other countries will and do". The point he was trying to make I belive was that you can’t bitch about all the foreigners taking over when you aren’t willing to do the job yourself.
Like many have posted before, seems like a bunch of assholes are bored and this is entertainment for them.
[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:
[quote]dre1986 wrote:
haha thank you sir [/quote]
Did you…just call me… SIR???
Hahaha!!! Ok.
[/quote]
I lold
[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:
[quote]dre1986 wrote:
haha thank you sir [/quote]
Did you…just call me… SIR???
Hahaha!!! Ok.
[/quote]
Maybe he has the avatars blocked, that would be the ONLY reasonable excuse for that slip up lol.
The trouble with water cannons, as someone suggested should be used, is that they are typically associated with oppressive regimes, so I do understand their reluctance to introduce them. However, I am all for the military coming in with live rounds. There are rioters throwing petrol bombs at the police, who are armed only with sticks and shields.
I personally feel that if you associate with a mob that is throwing potentially lethal weapons, then you are accomplices to attempted murder and you deserve the live rounds that ought to be coming your way from the military.
As harsh as it is, a few score of dead scumbags would put an end to the riots for a long time to come. The police are being asked to do something too dangerous: confront a mob that is lethally armed when the police themselves only have weapons capable of subduing minor violence.
[quote]bond james bond wrote:
Point #5 reminds me of a docu I watched a few years ago. In it the guy explains, " England is, traditionaly a country of shops, however no one born in this country wants to work on weekends or late at night, people from other countries will and do". The point he was trying to make I belive was that you can’t bitch about all the foreigners taking over when you aren’t willing to do the job yourself.
Like many have posted before, seems like a bunch of assholes are bored and this is entertainment for them.
[/quote]
Exactly what I was getting at. South park did that one brilliantly I believe, except with “coffee coloured people from the future”.
[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
The trouble with water cannons, as someone suggested should be used, is that they are typically associated with oppressive regimes, so I do understand their reluctance to introduce them. However, I am all for the military coming in with live rounds. There are rioters throwing petrol bombs at the police, who are armed only with sticks and shields. I personally feel that if you associate with a mob that is throwing potentially lethal weapons, then you are accomplices to attempted murder and you deserve the live rounds that ought to be coming your way from the military. As harsh as it is, a few score of dead scumbags would put an end to the riots for a long time to come. The police are being asked to do something too dangerous: confront a mob that is lethally armed when the police themselves only have weapons capable of subduing minor violence.
[/quote]
I just spoke to my cousin about this who is old bill in bexley. She said they can’t do anything like that until the law is changed. The police shoot to kill, they dont shoot to maim. So they can’t be brought in without law being changed.
Meh i dunno if i even responded to that properly, my head is in a spin with all this.
If the police attempted to hit the rioters or restrain them forcefully they’d probably be sued and the poilce would be made to look like the bad guys.
A couple of mates and I are going down and staying at a good friend’s place to help clean up places vandalised and torched. Enough talk on social media the only way this will be stopped is if people stand against it.