London riots

[Strike For The South]

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news...nd-london-riot

The sad truth is someone allowed that to make it to print

fools

[Fragony]

That's what I'm saying, you have no idea of the real world. All this sabre-rattling about martial law is irrelevant. I suppose the military could and should be clled on in the preent situation, but not under martial law conditions including suspension of habeas corpus and shooting on sight and such. That's just plain idiocy.

AII

He's pretty clear about using non-lethal violence

[Papewaio]

I don't see anything in that video that warrants a laughing smilie. It terrified me. Those eight policemen were in real danger. These riots now eclipse the Brixton riots of 1985, where one policeman in a similar situation stumbled and was then killed:

They kept their formation better then most of my TW units. Look how they are in a W formation with pairs of large shields in the front and two lighter ones ready to skirmish in and out or assist. Look how uniformly they retreat. There is also a line of bright green-yellow cops not in riot gear covering the deep rear (just waiting for the cav to mount a surprise side charge).

The rioters have numbers. But get enough cops with that discipine to fill the street in ranks of three and that would have been a scene from Spartacus with the cops marching right over them.

Stiff upper lip seems to still be in force.

[InsaneApache]

A surprisingly good post from Labour Uncut...

Not today. Please, just not today. Laurie Penny, I think you are a beautiful and gifted writer. But don’t tell me violence cannot be mindless. Or that it is all about catharsis. Not today.

Sunny Hundal, your real and passionate desire to break politics free from its straight jacket of committees and speeches and selection meetings does you credit. But please, don’t circulate any more time lapse photography of people’s homes burning and tell me it’s “brilliant” or that it’s “art’. Not today.

Owen Jones, the working class need a voice, and you are an articulate spokesman. But please, no more hand wringing about the dangers of an “authoritarian backlash” against those who tried to loot and burn our city to the ground. Not today.

Ken Livingstone, you were once a great and radical figure. But no one needs to hear your cheap politicking about your statesmanlike dash from the Olympic awards ceremony. Or your back of the envelope theories about how 14 and 15 ear old rioters trashed JD sports because they are not able to provide for their wives and children. Not today.

Boris Johnson, I’d actually liked to have heard something from you. But instead I had to put up with your spokesman Kit Milhouse explaining why it was fit and proper for the Mayor of the world’s greatest capital city to watch from afar as his charge exploded in an orgy of destruction. We’ll no doubt hear the same excuses trotted out often this election year. If we must. But not today.

Theresa May, I understand being the only senior member of the government, (Nick Clegg hardly counts in these circumstances), is tough. But I don’t want to hear any more rubbish about “policing with consent” when that consent has been brutally withdrawn by a small but violent minority. And I’d park the protestations that cutting thousands of police officers won’t have had any operational impact. For today.

David Cameron, I don’t actually blame you for taking a much needed break in Tuscany. And it was nice you made friends with your waitress. But as you sit savouring the taste of your Tuscan Dream please, do one thing for me. For all of us. Don’t tell us we’re all in this together. We are, of course. But we don’t need to hear it from you. Not today.

There is lot we do need to hear. And lots that needs to be said. About the dislocation of inner-city youth. About the link between crime and poverty. About race and resentment. About lack of employment and educational opportunities. The widening gap between the rich and poor. The politics and the sociology and the criminology. All deserve, indeed require, an airing.

We must debate, and examine, and interrogate. We must argue and enquire and report. We must ask ourselves what sort of society we really want to be, and take a deep look within our own communities, and souls.

We must do all of these things. Just not today.

Dan Hodges is contributing editor of Labour Uncut.

http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2011/08/09/not-today/

[econ21]

Stiff upper lip seems to still be in force.

I have nothing but respect for the police so far. They seem to be in an almost impossible position, acting with skill and self-control. This is an interesting article and accompanying video about how the looters organise a hit and run attack on a jewellers in Enfield.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/au...=ILCNETTXT3487

What shocks me is the sheer number of young people on the street. "Recreational looting" is what Dianne Abbott termed it this morning.

The video below makes me almost physically sick - rioters appearing to help an injured boy up and then robbing him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gex_ya4-Oo

I don't know the full story behind it - who was the boy? Was he innocent or a looter looted? But the inhumanity is shocking.

[a completely inoffensive name]

The video below makes me almost physically sick - rioters appearing to help an injured boy up and then robbing him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gex_ya4-Oo

I don't know the full story behind it - who was the boy? Was he innocent or a looter looted? But the inhumanity is shocking.

Looks like the video I posted above. I got so angry the first time I watched it.

[econ21]

If the previous video showed people at there worst, the following raised my spirit. [EDIT: this was also the third video linked by ACIN above.] An off duty Sky News reporter, Mark Stone, using his i-phone to video and walking among looters asking if they are proud of what they are doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXcI-NL3Tro

He later was chased by looters. The man is my hero.

The other thing - apart from his insane bravery - to raise a dry smile was his comment about Waterstone's, the bookshop, not having been targeted. If the looters had been interested in reading, they would not have been looters.

[classical_hero]

Holland-England cancelled, is there anything you brits won't do to avoid certain defeat, even if it is friendly

If these riots affect the EPL, then I say haul all of the off to prison.

[Fragony]

Go Turks http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2...n-riots-london

[PanzerJaeger]

So what are the ROE's here? Obviously not deadly force, but can they actually use their billy clubs or are they just for intimidation/self defense? I also haven't seen any use of non lethal weaponry in the videos I've seen - may just be an anomoly, though.

[Vladimir]

Maybe they were bored? We had the "slut walk" march here at Helsinki last weekend, which kind of stole the attention of many.

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Tho.../1135268360318

Slut sisu.

So what are the ROE's here? Obviously not deadly force, but can they actually use their billy clubs or are they just for intimidation/self defense? I also haven't seen any use of non lethal weaponry in the videos I've seen - may just be an anomoly, though.

They can blow REALLY loud on their whistles and use profanity. Extreme measures indeed.

[Furunculus]

good article from the kings of war:

http://kingsofwar.org.uk/2011/08/the...iety%E2%80%99/

[PanzerJaeger]

http://www.twitvid.com/4JTZH

[Furunculus]

comon panzer, some kind of heading or explanation of the link would be nice........... :)

[PanzerJaeger]

comon panzer, some kind of heading or explanation of the link would be nice........... :)

Sorry, I thought I put it in video tags... or maybe it doesn't accept twitter videos. It's a somewhat heartening video of a woman amongst the looters lecturing them on the unseemliness of their ways. Pulled it from the comments section of your above article, by the way.

[HoreTore]

Why can't every englishman have that accent?

[Adrian II]

good article from the kings of war:

http://kingsofwar.org.uk/2011/08/the...iety%E2%80%99/

I like this one from The Guardian better.

AII

[Kagemusha]

These rioter/ looters need their faces kicked in. If the majority would have balls like the Turkish shop owners, this would not be happening.

[Greyblades]

All this ruckus going down in old london town and yet here in essex, the birth place of the chav, it's as quiet as the grave. I belive this is an apropriate situation to call ironic, no?

[Furunculus]

I like this one from The Guardian better.

AII

that was a good article from the guardian. cheers.

[Adrian II]

All this ruckus going down in old london town and yet here in essex, the birth place of the chav, it's as quiet as the grave. I belive this is an apropriate situation to call ironic, no?

G'won, whip out your burberry then

AII

[naut]

Time to call in Gene Hunt?

[Fragony]

These rioter/ looters need their faces kicked in. If the majority would have balls like the Turkish shop owners, this would not be happening.

If the English police is anything like the Dutch one, if they had the same cojones they would be arrested on the spot. They don't look like Turks by the way, I think they are Pakistani's

[drone]

Sound like the Turks are London's Koreans. Good for them.

[Vladimir]

Time to call in Gene Hunt?

I liked this show. Harry Wolf. I like that name.

Wait, is that Master? He's going to kill us all

[Major Robert Dump]

Just a question:

In the area where the lotting started and spread to, are the shop owners and employees locals or are they from other nieghborhoods?

I always get a kick out of people fighting the man by destroying their own neighborhoods and stealing from their neighbors to "get their taxes back" that they probably never paid in the first place. If you want to steal your txes back, go loot a government office, not Joes Liquor.

[tibilicus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14458424

Here is the face of the riots.

[Furunculus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14458424

Here is the face of the riots.

lol, chippy peasants!

[econ21]

In the area where the lotting started and spread to, are the shop owners and employees locals or are they from other nieghborhoods?

My impression is that when it first started, it was locals robbing their own area (Tottenham). However, when people saw they could loot for several hours unimpeded, it spread and when it spread, many different areas were targeted. Some areas were fairly affluent (e.g. Ealing) so I doubt the looters were local. In Birmingham and Nottingham, there were attacks on city centre shops which are essentially in non-residential areas (the Bullring and Victoria centre respectively). I think that is why it has been hard to police - if it were very localised, the police could swamp the area. But whenever the police went in force to one area, looters struck others left unpoliced.

[Vladimir]

lol, chippy peasants!

"Bot-l"

Why you tottering fensuch dewberry... Stay here while I go find something to strike you with!