Anyone else affected by London Riots?

[Mr Robert]

The irony is that something similar happened in Vancouver a few months ago which was equally shocking. These 2 incidents show that lunacy is not limited to the third world and proves that even in world class metropolitan cities, if there is no higher authority to maintain order (police), the human race is prone to self destruct.

No, because the third world is everywhere today - the only difference is, it is still chocking in these parts of the world (not really, everyone knows what people it is that will riot, as they always do).

There are too many people in the world today.

 

[Centurion]

The situation has been unacceptable. London was a zombie apocalypse after 3 pm last night. Many shops and business shut due to lack of confidence in the police. I have been hearing sirens every five minutes at night. There was looting about five minutes from where I live. People snatched free phones from a tmobile shop and clothing from footlocker. I am dishearted by the slow and rather passive response by the police. Order should have been restored by the second day.

 

[Wunderkind]

I hope these youngsters and thugs know when to stop. Whatever greivances they have against society and the authorities should be voiced in an appropriate manner. They are using the shooting of the alleged gangster as an excuse to go on a rampage to steal, loot, and to damage public and private properties. It's sad to see London descends to anarchy.

The problem I see is that the British legal system no longer allow parents to exercise their duties to teach and discipline their children without risking prosecution of abuse and domestic violence. One may argue that many of these youths came from disadvanatged backgrounds, broken homes, and chronic unemployment. But god only help those that help themselves. No one told them to drop out of school, or joining street gangs, or becoming criminals. One cannot use those excuses to instigate or take part in the appalling events that have taken place in the last few days. I know plenty of outstanding individuals from minority backgrounds succeeding in their lives.

Something must be done to the UK legal and social wellfare system in the wake of these riots. Make these thugs pay for their actions!

 

[Wunderkind]

Seriously, I think it is in times like these that the government should call in the military to back up the police.

I don't mean for the military to do the job of the police. But the police force is clearly being hopelessly outnumbered. The police should do their job while the military should be present to back up the police to enforce the peace and curfews.

 

[Centurion]

I hope these youngsters and thugs know when to stop. Whatever greivances they have against society and the authorities should be voiced in an appropriate manner. They are using the shooting of the alleged gangster as an excuse to go on a rampage to steal, loot, and to damage public and private properties. It's sad to see London descends to anarchy.

The problem I see is that the British legal system no longer allow parents to exercise their duties to teach and discipline their children without risking prosecution of abuse and domestic violence. One may argue that many of these youths came from disadvanatged backgrounds, broken homes, and chronic unemployment. But god only help those that help themselves. No one told them to drop out of school, or joining street gangs, or becoming criminals. One cannot use those excuses to instigate or take part in the appalling events that have taken place in the last few days. I know plenty of outstanding individuals from minority backgrounds succeeding in their lives.

Something must be done to the UK legal and social wellfare system in the wake of these riots. Make these thugs pay for their actions!

It needs to be pointed out that the age and occupations of looters is wide ranging from goons to professionals. Most humans are not criminals but would commit a crime if they can get away with it. Like speeding, fare dodging, file sharing or not declaring taxes. Crimes a committed every day, every minute and every second - even by good people. The rioting was a archetype democratic movement that was free to spread and escalate because lack of authority. Even normal people joined the looting as they saw stores and shopping centres virtually free to be looted for sixty to ninety minutes.

Without going to political it baffles me how governments have the billions to go to war over night but yet unable to protect those at home.

 

[Gene]

Well,

Pulled through another night in London and still alive - always a good start to the day

Appears the 16,000 police have quelled the rioters in London, but looting flared up in other places around the UK like Birmingham and Manchester- although not to the scale of London's looting. Having watched the news reports yesterday, it looks like the police have finally pulled their thumbs out of their asses and are actually active. You see them charging towards the rioters and dispersing them, instead of Monday night where they just hung dwardling around while looters destroyed things right in front of them.

Couple more nights of huge police presence and things will be back to normal... only then starts the retrospective analysis of how, what and why. Hopefully they catch all the looters - still, its a bit late for those that had so much of their lives destroyed.

 

[K-A]

Pan$y ass law enforcement man. Seriously, this long into it and I heard they aren't even using rubber bullets and that "entry level" form of deterrents yet?

I'd hope if this happened in America, our authority figures would have protected the innocent long before the UK authority is, and would fight fire with much bigger and more potent fire.

 

[Wunderkind]

It needs to be pointed out that the age and occupations of looters is wide ranging from goons to professionals. Most humans are not criminals but would commit a crime if they can get away with it. Like speeding, fare dodging, file sharing or not declaring taxes. Crimes a committed every day, every minute and every second - even by good people. The rioting was a archetype democratic movement that was free to spread and escalate because lack of authority. Even normal people joined the looting as they saw stores and shopping centres virtually free to be looted for sixty to ninety minutes.

Without going to political it baffles me how governments have the billions to go to war over night but yet unable to protect those at home.

I agree with you to a degree. But I think only in times of desperation would people resort to stealing and looting (trying to break into a B&O store is not). Setting fires to homes, shops, and police stations are examples of sheer thuggery.

Yes, I think many Western nations would have to put more emphasis on domestic affairs rather than going to war against foreign nations.

 

[martinbo]

Folks, at the risk of this thread turning into a socio-political argument (I'm as much to blame for proffering my 2 cents) we are likely to have to close it down as per forum policy not permitting political discussion.
Please understand that we allowed the discussion because of its actuality and that we commiserate with the innocent affected by this sad course of events in the UK.

Gene, I'm glad to see that you're still alright. I wish the same to all of our UK members.

So, when this thread gets closed down - you know the reason why.

Regards all...

 

[Human]

S.A. is a democracy BUT we can handle riots! They must get S.A. Police Service riot control, rubber bullets and all. These children has to be taught a lesson that they will never forget!

 

[EnI]

Metropolitan police said they WOULD NOT use rubber bullets, watter cannons, or ask army for help. So ... It's not that they CAN NOT, they just DON'T WANT to. So the soft repression is used not to trigger even greater reaction from the mobs? Is that really the proper solution? Letting the mobs to vandalize & loot?

What will happen to the people with burnt down houses & shops - since I doubt an insurance covers arson ...
What else they can do? Claim damages in civil suits against poor underage individuals? Yeah, right.

As said by some: personal responsibility (towards yourself & towards society as a whole) is obviously gone in some cases. Who & why left those people behind? Is it really their own fault, or not really? Anyway: there is no excuse for such violent actions we can see in UK cities these days. If they want to protest - they can do it peacefully & targeting the ones responsible, not "protesting" by looting & vandalizing private property of innocent people.

 

[Cashmere]

3 killed by car in Birmingham riots: News24: World: News

I cant believe its taking so long to contain the situation!

 

[K-A]

I just lost a lot of respect for the leadership role and enforcement in England. A LOT. I can't believe this display of incompetence and unwillingness to show authority.

Like ENI alluded to, the term "Personal Accountability" needs to be held high once again in our society. Those may be the two most important words when used together.

 

[Monster]

Metropolitan police said they WOULD NOT use rubber bullets, watter cannons, or ask army for help. So ... It's not that they CAN NOT, they just DON'T WANT to. So the soft repression is used not to trigger even greater reaction from the mobs? Is that really the proper solution? Letting the mobs to vandalize & loot?

What will happen to the people with burnt down houses & shops - since I doubt an insurance covers arson ...
What else they can do? Claim damages in civil suits against poor underage individuals? Yeah, right.

As said by some: personal responsibility (towards yourself & towards society as a whole) is obviously gone in some cases. Who & why left those people behind? Is it really their own fault, or not really? Anyway: there is no excuse for such violent actions we can see in UK cities these days. If they want to protest - they can do it peacefully & targeting the ones responsible, not "protesting" by looting & vandalizing private property of innocent people.

I am watching the news footage and reading the reports in disbelieve, this is the start of the backward evolution of the human race. At what point will the police or the prime minster say enough is enough? Will the Queen be bothered to send a message to the people? Sooner rather than later, some innocent parties will decide to make a stand and that will make things even uglier.

Also I am disgusted by the response from social media networks such as Twitter which decides to upheld their misplaced ideology rather than using common sense to assess their involuntary involvement in this mess.

Amid claims that social networking sites were being used to rally fellow looters, Twitter has refused to shut down the accounts of any of the London rioters or to say whether it is co-operating with police.
When asked by The Telegraph whether any rioters' accounts had or would be shut down, the spokesman referred to a post earlier this year entitled "The Tweets Must Flow".
"Our goal is to instantly connect people everywhere to what is most meaningful to them. For this to happen, freedom of expression is essential."

Really now? It is blindingly obvious that these groups of people do not deserve to be given any freedom to further incite more criminal activity.

Looters Tried On Shoes In $157m Rampage

Bring on the London Olympics next year.

S.A. is a democracy BUT we can handle riots! They must get S.A. Police Service riot control, rubber bullets and all. These children has to be taught a lesson that they will never forget!

Maybe the government should send these kids to Afghanistan and see what happens.

 

[Mr Robert]

These punks are nothing compared to the threats that London will face during the Olympics...

Why not contained yet? The police and the government are very carefull not to step on any toes at this point. The people rioting are not like ordinary people and it can be very difficult to foresee what will make them bolt again.

 

[Giannis]

Folks, at the risk of this thread turning into a socio-political argument (I'm as much to blame for proffering my 2 cents) we are likely to have to close it down as per forum policy not permitting political discussion.
Please understand that we allowed the discussion because of its actuality and that we commiserate with the innocent affected by this sad course of events in the UK.

Gene, I'm glad to see that you're still alright. I wish the same to all of our UK members.

So, when this thread gets closed down - you know the reason why.

Regards all...

As Martin put it, we are usually very strict when it comes to political and religious topics, because GCF is a community with members from all over the world and such threads are very easy to get out of control, since there can be huge differences in the backround of our members. So, such threads usually get deleted.

In this case, because we have many members currently residing in London, we decided to leave the thread open, hoping that only facts will be posted and discussed.

So far, with very few exceptions, the thread is evolving quite nicely without getting off the limits. Many members of the mods' team, including myself, have posted their opinion, too.

We hope that the level of the discussion will remain at the current level, or the thread will be locked without second though.

Thank you all!

 

[Mr Robert]

Yeah, in a sense, this thread have no real purpose here.

I would love to discuss politics with a lot of people here (as I do with some of you on FB) but, as said a million times before, this is a motoring bulletin board.

 

[Mr Robert]

There will be rising antagonism between groups and views, that's for sure.

 

[EnI]

"We needed a fightback and a fightback is under way", the prime minister has said after four days of riots.

David Cameron said every action would be taken to restore order, with contingency plans for water cannon to be available at 24 hours' notice.

BBC News - England riots: Fightback under way, says PM

Finally but way too late. Someone will have to also take responsibility for inappropriate (slow & soft) security measures used in the last days.

Also: I'm not buying explanations those are "poor & hungry kids looting for food" etc ... and then we see them looting stores selling jewelry, mobile phones, home entertainment devices, alcohol drinks, cigarettes, branded / designer cloths & footwear etc. Not looting for bread & milk & eggs & sausages. Hungry they ain't. Moral they ain't. Greedy they are - for sure. And since their greed can't be satisfied via legal ways, they are ready to take some radical shortcuts.

Stupid kids today think possessing an iPhone / smart phone (or any other fancy communication or entertainment device) is a human right, and should be accessible to everyone.

Twitter, Facebook - sorry, but using those platforms as a communication channel to plan criminal acts has nothing to do with freedom of speech. And the owners & administrators off those platforms should know that! Same case with mobile communication providers & their offer of unregistered anonymous mobile phone numbers. They provide communication channels for criminal activities. Not responsible for that? Sure they are! Freedom of speech IS NOT absolute - it ends with the rights of others. With a collision with other human right. As always human rights are limited by each other, not being absolute!

I'm pretty liberal & democratic person, but that comes with a HUGE responsibility. Not like some think that being liberal = irresponsible = permissive. Nonsense! Even liberal democracy can not exist without personal responsibility, and law + order + discipline. Otherwise it's anarchy, not liberal democracy.

 

[Michael]

I have stayed away from this thread, primarily because of the forum rules. However, as many of the mods have said, most of the comments that have been made are reflections and observations on what has been going on in London. In addition, many of the members on this forum are either experiencing this first hand, know someone that is, or are relatively close in some form.

It is sad to see the youth use whatever excuse they can come up with to destroy their own cities. I believe in people being able to speak freely and to protest, but when protests become unreasonable through violent riots or destruction of property, it loses much of its own reasoning behind it. It also loses any validity. Unfortunately, though, this rioting was sparked, from what I have read, for no reason related to the original riots (shooting by a police officer?).

As far as the politicians and law enforcement being too late to respond, that is possible and more than likely what has happened. Let us not forget, however, that in times of distress and unforeseen acts by massive groups, the government is sometimes slow to respond simply because it does not have the capability to do so or it is a simple and unforeseen matter.

As has already been said countless times, this thread will more than likely be closed but the truth is that it is nice to have seen it live so long since people expressed their opinions, for the most part, in a mature and reasonable manner.