Riots

[R-F]

So, as riots spark across England (Nottingham, Bristol, London, Liverpool, AT THE VERY LEAST), I'm wondering how everyone else is feeling about this.

I can't blame anyone, really. If you're not middle class or above (and I'm sure a few people who ARE middle class are feeling it, too), you'll be really feeling how the government is slowly making the working classes poorer. Trust me when I say that people are down about 10-30% of their income (in a time when food prices are soaring, especially meat, time for some blind stew?) and that's pretty much ONLY because of the government.

What about you guys?

EDIT: Pretty much the feelings of the working classes up and down the country.
EDIT2: UK 'one of worst countries for social mobility'.

[westyfield]

Here's a video of Nick Clegg (Deputy PM, for the non-Brits reading) in December 2010 saying that riots are possible if the spending cuts go ahead.
Here's Theresa May (Home Secretary) saying that the police force's budget can be cut without increasing crime rates or risking violent unrest, because "The British public don't simply resort to violent unrest in the face of challenging economic circumstances."

[Xercies]

Yep its people who are poor and come from broken homes, lets just continue this riot other people have made. It is opportunistic, but I think it also is a little bit of an anger backlash towards the government and the people.

[Ian]

A succession of governments have failed a lot of people, but that doesn't excuse entirely criminal behaviour. Paramedics and firemen and the like getting attacked, local businesses getting ransacked and burned down, people getting mugged. It's horrendous. If there was any honest anger at the beginning of this, from the outside it rapidly looks to just be becoming an excuse to vandalise and steal stuff.

[Althea]

Down with the government!
Down with the toffs!
Down with the educated-but-distant polo players in the House of "Commons"!
Down with the bourgeoisie!

[Ian]

Down with people who don't think it's okay to just nick stuff!

[Harlander]

A succession of governments have failed a lot of people, but that doesn't excuse entirely criminal behaviour.

To explain is not to excuse.

[Bob_Bobson]

Down with the thin layer of civility we base our social order on!

Oh, wait, no, we were using that for not getting mugged and such. If anarchy becomes widespread enough then do conformists switch to doing things in an arachistic fashion and if so does anarchy become conformity?

[Althea]

I don't agree with what they're doing. It's gone from a protest to wanton vandalism and pointless theft.

I won't call it "criminal activity" as protesting probably counts as a criminal activity (Disturbing the peace or something daft), plus it deserves to be called Chav Shittiness.

[Ian]

I'd agree that protest in itself that's criminal (as you say, it probably is technically) it's the escalation into..... well, this.

To explain is not to excuse.

I agree. A lot of people are unfairly being deemed hand-wringing, bleeding hearts for not demanding that those involved be flogged to within an inch of their life.

My comment was more directed at those actually doing it rather than the people talking about why it's happening.

[laneford]

[Ian]

My favourite bit is when she says "You're pissing me the fuck off."

[deano2099]

It's opportunistic BUT people who feel they have a stake in the future don't smash up their own town.

[Althea]

I think everyone's in a bad position with this, but some will come out of this worse than others.

The police, as someone else has noted here but perhaps in a different topic, are damned if they approach rioters, but they're damned if they don't. They apparently hit a 16 year old girl with their batons, but you know some people (i.e. Daily Mail readers) are going to say it's barbaric. What, are they supposed to go "Sorry, love, have you got some ID before we hit you?"? They can't take those risks! If she was throwing things at them, as she supposedly was, then she was using violence and they thwacked her back.

David Cameron and, shockingly, Boris Johnson look absolutely terrible, too. Both didn't want to come back from their holidays, but relented on day three. I don't think they'll do anything at all, except Boris will say it's shameful and David Cameron will go on about hugging hoodies, how he met a riot once and then make some hollow gestures and basically look like the giant cock that he is. But if they didn't come back from holiday, we'd be going "Well, where's the Tory bell end? Oh, yeah, sunbathing." or something along those lines. They're both damned if they come back, damned if they don't.

As laneford's video mentions, it's just wanton vandalism and violence. We don't know what the cause was, we don't know what they're fighting for. Maybe it's just social tension ignited, I don't know, but the people are going after the wrong businesses. Yeah, capitalism is a load of rubbish, but if you're going to attack it, then go after the people who make the money, not the people just trying to live. If you hate the police, then protest them. If you hate the lack of jobs, go shout at the mortgage people and the loan sharks, don't destroy a flipping Foot Locker. I bet hundreds of people, in three days, have lost their homes, jobs and so forth, all due to a bunch of idiotic yobs. Fairness doesn't come into it.

I've heard the family of the man who was shot say "He shouldn't be remembered as a gangster, he was a family man", which caused me to burst out laughing. I think they should remember him as a family man, but you can't gloss over things like gang warfare. They divide communities, promote crime, and do a lot of destruction. OK, yes, I'm sure there are some positive aspects to organised crime (I haven't thought of them yet, but I'm sure there's at least one. Don't they tend to keep their problems to themselves and involve the public as little as possible or something like that?), but at the end of the day, he made his choices and he likely caused others to suffer for them. Mourn the loss of his potential, but don't forget his crimes. That's just as dangerous, in my opinion.

Personally, though, I think it's one of those things that's bound to happen. I predicted riots a few years ago, and it turns out I'm half-right.

[Alex Bakke]

Why can't the title of that video simply be 'Truly extraordinary speech by fearless woman'?

[Ian]

I imagine because of the number of people saying "IT'S ALL THE IMMIGRANTS INNIT?", but I do agree that it seems a bit unnecessary.

[Harlander]

OK, yes, I'm sure there are some positive aspects to organised crime (I haven't thought of them yet, but I'm sure there's at least one. Don't they tend to keep their problems to themselves and involve the public as little as possible or something like that

Organized criminals often do a lot of public philanthropy (take the Yakuza's efforts after the Fukushima disaster as an example) which raises their standing in the community - enough, it seems, for people to have a bit of a rose-tinted view of their careers.

[laneford]

To be fair, she does identify herself and those others as "black people". But I agree in the main yes.

[laneford]

However this is my new favourite.

[Ian]

Brilliant. :D