London's Burning: Rolling thread for the 2011 summer protests, riots and general unrest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y47G-Wa4qfs

so i might not leave the house

Can i have some kind of royalties for the title please?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMa9dMGuX5k

Nice, "c'mon kids we're going to the riots"

Saw plenty of filming going on in E. London earlier. Hipster-cum-war-correspondents.

Hipster cum?

Fucking shitting myself right now. I don't see any reason why this shouldn't just keep going.

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

I don't see any reason why this shouldn't just keep going.

― Matt DC, Monday, 8 August 2011 20:04 (17 seconds ago) Bookmark

yeah the sense that the police have no real control over this is what makes it crazy.

Presumably there's a load of Carling Cup footie games in the capital tmrw. Should add to the fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOTyj501asI

http://birminghamriots2011.tumblr.com/

Croydon kicking off now :(

i get the feeling the police could sort this out but they've been ordered to hold back, presumably as not to cause a riot heh heh

my housemate just cycled back from work through old kent road and i asked him if it was boarded up like according to twitter and he was like no that is blatantly untrue it seems p fine there prolly a diff story in peckham/lewisham

oh shit they knocked over a bin [my internet sucks at the moment and i could only load 3 seconds of that clip]

Riot fuel!
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/08/08/article-2023554-0D5B05CC00000578-899_964x606.jpg

twitter really is the most useless shit in the world.

copy of 'one-dimensional man' in back pocket presumably xp

2012: Guardian reporter Paul Lewis tells the BBC the violence in Hackney is worse than in Enfield last night: "Rioters have control of an estate here. They have set up barricades along a number of roads."

Love the guy on the right here, hope he's still alive?
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/08/08/article-2023554-0D5B075100000578-116_470x585.jpg

Twitter was saying Elephant and Castle was closed earlier, when it wasn't

it is now saying that East Dulwich Road Tesco is getting some attempted looting now

lmfao

when do the housing benefit cuts kick in? 2012?

riots across london in 2012 will be kind of embarassing for the government during its olympic year

David Cameron is really dropping a bollock with this by the way. Second huge, stupid, unforced error of his premiership.

Housing benefit is a massive flashpoint - especially as more poor people are moved out of economically mixed areas, it'll just allow more areas like this to fester.

distrust anyone who uses the phrase "it's as simple as that" about this

Turns out my gf and little lad were in the cinema in Harrow watching Harry Potter when they turned the film off and announced they were evacuating the town centre. He was NOT HAPPY.

lol just saw a looter, he was about twelve years old

Harringay Green Lanes retail park boarded up, literally 2 mins from where I live aaaargh but I think it'll be a false alarm

Harrow? Enfield? Really?

Would just board everything up if I were a shopkeeper right now. Who's going to be out in this?

Stevie, croydon? Which bit?

Round West Croydon station according to the Beeb right now.

"They live in a world of playstations and rap music! They have been weened on this since they left their mothers breast!"

David Cameron is really dropping a bollock with this by the way.

still in tuscany with his private tennis coach, lest we forget

what does "dropping a bollock" actually mean?

I'm not hearing any news of random passers-by being attacked, thank fuck. Not much of a comfort to people whose houses are burning mind.

Ok got it, west croydon outside comic shop, lovely.

No trains or buses out of w croydon. Is one of the least lovely parts of London IMO, for those who've never been.

my housemate has his samurai sword out

just in case

Very very cynical thought: riots allowed to burn out of control in poor areas now to justify complete revocation of any and all civil liberties & rights over period of martial law for Olympics? Too paranoid and cynical?

yes

Simon Hughes is on TV finger-wagging people who "think this is a fun way to spend the summer holidays". FFS.

I'm not hearing any news of random passers-by being attacked, thank fuck.

nah i saw the first tweet about passers-by being mugged for bikes and cash in london fields a few hours ago, then a friend of a friend got mugged http://twitter.com/#!/fransingh

would kinda respect Cameron more if he stubbornly stuck to his guns and refused to end his holiday even if London ends up split into a few dozen anarchist rogue states.

My lols about braving the riots in going to Hackney tomorrow (to sign a lease) have now turned into proper concern. Lousy hubristic cynicism.

"They live in a world of playstations and rap music! They have been weened on this since they left their mothers breast!"

Was speaking to a senior cop about murders in London a few months ago and this was basically his exact line. He was saying "they get nothing but killing from these rap videos they watch on that channel, what's it called...?" I was pondering saying "what, like Channel U or something?" and thought better of prolonging the conversation, then he remembered and said "oh yes, MTV"

:o

Turns out my gf and little lad were in the cinema in Harrow watching Harry Potter when they turned the film off and announced they were evacuating the town centre. He was NOT HAPPY.

― JimD, Monday, 8 August 2011 20:20 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

If this happened just as Voldemort shot Harry then yeah, kids gonna be like OH SHIT

Yeah I got a delayed train out of Victoria, no services going thru Peckham AT ALL and the driver explained we might not stop in West Croydon due to "the wrong kind of unrest on track"

Streathim is weird, everyone is standing outside pubs, shops, talking, warning about riots and mobs - one lady stopped me outside Wimpy and told me to go home because the police told the shop to shut as there was "a mob coming over the hill" and pointed in the direction I'd just come from (seeing nothing on the way) but if we got Brixton overspill last night we might get Croydon overspill tonight.

bet that pig had never heard of the beatles either right

A man has been taken to hospital after being shot in the face on a street in Leeds.

Police officers were sent to Saville Place in the Chapeltown area of the city on Monday evening.

A police spokesman said they had few details of the incident but BBC television reporters at the scene said there was a crowd of up to 100 at the scene and some were masked.

A police spokesman confirmed one man had suffered gunshot injuries.

PaulLewis Paul Lewis
#Hackney Youth: "I wanted to see us do this to the fucking Feds for years."
5 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

omfg EXPLANATION IS NOT JUSTIFICATION, everyone on the news

riot in new cross a bit of a non starter. went for a bit of a gawk, just some random looters and hipsters w/ slrs all milling about hoping for a bit of drama.

they're not really 'doing' anything 'to' the 'fucking feds' are they

really hate englishers using "Feds". we have our own nicknames for police. you don't have to steal slang from rap records, the beatles were doing it decades before.

I'm sure all those police officers living on the Pembury Estate will be gutted at it being trashed.

iirc "feds" means "people who live above shops" #slang

omfg EXPLANATION IS NOT JUSTIFICATION, everyone on the news

― lex pretend, Monday, 8 August 2011 20:47 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

truthbomb

this is pretty fucked up. how is it that the met knew hackney was going to erupt all day and still arent prepared for it? what a sham. unless theyre just not bothered. maybe if it was primrose hill theyd make more effort.

"really hate englishers using "Feds"."

but the kids using feds dont wanna be using the same slang as old geezers from the 60s

they're not really 'doing' anything 'to' the 'fucking feds' are they

think the dudes setting fire to shit aren't really bothered by what you think

'oh no, i'm clocking up mad overtime, what a personal disaster' - the feds

i was pretty shocked actually that that huge building that got burnt out in tottenham was just a residential block. lots of families inside when they started the fire :|

xxxp looking down their noses at us from their lofty perches above the fried chicken shop.

then make up yr own slang for a new day. americanos being using 'feds' for decades too.

I don't like Englishers using "hipsters"

"if croydon wasn't on the map, it is now" - <3 u sky

to most ppl here though they wont know what on earth feds means cos the majority of britishers dont listen to hip hop so its still kinda 'code' unless youre in the know

media reporting on tv seems to be pathetic and smug so far - no real thought on journalists part into what this might all mean - will see what paxman is saying

lol dg

i don't think 'feds' is that recondite, really.....

media reporting on tv seems to be pathetic and smug so far - no real thought on journalists part into what this might all mean - will see what paxman is saying

― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Monday, August 8, 2011 8:58 PM (46 seconds ago) Bookmark

yeah... he'll know the score.

I don't feel like reading this whole thread, could someone direct me to a good article that breaks down the situation (how this started, etc.)?

Cameron's not coming home. Even Gordon Brown knew you had to cut short yr holiday in a crisis, and he had negative emotional intelligence.

lol i didnt say paxman would be more in tune but that newsnight might have some decent reports

guardian seems to be doing a decent job so far. turns out duggan wasnt as clean cut as made out (surprise) but its all still murky at this point. cant really equate gangsta poses on someones fbk photos with him being a IRL gangster.

of course these fuckers arent coming home! they dont care that much. and more importantly, i cant imagine that their being here would have much difference. obsourne is prob drinking champers.

That Croydon furniture store fire looks fucking insane

^^ this. the one fire engine there doesn't seem to know where to start.

why burn a house in deptford? i mean ffs, that area is POOR

turns out duggan wasnt as clean cut as made out (surprise)

lol i don't think id ever heard he was clean-cut at all. doubt he shot at the po-po obvi.

walked from bethnal green road to roman road just now.

lot of noise and police on bethnal green road but still a lot of shops open. turned corner and immediately bumped into a gang of 20 or so lads heading towards BG road with masks and all that business heading the other way, bizarrely a drunk woman tried to start a fight with them but they weren't interested

roman road was weirder, well into bow large groups of lads congregating near the market and no police present at all, looked right at the beginning of something, so ducked down side street and went a different way

I really don't understand the targets over the past few days. Jewellery stores, HMV, clothes stores etc ok, but why furniture stores? Just to cause havoc?

idiocy

er i meant a reasonable response to EMA cuts

no, no, you don't understand, the guy who owns the furniture store is a tory donor. it was all planned. the people who live above are just assholes.

'people who live above shops deserve to be burned' - lex

my sister is in london :-/

Tesco and Londis in Dulwich have been targeted, suggesting they've inexplicably passed over Foxton's

TS: 'Feds' v. 'Po'

Actually don't mind people using 'feds' which is good otherwise I'd be blowing a gasket at everyone in London 30 or under for using it ALL THE TIME.

If we're all going to be sitting here watching powerlessly, can we agree a 'board' for Police and Politician Rhetorical Flourish Bingo and start the drinking?

star of bethnal green has been hit

im kind of disappointed in the thread title tbh... clash-y

holy shit at that fire on news 24

Why would Cameron not come home? From a purely selfish POV doesn't he want to be reelected? Not looking like a complete clown would help.

oh he's changed his mind, coming home now

Cameron's on his way back so says the BBC

Looters have just got to purley way, talk of allders burning. Jesus.

im kind of disappointed in the thread title tbh... clash-y

― sarahel hath no fury (history mayne), Monday, 8 August 2011 21:14 (2 minutes ago)

Another fucking u-turn, so no surprise there. Also damned if he will be shown up by Boris Johnson returning.

bbc man bemoaning the youths' lack of respect for authority

uhhh given what MPs, the police and the media have got up to of late i'm surprised anyone thinks "respect for authority" is a thing that can happen in UK 2011

Tomorrows Daily Mail Front page?
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/4657398090_7a00a0ef3f.jpg

I can't fucking believe what I'm seeing. I can't fucking believe this at all.

Apparently they've torn the Catford Cat down. Shit just got personal.

cant really equate gangsta poses on someones fbk photos with him being a IRL gangster.

you are never gonna get a job at the daily mail talking like that son

Clash song was called London Calling, iirc. If you want to complain, shit ITV Sunday afternoon shows or gtfo

Apparently they've torn the Catford Cat down. Shit just got personal.

― Matt DC, Monday, 8 August 2011 21:23 (1 minute ago) Bookmark

noooooooooooooooooooooooooo

london's burning is a clash song

Clash song was called London Calling, iirc. If you want to complain, shit ITV Sunday afternoon shows or gtfo

― I am Louise Boat (a hoy hoy), Monday, August 8, 2011 9:25 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

rich herby aroma off this post

http://citynoise.org/upload/12696.jpg

RIP ;_;

still no sign of any police on roman road

UK end-of-season finale has taken a real Lost-style turn towards disconnected convolutions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YItK1izQIwo

Are there no firemen at that furniture store yet? Are there apartments above it?

mayne vs hoy beef the only violence more senseless than whats out on the streetz right now

is cameron's tennis coach coming back with him y/n

xxp it looked like there was one fire engine on the scene, vainly dribbling in its general direction.

especially as i'm not certain why nrq got beef

The Palmerston on Lordship Lane has been bricked

xxp think there's more fire crews in croydon now, but they've apparently been focused on stopping the fire spreading. apparently the blaze is so hot they've had to douse buildings across the road to stop them going up as well.

Will be very surprised if nobody's is killed tonight.

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg612/scaled.php?tn=0&server=612&filename=7mxcyz.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg612/scaled.php?tn=0&server=612&filename=7mxcyz.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640

um

"perhaps now is a good time for a make-over"

babe, when is it never?

in clapham now?!

DON'T feel bad about burning out the homes of people who haven't done fuck all to offend you

"perhaps now is a good time for a make-over"

babe, when is it never?

― r|t|c, Monday, August 8, 2011 9:36 PM (14 seconds ago) Bookmark

haaaa

Apparently a pharmacy and a couple of shops are being looted on Lordship Lane. Has the potential to get very nasty, very quickly. Strong possibility the community there could come out in force to protect properties.

I've never known this city to feel too dangerous to go out in before. Even in July 2005. Unbelievable.

seeing several tweets about turkish shop owners defending their property w/baseball bats

im glad my sister lives in green lanes area

_M_I_A_ M.I.A
im going down to the riots to hand out tea and mars bars #london
35 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

.......

RIP maya

palming my damn face

um^2

Lads running shops down my end of Green Lanes have drafted their beefy cousins in to help defend the place. Clashes between Turkish and African / Afro-Carib kids have led to several deaths over the last couple of years - tied to gangs, not anything like this, but there's an underlying issue there that could boil over easily.

seeing several tweets about turkish shop owners defending their property w/baseball bats

― lex pretend, Monday, August 8, 2011 8:39 PM

also shop defending happening on roman road - still no police AT ALL

kinda love MIA even tho she is a fucking tard

wow MIA punk rock, good work

Short of Bobby Gillespie I can't think of anyone whose perspective on this I wanted to hear less than MIA's.

thnx Merdeyeux

So far not seen people making it difficult for the fire brigades then

I don't see any reason why this shouldn't just keep going.

― Matt DC, Monday, August 8, 2011 7:04 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is the scariest thing and otm - it's like, there's a point at which it's a no turning back situation for these kids

Short of Bobby Gillespie I can't think of anyone whose perspective on this I wanted to hear less than MIA's.

waiting for morrissey

Mike Fisher. Mike fucking Fisher. Like it ain't his fucking problem. Cunt.

Short of Bobby Gillespie I can't think of anyone whose perspective on this I wanted to hear less than MIA's.
― Matt DC, Monday, August 8, 2011 8:44 PM (32 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

boris johnson's?

Bloke is such a fucking arse, wants to shut most of croydon's libraries.

_M_I_A_ M.I.A
im going down to the riots to hand out tea and mars bars #london
35 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

.......

― lex pretend, Monday, August 8, 2011 4:42 PM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark

the tamil tigers used to do this back in the day, actually

Fisher that is, not bojo

Birmingham "unrest" now :(

was there a specific incident that sparked this?

I think all the Police in South London are standing on Rye Lane looking hard?

It's in an annoying chinese whispers twitter feedback loop kinda way but people are saying the Venue in NX is on fire

Looting Sainsbury's in Brum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mliYQIk2WeM

there's a fucking burnt out 236 on shacklewell lane. that's THE BUS I TAKE ALL THE TIME

clapham ladbrokes getting a pasting

was there a specific incident that sparked this?

― J0rdan S., Monday, August 8, 2011 9:47 PM (6 seconds ago) Bookmark

yes -- they police shot someone dead on thursday. but there is also context. a lot of context.

attn other Americans, 30 seconds of navigating CNN.com will answer your "wha'happen" questions

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/08/08/uk.riots/index.html

Morrissey in "OTM" shockah:
http://xrrf.blogspot.com/2011/08/morrissey-responds-to-current-events.html

Performing as rioting erupted in Brixton less than 24 hours after similar clashes in Tottenham, Morrissey criticised the prime minister's response to the incidents.

"Does anyone think that David Cameron has been to Tottenham? I don't think so," he told the crowd.

http://i.imgur.com/KVvgW.jpg

okay the most amazing thing in that pic is the protein powder

Oh man :(

xp

xp, the sports nutrition shops were completely cleaned out.

hogging the tangerine body butter

_M_I_A_ M.I.A
im going down to the riots to hand out tea and mars bars #london
35 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

.......

― lex pretend, Monday, August 8, 2011 4:42 PM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark

she did the same at notting hill in 1958 iirc

*Clapham* is rioting? WTF, did they run out of fois gras?

::more sirens scream by outside::

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

that looter dude's totes not leaving his house for a while now

something for the police to think abt maybe

^^amazing fierce west indian woman bawling out rioters

xp

i like to think it could apply to rtc too

More poor people in Clapham than people think. It's also right next to Brixton.

kit malthouse just called for the police to be 'robust' about 6 times in 30 secs

it's been at least 10 minutes since i last heard the word "mindless"

ebay se14 pick up only next few days should be epic

Clapham is not right next to Brixton. We are in the way. (or at least Streatham Hill is)

haha lex

my sister otm btw

stock markets
norway
OBL
japan
arab spring
east african famine
london riots (student and this)
man city won FA cup

~2011~ man

Rango is a solid film good on that dude

Xbox guy stole halo reach, still got ripped off

Fuck 2011. I've had enough.

Have to be honest, I felt like this at home earlier in the year as it happened under a mile away while The Guardian was talking at length about how fucking great it all was. I'm sorry for you all in your personal problems, because there are real issues for real people, but I've been through it already this year while the chattering classes from London thought it was a right laugh (and fuck me, we had riot tourists) so excuse me if I'm flippant about the whole thing.

Kit Malthouse is kind of the bastard offspring of Richard Keyes and Paul Jewell

The Venue in New Cross is apparently not actually on fire. Not that it was top of anybody's list of concerns, but I don't want to misinform

thank god i wont miss that kasabian tribute act concert

stock markets
norway
OBL
japan
arab spring
east african famine
london riots (student and this)
man city won FA cup

~2011~ man

― nh (cozen), Monday, August 8, 2011 8:57 PM (3 minutes ago)

FORGOT WILLS AND KATE FFS.

stock markets
norway
OBL
japan
arab spring
east african famine
london riots (student and this)
man city won FA cup

~2011~ man

― nh (cozen), Monday, August 8, 2011 8:57 PM (3 minutes ago)

FORGOT WILLS AND KATE FFS.

― Sir Chips Keswick (Merdeyeux), Monday, 8 August 2011 22:01 (3 seconds ago) Bookmark

Forgot swagger jagger getting to number 1

AND JOHN MAUS

xp

OH YEAH.

roman road was weirder, well into bow large groups of lads congregating near the market and no police present at all, looked right at the beginning of something, so ducked down side street and went a different way

who is john maus?

yeah who is john maus?!

Friend who teaches at a rough secondary school in north London just told me that there were pupils there who actively worried about EMAs and cuts but they weren't the ones out looting (about 20 of her pupils are apparently involved). She thought that the general air of economic anxiety was more of an influence on the kids than any specific policy or injustice.

NewsCorp exec iirc xp

i think the "start of something" was the burning and looting of zee & co.....was going to walk through them as i'd just done same on bethnal green road...very glad i turned down lyall road

john maus is best known as the star of this thread: Most tedious thing said by worthless VHS idiot JOHN MAUS in p4k interview

makes music too, i guess.

Have to be honest, I felt like this at home earlier in the year as it happened under a mile away while The Guardian was talking at length about how fucking great it all was. I'm sorry for you all in your personal problems, because there are real issues for real people, but I've been through it already this year while the chattering classes from London thought it was a right laugh

oh shut up you circus clown

Hackney looks like its quietened down a lot judging by the BBC.

is that because it got pushed down cambridge heath road?

(where does Aldo live again? Egypt?)

Still quiet in Bloomsbury tonight.

lol was going to ask if this was still the end of series finale, merdeyeux got there first

Bristol xp

really don't think L Penny and like one other Graun opinion guest dork equals "the chattering classes from London thought it was a right laugh" tbh

Yeah, I just went to get some wine for my game of bullshit bingo and it was TUMBLEWEEDS in WC1. xp

is that because it got pushed down cambridge heath road?

Very possibly - there only seem to be cameras in Hackney, Croydon and one in Peckham hours ago.

My mate in Brum is saying Birmingham Children's Hospital is getting attacked

no idea how sure he is of this

i haven't been out but i've heard nothing about anything of note happening around finsbury park/holloway/highbury

lol was going to ask if this was still the end of series finale, merdeyeux got there first

― Volvo Twilight (p-dog), Monday, 8 August 2011 22:15 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is the start of the second season, like what they do after they left the island/escaped from prison/married chandler

turkish shopkeepers massing in dalston http://yfrog.com/kk9a0wkj

My mate in Brum is saying Birmingham Children's Hospital is getting attacked

no idea how sure he is of this

― MPx4A, Monday, August 8, 2011 10:17 PM (28 seconds ago) Bookmark

the hospital's director of comms says no, although it's all over twitter of course.

I'm in highbury and my street is much quieter than usual, no sign of anything here. Just spoke to a friend I'm Holloway, she was off work sick today and had no idea any of this was going on until I told her, so I guess it can be too bad over there...

im in the heart of new cross...saw so many dudes run/drive down my road after having looted currys...terrifying stuff.

seemed to be pretty late in reporting any bethnal green stuff tho there were crazy amounts of police - tho they didnt seem to be actually doing anything

plenty of fb friends videos from windows on bethnal green road showing people attacking and looting shit (inc star of bethnal green) but police didnt seem to be doing anything, that might have been earlier on than when i was there

didnt see any police in mile end at all when roman road stuff was starting. no police of any kind, still havent heard any sirens, havent gone to end of road to see whats happening now tho

http://yfrog.com/ke2bcauj

Got the spelling of 'loot' wrong.

lady on al jazeera saying that the currys on clapham junction has been "destroyed" and looted but there's no sign of any police yet

there were crazy amounts of police - tho they didnt seem to be actually doing anything

evening in a nutshell

Pff, think what you like about me. We seriously had people coming up from the South East to enjoy the vague frisson of anti-establishment about the whole thing (and not just random crusties). xpost to whoever.

"seeing several tweets about turkish shop owners defending their property w/baseball bats"

as they should. seriously, fuck these kids who think its ok to destroy peoples small businesses.

im just at home so feel sort of at a distance from it all but feels so weird to think all these places i know are getting torched. my dad used to work near mare street. we used to be there all the time. and i was in catford just this weekend!

MIA needs to just STFU. you know you should be quiet when even morrissey makes more sense than you.

i didnt go anywhere to enjoy anything if thats any help to you

BBC news at 10 bringing it with a report on summer music festivals' declining ticket sales.

Oh fuck it's Northcote Rd in Clapham, I know it well, FFS, I bought my own mobile in one of those shops getting lotted o_0 that's getting a bit real now

clapham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqj1N9qeWXI

The Hell is that building on fire in Croydon?

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpmnsvWYTr1qbgy1do1_400.jpg

@Aldo, it is kind of stupid to go "Yeah well, I had this happen to me sometime!" when this is occurring...

The Hell is that building on fire in Croydon?

it's a furniture shop - this one http://www.houseofreeves.com/

Croydon is the old Reeves Corner Furniture store. It is... well, was now, a beautiful old art deco building.

not feeling the bristol = palestine equation posited upthread

basmati rice otm

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/1927/368022872.png

xxxxpost
Forgot the peas :(

looting a store for basmati rice is totally my type of looting

Tesco Value basmati though...

it's the thought that counts

xpost to LBI

I'm not saying it's not, and to be honest I kind of realise how ludicrous my own position is here, but fuck me it didn't feel like it at the time. I had people who had got off at the train station at the end of the road asking how to get to where the riots were, for example. Yes, this is on a completely different scale, and much fucking worse, but you know what? I should just stay off politics threads.

LorenzoAliPhoto lorenzophotography
by ikonika
Feral youth looter locked in Londis by staff in #EastDulwich
12 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

basmati rice guy makes this all worth it

sorry for huge size, but o_0 at this...
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/08/08/article-2023874-0D5B54EE00000578-384_964x1091.jpg

xp likely to be many a dim-bulb thinking they can walk into any shop they like and start "looting", little realising that shopkeepers are used to defending their territory.

whoa so this is the army assembling in bank

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg738/scaled.php?tn=0&server=738&filename=90044631.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640

and this is apparently not on the news at all

It's also apparently a photo from the Middle East rather than London.

haha ty ned

gotta love twitter

except when you don't

someone tweeted that photo about half an hour ago asking if anyone could verify it (ie is it actually from london tonight at all) - not heard anything further so i assumed not

ha xps

http://twitter.com/#!/theQuietus

People retweeting Army At Bank images: those are desert camoflague non-UK tanks & APCs, and, er, that's not Bank, is it?

bank is just office blocks and starbucks tho, nothing to loot but lots of posh buildings that may need protecting before ppl on 6 figure salaries make it to work tomorrow morning

man, i hope that's not some random sap's house ablaze like that

These youths are dumb. If they really want to hit the police surely they should be in st james park outside scotland yard. Not that I condone that, just saying. Feel weirdly on edge about the whole thing. Looks surreal.

I'm ready for when this thread gets into who its "okay" to loot and burn.

Seriously though, this is so depressing to see. Getting so littl attention in America atm, but I suppose that shouldn't be surprising.

what a mess this world is

we stayed at a fantastic hotel right around the corner from Scotland Yard in St James Park

to be fair, we do have our own problems xxp

i do wonder whether it'll move to the city at any point.

That Clapham video from the Sky guy is good footage, but "is this fun? is this fun?" and "I've never seen this before and I live down here in Clapham" lolz.

xxxp: that is about the level of useful contribution I have for this thread

attn k8 - just seen a tweet saying that things seem to be starting in streatham :/

just got home to cl4pton square: three people called within three mins to say d00d are you in a WARZONE, but the bit i actually walked through was quite quiet... more people than usual standing around, helicopter circling (not unusual in summer), strong smell of burning (that is new and less fun)

Getting so littl attention in America atm, but I suppose that shouldn't be surprising.

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, 8 August 2011 22:41 (27 seconds ago) Bookmark

nah yr news is too busy covering girls so fat they dont notice they are w/ child

I'll be glad when they're all back in school!

Sutton. 30 police officers in front of Matalan, all pubs in area have been closed early

the hard-fi classes revolt

this is all daytime - what happens tonight?

to be fair, we do have our own problems xxp

this is partly why its so depressing, because this suddenly doesn't seem terribly off from happening here

haha

holy shit at not goodwin's picture. i have not really seen any footage of this yet.

Yeah, I've heard there's loads of shit going down at the Common. Very nearly went down there earlier to see if I could see Croydon from there (ppl said the flames were visible) but so far nothing down my side street.

Lol@clegg in tottenham shown on newsnight looking completely useless. Amazing no one from govt could turn up on newsnight to talk about this.

Tweets have been saying west Norwood, streatham and crypal have been going off for an hour now, all quiet so far, fingers crossed.

Newsnight panel is going to be mental

Tbh, I'm fine with the Clash referencing in the thread title, I'm pretty certain this has moved well beyond "protests" at this point.

xp "lets get politics out of here" yeah nice one mate

xpost to LBI

I'm not saying it's not, and to be honest I kind of realise how ludicrous my own position is here, but fuck me it didn't feel like it at the time. I had people who had got off at the train station at the end of the road asking how to get to where the riots were, for example. Yes, this is on a completely different scale, and much fucking worse, but you know what? I should just stay off politics threads.

― 50,000 raspberries with the face of Peter Ndlovu (aldo), Monday, August 8, 2011 11:33 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

It's cool, you understand why it is ludicrous. I can understand if you felt when it happened to you there was way less attention you go "WHUT?". But still, comparing things like this seems rather useless to me.

When Cameron eventually does come back every last one of us should head down to Heathrow and set iton fire to prevent the fucker from coming back into the country.

the sun is NOT zooming in

"i'm getting my taxes back" - looter in clapham on sky news

no, everybody shd chill and then as soon as he fucks off back to italy start again, see how long before he loses it

Surely the Sun has a foot in the door now that one of the themes is YOUTHS USING CELL PHONES LOL?

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/large/368009036.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJF3XCCKACR3QDMOA&Expires=1312841326&Signature=gmitq%2B2q5MtzQLwX%2Fa0IV8Wu51E%3D

this is a fucking pro rioter

BBCNewsnight BBC Newsnight
No one from the government was available to appear on #newsnight tonight to talk about the London riots
8 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

actually incredible

All this is making that occupation of Fortnums look like a bit of tea party, eh?

http://yfrog.com/keba7bhj

reports that the Catford Cat lives

Cameron seems incredibly GWB-like in his reluctance to return from vacation.

Cameron seems incredibly GWB-like in his reluctance to return from vacation.

― online pinata store (Nicole), Monday, August 8, 2011 10:56 PM (14 seconds ago) Bookmark

or like the queen in the hit film 'the queen'

round up alter8!
xp to guardian front page

a series of vacations.

can someone parse that for an american? what reason could there be for the gov't not to want to try to control the conversation on the capitol exploding?

the tories have no real constitutency in london, do they? (er but then there's boris) idgi

xp i mean the nobody on the news thing

i mean, it is it a GWB-on-katrina thing, like, who gives a fuck?

I quite like that Graun fp tbh

riot map: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=211457129268955422608.0004aa04a1ce347d28274&msa=0

People retweeting this like mad:

Nick Clegg 'warns' of riots if Tories are elected (11Apr10)

Hurray the cat is safe! Got a real soft spot for that moggage.

i am just two streets from that car, and wondering if i need to stay at someone else's from tomorrow :\

If it moves to the city, nike town in oxford st will be fucked. Dont see it happening though. These kids arent focused enough to think anything beyond shitting in their local streets. They know they can only loot and run home if they do it near to home. They really dont give a fuck though. They realy dont give a shit and it shows. And that is tragic. Hopefully this will wake ppl up to what is happening in this country. Cameron coming home wont do anythng.

the tories have no real constitutency in london, do they?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/region/3.stm

oh actually looking at that i'm not sure how useful it is at all

xps re map

Thanks Lex for that map, been looking for something like that!

Like this: http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/index.php/survey/blog_comments/1447/

http://thewestlondoner.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/london36.jpg

this is all fucking lamentable obv but idk if the 'bored kids on summer holidays' contingent can be easily parsed from the actual remedial cunts burning buildings etc

Gavin Esler just reluctantly conceded to Darcus Howe that there was "a tinge of racism" in the 80s, but it's gone now

FUCK OFF EDWINA CURRIE JUST FUCK OFF NOW

phew, thank God for that!
xp

Nick Clegg 'warns' of riots if Tories are elected (11Apr10)

― Alba, Monday, August 8, 2011 10:00 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

hm

currie so unbelievably shit

all of them

Esler's quite right tho there are no racist overtones to any of the Tweet/Facebook comments about this

It's OK guys, I've just got back from my holiday in Italy.

except for viewers in scotland who have their own programmes

Something is wrong when edwina currie is kinda otm on newsnight. I sympathise with the causes but these youths really have no moral centre. Police dont seem to know wtf to do in brum. :-S

that 'riot map' upthread actually 'people tweeting about riots map', not overly useful.

friend on fb reporting the shop he lives above being attacked on bethnal green road, police gone

these youths really have no moral centre

edwina currie recognise game

Howe didnt get enough time to say his piece. Esler like most m/c media types dont knw how to explore the race angle. The youths burning and looting are mixed though, not just black. Black comunity and police relationship and history is a whole other thread though. Fuck, apparently even notting hill is getting burnt. Just found out my local high street has stuff going on too. Sad shit.

I've missed all news for the last week (through being abroad without TV or internet) and am just wading through all of this trying to make sense of it. I don't think I can remember anything quite like this: I was only 8 when it was all kicking off in Brixton/Toxteth etc in 1981 and from what I remember that was a big deal, but this seems to mushrooming all over the place.

i wasn't in london yet in 81, but this feels bigger than that

more widespread certainly, but no police decapitated yet.

'nother map: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=207192798388318292131.0004aa01af6748773e8f7&msa=0&ie=UTF8&ll=51.536086,-0.056305&spn=0.39294,0.630341&z=10&source=embed

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/mark-duggan-handgun-lethal-weapon?CMP=twt_fd

Xp: the police 'decapitated' was Broadwater Farm in 85

No police killed in 81 either, broadwater farm was later 86?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9eLeZS9OeY

Map is pointless. By the end of the week no area will be untouched. If ilford and croydon are affected this could reach outside london further and further.

I'm afraid so, yes

Ok I sound like a bad sci fi movie character now. Gonna watch anaconda 2 and head to bed.

dunno, rioting seems like hard work to me. On the one hand looking at it today you can't see it stopping, on the other hand I just think they'll be bored of it by the middle of the week.

yeah i don't see it lasting that long tbh. (safe in the knowledge this comment will be hidden under '5 billion more messages click here to show them' by then)

Activity seems to have petered out and it is believed four looters have been rescued by firefighters from PC World. One was trapped underneath the steel shutters with others inside the store.

>_<

PC World has it's own firefighters? And yet no fucker can help you when you look for assistance. Figures.

surprised they didn't try to sell them 20 years worth of fire insurance that doesn't cover you for burn damage

i grew up two blocks from that colliers wood pc world... crazy.

So is there anything to be expected from the COBRA meeting other than the mealy, cliched words we've been hearing all night and that the police will "do their utmost"?

xxp Maybe they were trying to loot a firewall?

"we're not talking about social deprivation, we're talking about lawlessness and criminality!"

...how the fuck do you not see the connection?

lol @ snoball

Ken was awful on Newsnight earlier, so nakedly cynical. Constituency MPs have been better. Edwina still vile.

barclays on bethnal green road smashed up?

So is there anything to be expected from the COBRA meeting

It's just so Cameron can appear as though he's on top of the situation when really he's just going to be spouting more piffle. DCam chairs a meeting, well fucking done.

I didn't see Newsnight yet, but "nakedly cynical" doesn't sound half that bad tbh. If politicians were more cynical about things rather than reading the same chapter of 'Politicians Handbook Chapter One: What To Say When Riots Occur' they might actually be closer to understand all this a bit better.

erm. the tiger rumour. this is another hoax, right??

xp Don't remember seeing that chapter in 'The Prince'...

Yeah that's what I figured Snoball. I don't know if COBRA could declare London a 'riot state' with evening curfews, bringing in the army etc

What tiger rumour Lex?

this suddenly doesn't seem terribly off from happening here

http://www.guernicamag.com/blog/2950/bruce_e_levine_8_reasons_young/

Life imitating Jonathan Lethem novel xpost

What tiger rumour Lex?

escaped tigers after break-in at london zoo, two blurry photos as "proof". pretty sure it's a hoax

BBC News reporting trouble in Camden.From my knowledge of London is that morecentral than any other location?

xps Seems unlikely that the army would be brought in when the police are just standing around dodging rubbish bins. An evening curfew wouldn't do much, probably be completely ignored.

well it's finally happening in kilburn now, and here I was thinking we were lucky to get away.

xxp Snoball I realise that, but it seems like things they would instate to show "they are working on it brb"

I'm just wondering what the whole point of the COBRA meeting is when the police is doing fuck all. To tell the police to do something?

escaped tigers after break-in at london zoo, two blurry photos as "proof". pretty sure it's a hoax

Next you'll be telling me the looted lute isn't real.

geecologist Tom Allen
These people have no morality. They've no respect for law or society. And now they're coming back from holiday @conservatives #londonriots

Gregory
Los Angeles
August 8th, 2011
2:13 pm
During LA Riots, Korean shopkeepers were able to ward off looters by standing armed guard on the rooftops of their stores. Unfortunately, that's not an option for many people in UK who will be made destitute by those thugs.

Ed Miliband to return from holiday. Had anyone noticed he was gone???

mslulurose Lulu Rose
The Youth of the Middle East rise up for basic freedoms.The Youth of London rise up for a HD ready 42" Plasma TV #londonriots

xpost

how hard can it be to get a train back from Filey?

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/aug2011/6/1/a-woman-jumps-from-burning-building-in-surrey-street-london-pic-wenn-109218867.jpg

"A woman jumps for her life from a burning building on another night of violence in London.

The terrified resident had to leap from a first floor window to escape the flames.

A small group of people stood beneath with their arms outstretched to cushion her fall.

The image was taken in Croydon, Surrey, just yards from the Reeves furniture store destroyed by fire."

This picture is weird:

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2011-08/63812381.jpg

xp that isn't real?

hope this doesn't make it to earl's court...or is the assumption that it's gonna go everywhere

xp stock photo

what is COBRA?

as much as i detest all this going on, it made for a dope jumping from a building pic

@admrl, it's from the Daily Mail

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4663369.stm

http://allamerican4np.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/stallone2.gif

So… Ealing, Woolwich, Notting Hill, Tower Bridge, Camden, Sidcup, Euston… but Finsbury Park (my neighbourhood) so far unaffected. Don't see an obvious connection between deprivation and violence in these areas to be honest. Hard to make sense of why some areas and not others.

oh come on the signs in the jumping woman picture aren't even british

@Sam: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_Office_Briefing_Room

Ed Miliband to return from holiday. Had anyone noticed he was gone???

― Matt DC, Monday, August 8, 2011 11:52 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol. christ.

and by british you mean...?

xxp

dorian i just saw a tweet saying it's starting on holloway rd, and i definitely hear a lot more sirens all of a sudden. i thought it wouldn't get here either.

Ed_Miliband Ed Miliband
Shocked by scenes in parts of London and Birmingham. We need strong police response to restore calm and for communities to work together.

Here's a better map:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=207192798388318292131.0004aa01af6748773e8f7&msa=0&ie=UTF8&ll=51.536086,-0.056305&spn=0.39294,0.630341&z=10&source=embed

So… Ealing, Woolwich, Notting Hill, Tower Bridge, Camden, Sidcup, Euston...

everybody's talkin bout
Pop Muzik

and by british you mean...?

i mean they are not a design of road sign that you'll see in britain

Tineye doesn't recognise that photo of woman jumping from burning flat as ever having been published online before. Don't know is that means it's real though.

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/aug2011/6/1/a-woman-jumps-from-burning-building-in-surrey-street-london-pic-wenn-109218867.jpg

um, yeah. that's not even in england. (xp)

top corner of woman jumping from building?:

http://www.mylatania.co.uk/Portals/0/pharmacy_cross.jpg

cheers

From 2005 Paris riots?

money's on greece

Ed_Miliband Ed Miliband
Shocked by scenes in parts of London and Birmingham. We need strong police response to restore calm and for communities to work together.

― MPx4A, Tuesday, August 9, 2011 12:00 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah sure, it's thin on the page, but what you've got to consider is the delivery

money's on greece

― a chaos of crevasses at cape crozier (gbx), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 12:03 AM (2 seconds ago) Bookmark

unwise

this is the green cross, some pharmacy thing...

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQWQWVcG4Ugbeh1z_RgzI_pZpu9zAwa00nVVxB4Il1vihtsfHHt

yeah sure, it's thin on the page, but what you've got to consider is the delivery

just hurt myself laughing you git

i see what u did there hm

same xp

fucking helllll

harrywilkinson Harry Wilkinson
The ledburys just been attacked. Parents were there for anniversary dinner. Bunch of people smashed the windows in and came in and
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

harrywilkinson Harry Wilkinson
tried ripping watches/wallets jewellery off customers. Kitchen staff came out with knives. Fucking hell.
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Boston Globe's Big Picture: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/08/london_riots.html

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/london_riots/bp6.jpg

lol

http://www.filmreference.com/images/sjff_01_img0180.jpg

more Daily Mail exclusive pics

Actually chemist sign is NHS.
http://media.freeola.com/images/user-images/1921/44a-edit.jpg

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/london_riots/bp23.jpg

Aaron Biber, 89, assesses the damage to his hairdressing salon after riots on Tottenham High Road on August 7, 2011. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) #

That's sad :(

fyi this is the pharmacy the woman's jumping from/near, funny looking streetsigns will be the croydon tram.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=reeves+furniture+croydon&hl=en&ll=51.374017,-0.104992&spn=0,0.01929&safe=off&z=16&layer=c&cbll=51.373943,-0.105052&panoid=H3io4SY17KYCfCNlqRAa8g&cbp=12,133.4,,0,7.81

Good work Ledge

VERY Good work, there's no need for Mary Poppins with you around

???

I don't know, it was the first thing that came to mind

(im not rly sure why it wasn't believable that a massive fucking fire was a possible danger to people in its vicinity)

well you know what with all these pics of chinese skyscraper fires and egyptian tanks doing the rounds...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwh8UFJcMGE&feature=player_embedded#at=11

Is race actually being mentioned by anyone in regards to the cause of the riots or the identity of the rioters themselves?

yup. darcus howe on newsnight saying his (son? nephew?) has lost count of the number of times he's been stopped and searched by police.

without actually reading the comments section of daily mail articles, im going to go with 'yes'

xp

obligatory "all these horrible people on Facebook saying round them up and kill them because they're all bastards with no motivation other than opportunistic thieving" post

But is anyone discussing it, you know, sensibly

And by ...

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100100087/london-riots-this-is-what-happens-when-multiculturalists-turn-a-blind-eye-to-gang-culture/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

sorry, xpost

is anyone discussing this sensibly?

Tired of this now, going to watch Amélie and pretend all's well with the world.

Until i turn the tv on in the morning :(

I don't know, are they?

i guess it's been a while since this thread meandered onto sausage rolls or whatever.

looks like yr football's off guys

any gregg's been attacked btw?

the first big fire in peckham was a greggs

Here's a whole series of the Woman jumping out of burning building fwiw: http://photo.wenn.com/index.php?action=quicksearch&ppid=150284&version=int

re: race, wary of that; have seen rioters and looters who are black, white, asian etc all day

All the pontificating about what's going through the minds of the rioters and looters is dealt with quite well here, ledge, drawing comparisons with the Detroit riots of 1967 and how the commentariat got it wrong:

http://charman-anderson.com/2011/08/07/tottenham-riots-data-journalists-and-social-scientists-should-join-forces/

ns_mehdihasan Mehdi Hasan
To all my fellow lefties: remember 'Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime'? Well right now we need to focus on first part of that...

Yeah, I'm not sure lefties will feel too inspired by a Blair quote.

A sure sign that we have entered bizarro world is that Melanie Phillips article yesterday seemed almost... reasonable? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2023596/Tottenham-riot-Why-shouldnt-David-Cameron-ask-Bill-Bratton-run-Met.html

i haven't seen any very illuminating discussion in general of these still-unfolding events tbh

but the left-wing blogs i've read actively don't want to bring in race (via #solidarity in part), and i can see why

The post on the Detroit riots was very interesting. The city has never recovered from them.

monitoring the state department website, are they going to post a travel advisory, IIRC they did for Paris a while back.

I'm here near Plumstead Common and it smells of smoke - I guess from Woolwich High Street which isn't far away and where there is "apparently" a Wetherspoons on fire.

Lots of rumours of riots in Liverpool right now too

friends in woolwich posted this on facebook

shiiit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2HhsQfnTyM

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpmv8jiq301qzpwi0o1_500.jpg

I think I see Altern 8 in there

xp

Trustworthy source of Liverpool info:

http://twitter.com/benschofield

I'm out of the country and fairly glad of it by the sounds of things. Just popped in to say stay safe London ILXors.

there is "apparently" a Wetherspoons on fire

every cloud...

this is nuts

hope i'm getting a tax rebate for all this non-policing

Yeah I think that video above shows the Wetherspoons burning. As the commentary says there is a brand spanking new - and part Tesco funded - council office very close by.

another car torched in the square about an hour ago -- i moved mine to a "safer" street (probbly not safer but at least i won't have to watch it explode)

sense of noise all around, bangs and voices, thick oily smoke

i can actually see the police station from here but i think they're leaving the pembury to its own devices, the sirens all sound far

wish i'd heard from my sister -- she said she'd call when she got back to london, she always forgets mind you

0045: West Midlands Police confirm that a police station in Holyhead Road in Handsworth, Birmingham, is on fire.

hope she phones in soon, mark s

housemate used to live in the pembury until last year. said she never had any trouble but felt watched the whole time

i don't get it...in that clip lex posted...why don't the cops use tear gas and start doing something about it? do they not have guns?

yeah my sis was going out for trivia earlier this evening, assuming she's home now, but am a little concerned

do they not have guns?

― om nom nom nnamdi asomugha (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, August 8, 2011 6:56 PM (9 seconds ago) Bookmark

bingo?

Feel sorry for Reeves carpet dude but a bit sick of him popping up on the news channels with his hang-'em flog-'em rant. It's not like there aren't other things to cover.

xp Surprised you're so down on Ken Livingstone, Matt. He seems to be one of the few people capable of explaining the political context while still condemning the looters - most pundits can only manage one or the other.

(sorry i'm not very knowledgable, i knew they didn't used to have gun but i thought maybe that was an old quaint thing they abandoned or something)

can we have a separate thread for twitter rumours?

Having difficulty trying to explain to my interested co-workers the particular qualities possessed by groups of feral kids in the UK.

uk police aren't armed except for special divisions

they aren't using water cannons etc cos iirc they don't have any

They should use one of these wretched things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsBiTWtrJ00

xp hosepipe ban.

Have to be honest, I felt like this at home earlier in the year as it happened under a mile away while The Guardian was talking at length about how fucking great it all was. I'm sorry for you all in your personal problems, because there are real issues for real people, but I've been through it already this year while the chattering classes from London thought it was a right laugh (and fuck me, we had riot tourists) so excuse me if I'm flippant about the whole thing.

― 50,000 raspberries with the face of Peter Ndlovu (aldo), Monday, August 8, 2011 10:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is preposterous. i was there too, we haven't "been through it already". it was absolutely nothing like what's happening in london now.

jesus so they send dudes out there with helmets and riot shields and billy clubs and...um...good luck mate? goddamn

do you guys have a national guard type thing you could call in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkWtMNBgf48

1) yes

2) no, just the regular army who may be putting in an appearance if this shit carries on xp

water cannons are illegal in the uk at the moment. i think there was talk of them around the time of the student protests.

there is precedent for army involvement (via northern ireland), but i'm not sure if that would be legal in mainland britain.

do you guys have a national guard type thing you could call in?

― om nom nom nnamdi asomugha (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 8 August 2011 19:01 (54 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

its pc plod or the army

any CS gas yet?

(Norn?) Irish BBC News 24 anchor was getting very insistent that we should just borrow some water cannons from Belfast.

0059: Merseyside Police confirm they are dealing with a number of incidents in South Liverpool, including cars being set alight. Members of the public have been advised to avoid Smithdown Road, Lodge Lane and Upper Parliament Street. In a statement, Merseyside Police's Andy Ward said: "Officer have tonight dealt with a small number of incidents of violence across the city. We will not tolerate any violence on the streets of Liverpool and have taken swift and robust action in response."

xp Surprised you're so down on Ken Livingstone, Matt. He seems to be one of the few people capable of explaining the political context while still condemning the looters - most pundits can only manage one or the other.

― Now he's doing horse (DL), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 12:57 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

i can't rly listen to him, because he's awful, but the 'political context' is not exactly something that began in may 2008 is it?

jesus so they send dudes out there with helmets and riot shields and billy clubs and...um...good luck mate? goddamn

do you guys have a national guard type thing you could call in?

― om nom nom nnamdi asomugha (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 1:01 AM (33 seconds ago) Bookmark

lol. you can pretty much count the minutes before the tories bring in new weaponry for police, but this is a big cultural difference we have with the US. bringing in the territorial army (which isn't exactly like the NG, there isn't an equivalent) would be defcon 5 shit.

Best to change thread title to 'UK burning', sadly

ha defcon 5 is the lowest!

Pop Will Eat Itself taught me that.

yeah i don't mean to sound glib but just growing up here i guess the cops not having guns is really strange and also we're pretty used to national guard deployments at almost any major scale rioting/catastrophe/etc

and honestly like the cops here are terrible but at a certain point with this stuff it's like how do you stop it w/o violent response?

@upper mississippi sh@kedown

There are never going to be enough police to keep control if a sizable number of people turn criminal. We police by consent and that consent is not being given just now. It's a fucking serious situation that has messy roots I'm not going to try to pin down but I don't think guns and teargas are the answer because hatred of the police is a part of it.

So yeah, if things get really serious and there's no other solution, we have the army, yes.

great game

useless uk defcon equivalent

xxp well remember that these kids rioting don't have guns either. they're mostly restricted to organized crime/mad farmers.

xxps (and mostly covered already - I am so slow...)

I'm mystified by what I've seen of policing so far. Nowhere near enough police deployed, vans deployed without riot screens, odd little groups of cops sent chasing around the place, it's bizarre.

Thankfully the police are not routinely armed, nor do we have a national guard to send in. So far (as far as I know) no-one has been killed (probably down to luck more than anything)(except of course the one who was shot dead by the police), I can;t help but think if the police had been armed we'd be seeing more people dead.

i was doing a joke from 'the thick of it' (not really but not knowing one end of defcon from another was a joke in 'the thick of it')

you're funny!

i heard from my sister -- she texted but it never came through -- she's fine and it's quiet there

There's a temptation to think that senior police are failing to deal with it as a way of showing the government what happens when you slash police budgets, but it's probably not like that.

I'm glad your sister is okay, Mark. I hope everyone is able to stay safe.

some are saying only 1700 police out?

That's great Mark S!

Heavy rumours of it starting in Salford, Manchester now

are these rumours on twitter?

Yes.... (I know)

xp - ha! yeah, that was my first thought - but it's crazy - police officers (at least the ones I know) don't like to look like idiots, which is kind of what they look like at the moment. Having said that the Federation will no doubt try to use it to their advantage (if they haven't already).

well, they should try to use it to their advantage!

BBC reporting Manchester as well now?

if their source is twitter i'm going to be very disappointed

some are saying only 1700 police out?

― r|t|c, Tuesday, August 9, 2011 12:17 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

I read somewhere 'up to 2,000' which is still nowhere near the number of officers avaialable, esp. if they;re using them from Surrey and Thames Valley.

from a guardian journalist

mrmatthewtaylor Matthew Taylor
by LexyTopping
Police office just told me "we can't cope. We have passd breaking point" #londonriots
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

on that note i'm going to bed, don't want to sleep but feel exhausted.

im worried about the night more than the day...tho i don't know why exactly

xps - I disagree, I think there are enough police and they are, pretty much, adequately provided. The fed will bitch about it, but they always have (and until very recently, always got their way) - if the police get a load more cash from this (which I doubt will happen) it won't be new money but money sucked from other (imo) more needy areas.

"provided for."

"we can't cope. We have passd breaking point"

i haven't seen any of these dozy twats do anything all day but march down mare street. i've been on riots protests more heavily (and heavy handedly) policed than this

Must see action tomorrow night.

toadmeister Toby Young
If any law-abiding citizens in West London are planning to organize tomorrow night to protect their homes and their businesses count me in

what form will that take, i wonder.

looool

i'm going to try and sleep also -- hi DG btw!

bah except car alarm, they probably just torched another one -- and here's the helicopter back after 3 hours >:[

alright mark, glad you and sister are ok

square now full of cops and smoke again, car torched and screaming in their path

.
.
.

its electrics just died: good, time for bed

oh jeez. all the best to everyone down there.

didn't want to look at ILX tonight and get drawn into more constant news. Luckily away but all my people are in affected areas. The gf staying with friends on Mare St, pals worried about businesses in lewisham and people living above shops in Brixton and Peckham. Please just stay safe everyone.

shit most of my family lives on and around lower clapton road, i hope everything is cool there

big outcry to call and reassure family who are either elderly or alone.

Bristol now apparently

that's the thing, i hope my nan is cool. there's lots of family nearby but if people are to scared to leave the house or something idk. i live on the other side of the world, just waking up to all this foolishness

xp

someone I know in London: "The rioting shouldn't affect any games, it's pretty isolated and the police are used to this stuff ... it's in small pockets, all over the place, but it's not like one huge riot" (Sorry for emphasis on football.)

Can it really be called isolated, or is my friend/acquaintance clueless?

Think games have already been cancelled.

i'm just glad we had enough food in the house tonight! every shop and restaurant around here has been shut since the afternoon - all of well street, mare street, lauriston road. even the reliable turkish supermarket that's open til 2 every morning.

Linton Kwesi Johnson's "all we doing is defending" is rattling round my brain all day, not sure if it's appropriate.

Thought this was a very human, decent post on the whole thing:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2011/aug/08/things-i-believe-about-london-riots

2. Rioting is often described as "mindless." The problem is, it's not. I know why the word is used: it expresses our incredulity and sometimes points to the rioting's counter-productiveness - that's the meaning, I think, that David Lammy deployed when he used "mindless" in his strong and nuanced statement yesterday. But people who riot do have minds, and in these lie the reasons for their rioting.

Those reasons vary, and may be various. They will be bad reasons, even when miserably explicable. But reasons, they are. Call them motives, if you prefer. These may be greed, hatred, a craving for status, for battle and excitement and for an antisocial sort of liberty. Some deep, possibly incoherent rage against authority and a safer, kinder more prosperous world they can't join might be part of this story too. None of this is evidence of mindlessness, and to declare it so is to hide from reality.

watching a street in croydon burn to the ground i kinda feel like i couldn't give less of a fuck about what's in the hearts and minds of these little cunts, i just want to see them get a bloody good hiding

Real?

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/full/368168769.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJF3XCCKACR3QDMOA&Expires=1312855628&Signature=b6A8sWLqkwNDNcj8ylp8sjnn1RQ%3D

No, another hoax (which all my stupid not even in the UK friends are spreading on FB)

urgh been on a plane to chicago for the last 10 hours and only just now read loads of panicked emails from friends watching this shit from their windows. stay safe ppl

nothing happening in manchester thank god, literally quiet as a mouse here in the centre. brief BBC news 24 mention of the city seemed to be based on 'scuffles' reported on twitter. pffft...

piersmorgan
What is going on in Britain tonight is a form of terrorism and should be treated as such. #Riots

christ

sorry, i violated my own rules there, but really

good luck uk

^^^^

http://i.imgur.com/iX0up.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/iX0up.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0fei9G72dp3KD/610x.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/066Zbor2Yz81y/610x.jpg

don't understand why these guys aren't in riot gear

that ends poorly

xp

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0bo966ygH76gb/610x.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/02jwaoWdmFd3Q/610x.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/05ija5416W39z/x610.jpg

beetles really took a toll

LOL

i'm serious -- i've either seen like 8 photos of that one charred beetle, or ppl were really taking their anger out on beetles

well yeah all the photos are of the same 12 places

(you know the two cars with the boy on the bike aren't beetles though, right?)

I didn't think I'd get emotional over this, but now I'm sobbing. The place where DH2 premiered is now burned to the ground. #PrayForLondon

Die Hard 2? What?

Its a Twitter thing going 'round about where Deathly Hallows 2 premiered.

Also apparently American people on Twitter seem to think there have been loads of deaths, have there been any reported?

someone posted something upthread about a single death

the police shooting someone was the proximate, yes. no deaths in the riots though.

p.s. don't read twitter.

proximate cause

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_London_riots#Background

i was talking about this

A man has been taken to hospital after being shot in the face on a street in Leeds.

Police officers were sent to Saville Place in the Chapeltown area of the city on Monday evening.

A police spokesman said they had few details of the incident but BBC television reporters at the scene said there was a crowd of up to 100 at the scene and some were masked.

A police spokesman confirmed one man had suffered gunshot injuries.

Get the feeling the details might include "We shot him."

― James Mitchell, Monday, August 8, 2011 3:33 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

but obv it says nothing there about a death

oh right. no that's just normal leeds stuff afaict.

(not a joke)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14449656

charming

The BBC understands the shooting was related to an incident several days ago.

^^^ sounds like code for "this is leeds gangsters shooting each other"

crips sausages vs blood sausages

stokes croft pretty tame tonight compared to april http://www.flickr.com/photos/marieman/sets/72157627266312481/

props darragh

http://i.imgur.com/iX0up.jpg

thought this was walter white at first

Turns out my gf and little lad were in the cinema in Harrow watching Harry Potter when they turned the film off and announced they were evacuating the town centre. He was NOT HAPPY.

― JimD, Monday, August 8, 2011 3:20 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

i love this post

americans following this, you might like to tune in to the top of the hour (i.e. in 25 mins or 1h25) at http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/default.stm.

significantly less idiotic than bbc news on tv, they tend to get much better interviewees.

Surprisingly good piece in... the Telegraph?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8630533/Riots-the-underclass-lashes-out.html

^ Warning: do not read the comments.

well that applies to the internet. goes without saying in 2011.

From The Times:

Dozens of youths laid waste to property hundreds of yards from the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, East London, and scuffled with riot police. They threw stones and bricks across the road and smashed in a bus shelter.

The local Sainsbury superstore had been turning customers away as a precaution since about 5pm The nearby Anchor Retail Park, which includes branches of PC World and Halfords, was barricaded by three police vans and policemen with riot shields.

Very quiet out here this morning, no sign of damage in my walk to the station but apparently the triangle got hit about 230. Heard scooters come past ours around quarter to 2 followed by a bunch more on bikes, the just swePt through quietly and touched nothing, this made it all the more weird. Never known a train so quiet, at least not since 2005.

mary riddell is the telegraph's token lefty, she used to be an observer columnist. i think that's a great piece though. also important reads -

camila batmanghelidjh in the indy http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/camila-batmanghelidjh-caring-costs-ndash-but-so-do-riots-2333991.html
stafford scott in the grau http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/08/tottenham-riots-not-unexpected
laurie penny finding some form http://pennyred.blogspot.com/2011/08/panic-on-streets-of-london.html

fuckin hell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYuMPw6Yi3k

that is fucked

:(

yeah don't watch that, you'll be depressed for days

The guys who nicked his stuff are fairly visible on the footage - you think in the aftermath the cops might go thru all this stuff and arrest people? Like the twat displaying his stolen xbox games? /yeahwishfulthinking

i'm pretty sure they've already done just that

Jesus, wish I hadn't watched that

so do i.

Ferdinand, 32, was watching television pictures of the violent scenes on Monday night which saw vehicles and property go up in flames and shops looted, and suggested the Army should be brought in to quell the disorder.

He wrote in three consecutive messages on Twitter: 'The scenes on Sky news right now are shocking..what is this all in aid of?? Innocent peoples (sic) homes + livelihoods have gone up in smoke-why?

'It seems these kids/people have no fear or respect for the police....maybe the army will get that respect??

'And I am not saying bring violence, I am saying the presence of the army may make these kids/people think twice about continuing this??'

Ferdinand's England and Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney pleaded for the trouble to stop.
Rooney wrote on Twitter: 'These riots are nuts why would people do this to there (sic) own country. Own city. This is embarrassing for our country. Stop please.'

persuasive

^ Warning: do not read the comments

Always good advice, though the volume of comments putting this down to a *lack* of guns is kind of funny, except that evidently folk do believe it.

wait until the poor bald start looting rooney's scalp, then maybe he'll understand

8.14am: This, too, is quite staggering: the Met say all London's police cells are full and suspects are being taken to stations outside the capital (via @SkyNewsBreak)

hearing sirens at 8am is pretty weird.

Helicopter woke me up...they hit Ealing, wtf?

Violence is rarely mindless. The politics of a burning building, a smashed-in shop or a young man shot by police may be obscured even to those who lit the rags or fired the gun, but the politics are there.

yeah this is pretty fucking stupid but idk what i expected going in

quite a lot of violence is mindless

'the politics' are there everywhere if you care to look obviously, but this isn't going to look good when people start getting hurt

Raiding shops for technology and trainers that cost ten times as much as the benefits you’re no longer entitled to is another.

iirc these are schoolkids? ema was meant to fund your studies, not to buy video games </the voice of middle class privilege i guess>

Someone, presumably the Turkish guys, set up a barricade with bricks and bottles to use as missiles on the path behind my house. Wondered why it was quieter than usual.

there's probably more to be said about the science of crowds than the "state of society"...though undoubtedly the latter is what'll be written about.

is there any precedent (in the UK or otherwise) for the copycat riots in entirely unrelated cities?

as in, this actually happening on the same day?

I think France, a couple of years ago.

any way of telling if more expected today? (i mean in places where it actually has currently ceased

xp The UK in 1981, maybe?

any way of telling if more expected today? (i mean in places where it actually has currently ceased

i think the first indications i saw that it'd kick off last night were on the grau live blog in the early afternoon

hard to imagine there won't be trouble but i'm guessing the police being on hyper-prepared lockdown mode from the start might count for something today.

They were pretty well prepared yesterday, i think. They knew things were going to happen in Hackney but were incapable of stopping it.

It took nine nights of rioting for the Paris riots in 2005 to spread outside the suburbs, to Lille and Toulouse.

But lockdown where? Everywhere?

Wouldn't surprise if quieter tonight then bigger again tomorrow but feels unknowable

i think 'fuck knows' is the only legit answer at this point. the police can't actually "lock down" a city as big as london, to state the obvious. i doubt it could lock down even borough of it.

The Times explaining how BlackBerrys work.

Cabinet ministers who have successfully driven through a difficult government Bill, or seen off Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight, will get an immediate "Well done - DC" pinging into their phone. Mr Cameron communicates regularly with George Osborne, Michael Gove and William Hague via text. The Prime Minister and his deputy, Nick Clegg, texted with the intensity of new lovers when they were still in their Ikea-furniture building phase. "It's just too texty," They mope if they fail to get a congratulatory text from the PM the traditionalists on the backbenches used to moan. Boris Johnson was once given an SMS dressing-down after a perceived act of disloyalty. After the Christchurch earthquake, Mr Cameron even tapped out his condolences to his New Zealand counterpart in a text message.

The Prime Minister has two BlackBerrys - a personal one and an official one - so that he can send private notes away from the prying eyes of his civil servants. He is the first resident of No 10 to text. Mr Blair, a technophobe, has only learnt to do so since standing down, and Gordon Brown never texted when he was in Downing Street - he preferred to send e-mails, typed in angry capital letters. The technology did not exist for previous prime ministers.

huh

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/08/09/article-2023874-0D5B22A500000578-684_472x498.jpg

ok wow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v4pcbiO4flY

Any precedent for curfews?

Out of the country right now, it's really hard to follow w/just French TV and scraps of internet. Did they just burn the Greggs on Rye Lane?

Pray for rain this evening, and for the rest of the week.

This is the shocking moment a young man is apparently forced to hand over all of his clothes after appearing to be stripped naked during lawless riots overnight.

Internet rumours last night claimed that on top of the widespread destruction across London and Birmingham, people were having their clothes removed by looters as police attempted to contain the criminality.

that laurie penny piece upthread pretty dreadful ... penny dreadful!

Tonight, in one of the greatest cities in the world, society is ripping itself apart.

not really

Tonight in London, social order and the rule of law have broken down entirely.

i cycled across the city last night from bethnal green to waterloo and didn't come across anything untoward - so, not entirely, no.

Riots are about power, and they are about catharsis. They are not about poor parenting, or youth services being cut, or any of the other snap explanations that media pundits have been trotting out

except for *my* snap explanations

Pray for rain this evening, and for the rest of the week.

one of the weirder feelings this week was falling asleep early on sunday night, and waking up at 2am to the sounds of sirens and a massive rainstorm, and that being the first time i learned that the riots had spread beyond tottenham. i don't think the rain stopped them then. it does feel totally unknowable at this point.

Stet, not sure about curfews. As Kevin Maguire just said, how can police who can't stop 1000s rampaging keep 100s of1000s off streets?

e-mail from friend who I will vouch for being generally sober and not too prone to exaggeration

London isnt doing so well. i have no more local stores, everything is burning, and i'm not into it.

not a good time to be white. they are pulling people out of their cars.
um, it was really bad here yesterday.
I live in Peckham.

not a good time to be white. they are pulling people out of their cars.

Urgh. With all due respect to your friend but there are plenty of white people involved in this. I suspect that the following days and weeks will be quite a good time to be white (see previous few thousand years also).

ned otm

Diane Abbott on BBC Breakfast this morning demonstrating how she is not a serious politician by calling for a curfew.

My wife and her mates are the only people I know who have experienced such a thing AFAIK, when they were kids under Martial Law in Poland in the eighties.

It was heartening to hear about the #riotcleanup - not only from the point of view of community spirit in the right direction but also to help silence the "blame the medium" nonsense.

I must admit that the tears started welling up when watching the news yesterday evening. Not sure when the last time I had such an emotional response to something on the news, probably 7/7. I grew up in Edmonton and went to school in Enfield. It was interesting comparing and contrasting the reactions on this thread with those of Facebook friends from school, some of whom have never left the area. Generally their views were far less liberal than what we see on here. How much of that is to do with a uni education and living in different places broadening the mind and how much is to do with having stronger emotional ties to a place if you have never left it I am not entirely sure.

My mother still lives in Edmonton, but she is housebound, suffers from anxiety illness and has carers to look after her. It is possible she has not heard the news; she has completely given up on TV and doesn't get a paper, so it would have to be via the radio which she listens to sometimes or if one of the carers mentioned it.

xpost

yes, I would agree that my friend is almost certainly overreacting a bit and I might have refrained from propagating some fairly loaded terminology

another friend just texted saying 'it's nothing really, just some scummy people going shopping'

That doesn't sound like the Peckham I know at all. Pulled from cars, really? Ned OTM also. Xp ah, ok.

Alba: a curfew is p much impossible to enforce in London, I'd think. Piece a few years back from Scottish cops saying their real utility is they let them lift anybody anywhere for anything. (Not sure how good it would be the Met having that ability, mind)

This isn't much like the London I know at all, but there's a lot of bullshit and misinformation floating about as well. Unless you've seen a video, or something with your own eyes, I'd be inclined to disbelieve it.

Oddly yesterday I didn't feel particularly scared, despite walking through different groups of gangs - mostly because, roman road aside, most were "en route" to somewhere else. Also it felt like all happening at certain flashpoints

I don't know why but I'm more worried about tonight, about it being less concentrated, random groups just wandering around instead of congregating. I'm not saying this is a rational worry, i don't know

worried on a personal level, that is

It's ok reinforcements are here...

1007: Wiltshire Police are to deploy 25 officers and three armoured vans to London

Stet, it was the building next to Greggs (Regen's babyware, it had a pleasingly old-fashioned sign) which was the one which was filmed burning. Looked like Greggs might go too, the last I saw. Couldn't see much of anything this morning, Rye Lane was cordoned off from the south and the buses on diversion around the back way further from your place. Was hearing secondhand stories about people being pulled off their bikes and robbed even this morning, but there was no sign of any trouble. I did my usual commute with a change by Peckham Bus Station and it was all relaxed, though people seemed to be keeping their wits about them a bit more, and (some change, this) no-one seemed to be texting / internetting on smartphones at the bus stop.

The (generally pretty dreadful) East Dulwich Forum was on the receiving end of a lot of twitter exasperation last night, as people took seriously a (presumably) jokey post about someone being worried about their Ocado order making it down Rye Lane, heh. I saw one scary story though, on this page: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?20,720583,page=8

<starts>

> I was on a 343 coming back from work earlier this
> evening. At Elephant, the driver said he was
> going to have to divert and go straight to New
> Cross Gate due to riots in Peckham. What he
> didn't say was that he was going to go there via
> Peckham High St.
>
> As soon as we got to the High St, it was obvious
> there was trouble going on, down to the right by
> that burger place there were a load of police vans
> parked up in the road lights flashing and loads of
> people milling around. Unbelievably, the driver
> stopped the bus opposite the bus station and told
> us to get off as he was terminating. Most of us
> were still standing there trying to work out a
> route home when suddenly a mob congealed and
> started smashing in the windows of the big chemist
> on the corner just 20ft away. I still can't quite
> believe TFL would drive passengers into a riot and
> make them get off into it.

<ends>

"The big chemist on the corner" is where I change buses, BTW, there were a crew of friendly Southwark cleaning operatives there this morning, I couldn't see how much damage had been done.

So I ran through the middle of the second picture and the third one on this page just a bit after they were taken last night:

http://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/watching-the-looting-in-bow-pictures/

Noticed the pub on the corner of the market was shut but that was about it.

i awoke this morning to the sound of darcus howe on radio 5 saying britain was like syria

yes, just like syria

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2011/aug/09/london-riots-london

battle of the rio cinema here

surreal

Got home from work last night, bus crawling along, pop in to Morrisons for something for my tea that night and the fucker's being shut, Guard: "We have to close for security reasons". Me: "What, you expecting a riot or something?". Tell ya, I felt like having a riot, a riot of my own. No point in even trying Waitrose as they'd all be cowering behind the meat counter. Thankfully corporate monster Tescos was still open. Hurrah!

i awoke this morning to the sound of darcus howe on radio 5 saying britain was like syria

Morrissey. MIA. Bobby Gillespie. Give me any of them over that idiot.

I have a feeling more communities and business owners will be out defending today. Still trying to decide if this is communities taking back the streets or vigilantism.

pecknarm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2011/aug/09/peckham-riots-looted-fireworks-police-video

Thanks, Tim. That sounds better and worse than I imagined, I think.

Chortling here at East Dulwich Forum: "That burger place", indeed. It's a Burger King!

I don’t know.

I came out of the house this morning and although I didn’t travel to work through any of the areas affected, I knew there was something different in the air; it wasn’t quite the same place. I remember that feeling before, on the day after 7/7. Unlike the latter this is hard to pin down.

It’s an epic failure, on everybody’s part. London, you should have taken better care of all of us.

Instead the people who are supposed to run London, and Britain, preferred to turn it into an international playboy casino for foreign financiers and wealthy tourists, Dubai-on-Thames. Have you noticed how every weekend it becomes incrementally more difficult to travel into central London? Most of the tube is shut (and what is open is too expensive), while the road closures/endless building works/Olympic “test” events mean that any bus journey takes far too long and drains your enthusiasm for doing anything when, or if, you get there. I don’t think it’s accidental. It would have been easier getting past the Berlin Wall in 1965 than it is getting past Hyde Park Corner most Saturdays. Boris doesn’t want ordinary Londoners in town (unless there to work and feed Mammon); he wants rich tourists who can afford to stay at the Savoy and walk around. So that adds to the alienation. And then you treat the margins of society like infants, alternately insulting them and patronising them, and wonder why they go apeshit when their chance comes.

Now in places it’s everyone for him or herself; the whole machine has broken down and collapsed, there’s nothing effective to replace it and elementalism rules. What examples have they to look to – the crooked banks, the slimy press, the fiddling MPs? – other than to think “well, if they can get away with it…”

This is Third World banana republic standard and it is heartbreaking even to hear of, let alone look at (in many cases I daren’t), places being destroyed which I’ve known for all of the thirty years I’ve been here, places that in some cases aren’t too far away from where we are.

All I know is that I have a wife who’s scared shitless of what might still happen and now I feel enormous guilt for having caused her to come over here in the first place. This isn’t the London I knew, or the Britain in which I was born and grew up. Fuck it, it’s everybody’s fault and I want to be somewhere else right now. Canada, Italy, France; it doesn’t matter. Anywhere but here. And when we get there, I’ll reflect yet again that the only way that humanity is going to survive is for every human being to treat every other human being with basic respect.

This may be incoherent, maudlin and melodramatic but it’s how I feel right now.

most shocking thing i saw was the imposing police presence going down walworth road.

spent my evening in angel/dalston/stoke newington, but mostly in a big glass fronted restaurant. saw lots of groups of kids out hoping for something to kick off, i guess.

a blacks sports shop had been smashed up a bit on upper street. didn't see one policeman.

atmosphere was v off/quiet everywhere. restaurant staff v on edge, most places closed at 9pm. everyone on the bus reading twitter/facebook/bbc news.

i just find all this pretty sad really, the only thing i can see resulting from this is greater social/economic/race divisions. the number of people saying things like "lock em all up, throw away the key" "bomb all council estates" etc is really just, ugh, sickening :(

Just got back from West Ealing, lots of windows smashed and shops ransacked :( Even charity shops...No police around now, just people taking photos.

Looks like they tried to break into the Probation Centre...

(xp) Yeah, nothing’s going to be improved by going down that road. Politically it will mean a massive swing to the Right, which is just one more irony on the bonfire.

Just talking to an Ethiopian colleague who was out with some Somali friends last night. They told him "Well, we expect this kind of thing in Mogadishu..."

I have a feeling more communities and business owners will be out defending today. Still trying to decide if this is communities taking back the streets or vigilantism.

― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 10:25 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

im sure that shopkeepers are awaiting your important verdict on this

point is everyone loves those turkish lads now but what happens if they end up killing someone

fine w/shopkeepers protecting their property considering the police can't be fucked to do it

Tomorrow's England - Holland match cancelled. Saves the influx of 40,000 people extra into London at least.

it's obvious from the video that the turkish business owners think the police can't or won't defend them so it's a str8 choice between this self-defence or letting their shops get fucked up