Any British WFer affected by the riots?

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Link the Writer, Aug 9, 2011.

  1. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    And since the rain started. British riots usually stop when the rain starts (which is why they seldom last long).
     
  2. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    The current suggestion for dealing with riots is to shut down facebook and twitter. All this right-wing reactionary bollocks is making me feel physically sick.
     
  3. Gannon

    Gannon Contributor Contributor

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    Yup, matched only by the equal amount of left-wing reactionary bollocks being spouted.
     
  4. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    Exactly. I'm beginning to distrust the left and far left a lot more these past few days. Honestly: 'They are let down by society' what absolute nonsense.
     
  5. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    The PM specifically said that it's not that simple because social networking was also being used to help people avoid the trouble -- I was watching the debate. The proposal is not to shut down social networking completely but to consider whether it would be right to block individuals who are known to be using it for criminal purposes. Mind you, because of it's obsession with "balance" the BBC has managed to find a few pundits who seriously regret that the UK is not a police state, and who said that the cause of the trouble was that the police were held to account over attacks on innocent people (Ian Tomlinson, Jean Charles de Menezes) which hampered their ability to keep the population in a state of fear. So there certainly is some right-wing reactionary bollocks being spouted.
     
  6. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    ^ And some left-wing nonsense. I find it strange attacking my old position, but blaming overall society for the riots is just as silly.
     
  7. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    I distrust anybody who insists that there's a single reason for the trouble. As I said, there seem to be many different reasons for the trouble, which means that everybody can find some rioters to fit their theory (including the far left -- some have been let down by society, some police do harass innocent youngsters) and then wrongly extrapolate that to all of the trouble.
     
  8. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    I agree. Completely.
     
  9. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Pundits don't bother me. It's the Tory MPs, who actually have power and influence over the matter, who do.
     
  10. Halcyon

    Halcyon Contributor Contributor

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    There was an interesting article on the BBC website today comparing the London riots with those in Los Angeles almost twenty years ago, which of course, also had an alleged incident of police racism (the Rodney King assault) as its catalyst.

    Some interesting quotes from people at the centre of it...

    A former police commander... "I see a lot of parallels with the behaviour of the rioters in London - they did the same things here then - and we learned a lot of lessons. One of the first things we did initially was to back off from the flashpoint of the riot, but we realised after a while we had to send in more cops and just have an overwhelming show of force and take a lot of people to jail."

    A former civil rights leader... "They were Latinos, poor whites, they were just hooligans of all sorts hit the streets along with black gang members and all sorts of people out doing burning and looting and rioting and general thuggery on the streets of LA. You get a lot of clowns and fools and idiots in any society, who are just laying in wait for the chance to do what they do."

    And a former gang member/rioter... "I'm sorry for what we did to this day. We set fire to innocent people's property - people who had worked hard to come to America and make a better life for themselves. Some of them never recovered and that is something we can't repay. But they are doing the same in the UK right now - not realising what they are doing, and unfortunately they are going to regret what they did. At the end of the day random violence, rioting is not going to be the solution to address their problems and grievances."

    I find it difficult to disagree with any of those statements.
     
  11. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    The political spectrum is more like a circle. You go far enough left or right and things start looking the same.
     
  12. KinkyCousin

    KinkyCousin New Member

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    I've just come back from London (I'm from there but live in Copenhagen), the riots didn't seem to hit my town but they got to some very close by. All the towns with shopping centres closed down and some even stopped transport through them, I was livid! Stupid rioters, they aren't there to make a political stand at all, rather an excuse to steal stuff.
     
  13. obsepay

    obsepay New Member

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    Whats up

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