London Riots [barely resisted using Anarchy in the UK oh goddamnit]

Jintor

So parts of London are currently undergoing a second night of rioting touched off by protests against the [police] shooting of a man, Mark Duggan, which were subsequently hijacked by jerkass looters who are trashing places like Tottenham and Brinxton. I didn't see a topic beforehand. Good wishes and safety to everyone in the vicinity right now.

Here are some pictures












Last night's incidents mapped out


I don't know what the social factors causing these riots are but it's pretty bad guys

Langly

uh

jesus fucking christ?

Langly

You dudes like, bunker down, don't go out to take pictures, just stay inside and safe jesus

Speed Racer

Langly wrote:

uh

jesus fucking christ?

Yeah that image shocked me too

Squall

uk rioters apparently have the foresight to cover their faces

shame they aren't quite as dim as the vancouver folks

i hope everyone stays safe

Edcrab

It's definitely a fucked up situation. That's all I'm going to say on the matter

Jintor

Langly wrote:

uh

jesus fucking christ?

bsjezz

not the rugs noooo

Flay

Holy shit.

I'm confused as to who this Duggan character is and why he is worth rioting over. *googles*


EDIT: That is a pretty amazing comparison.

Jintor

Sorry, I should have put POLICE shooting of a man. My mistake. They were saying he was in a firefight with police, and he did have a pistol on him when he was killed, but people were saying it was a coverup or the cops were lying or something something something. Dunno. Either way the protests have more or less been hijacked.

HeavyVillain

definitely been hijacked.. its kindof what happens in the uk with protests

some shitheels will come later and use it as an excuse to loot and burn

chidona

Worst thing about this is that the whole Duggan case isn't really going to get much press now, and instead the focus will be on making arrests and Boris Johnson, with perhaps an editorial or two on 'How is London safe to host the olympics?!' thrown in for good measure.

Evil Multifarious

jesus christ that picture

is that the glass blowing out from the heat/pressure of the fire?

L|ama

nah it's probably just embers and shit as some structural element gives way

like when you poke a log on the fire

Bizazedo

Well, they've banned guns and knives. Clearly the next step is anything that can start a fire.

Fires may be started only with the presence of government approved personnel.

Junpei

Bizazedo wrote:

Well, they've banned guns and knives. Clearly the next step is anything that can start a fire.

Fires may be started only with the presence of government approved personnel.

Also rocks and glass bottles.

L|ama

the bit I saw on BBC the other day they were going to town on a cop car with traffic cones

it didn't seem very effective

HeavyVillain

trial n error, like a point n click adventure game were you save everything in case you need it later.

use traffic cone on police car, nothing happens

use molotov on carpet shop SUPER EFFECTIVE

Hunter

So because police shot some guy, people think it's OK to rob a store or burn down a building?

I will never understand people.

Rock Lobster!

It's more like "Police shot some guy and some people are protesting, so let's use that as an excuse to rob stores and burn down buildings."

HeavyVillain

this is what bugs me in t media covering

Its either a social injustice being protested or mad anarchists ravaging the town

none of them are saying "actualy it was a peaceful protest and then fuckheads ruined it"

"again"

and dont get me started on the rich white people loftly talking on the radio about social factors and outlets

Farthing

Well. That sure is something.

bwanie

nope no problems in europe not at all.

SimBen

Man you British, you sure know how to throw a riot. Up here in Montreal, a couple years back cops shot a kid with little justification and there were some riots but nothing exploded as far as I can recall. Also a couple months ago they shot a homeless man who had a knife and was gutting garbage bags, and a stray bullet hit an innocent bystander and killed him, but then there were no riots over that, only outrage.

Poorochondriac

Hunter wrote:

So because police shot some guy, people think it's OK to rob a store or burn down a building?

I will never understand people.

While things have obviously escalated and gotten co-opted by generically dickish people, let's back up and look at this shit in a vacuum.

If people feel like the Powers That Be are corrupt, or abusing their power, what recourse does the average man on the street really have, when you get right down to it? If an innocent man is killed by a crooked cop, what can you do about it? You can't go to the authorities - they're the ones who did the deed. You can't go to their bosses - what does any politician have to gain by publicly siding AGAINST the police? If you feel like the entire system is a rigged game, and you're on the wrong side of the table, what the fuck can you do?

That frustration is profound, and can only be swallowed so many times. Say it ain't even a shooting, but just littler things. Trumped up minor charges; unwarranted searches; unnecessary force. That resentment and bitterness builds up, and when a line appears to be crossed, it's gonna boil over somehow. And if the system won't allow you a means to communicate that frustration, you start burning shit down.

Am I excusing this shit? No, not at all. But this is a little different than "Our hockey team lost, RAWR FUCK THE COPS." This is a situation where I don't condone, but I can certainly imagine and, to an extent, empathize.

bwanie

HeavyVillain wrote:

and dont get me started on the rich white people loftly talking on the radio about social factors and outlets

yes they are all so rich and white, what would they know.

Solar

Much as I dislike rioting and disorder and so on

Fuck the Met so hard.

Also what really is the alternative? The people on the streets down there believe, wrongly or rightly, that the Met shot a dude dead with no provocation (and let's be honest, I wouldn't take the Met's words here at face value at all given the various other incidents that have happened in recent years like the death of Tomlinson and so on) and they know, because it's been a big story recently, that the met is corrupt and the government is corrupt and the media is corrupt...

So I hardly blame them for saying "fuck this shit."

bwanie

Poorochondriac wrote:

Hunter wrote:

So because police shot some guy, people think it's OK to rob a store or burn down a building?

I will never understand people.

While things have obviously escalated and gotten co-opted by generically dickish people, let's back up and look at this shit in a vacuum.

If people feel like the Powers That Be are corrupt, or abusing their power, what recourse does the average man on the street really have, when you get right down to it? If an innocent man is killed by a crooked cop, what can you do about it? You can't go to the authorities - they're the ones who did the deed. You can't go to their bosses - what does any politician have to gain by publicly siding AGAINST the police? If you feel like the entire system is a rigged game, and you're on the wrong side of the table, what the fuck can you do?

That frustration is profound, and can only be swallowed so many times. Say it ain't even a shooting, but just littler things. Trumped up minor charges; unwarranted searches; unnecessary force. That resentment and bitterness builds up, and when a line appears to be crossed, it's gonna boil over somehow. And if the system won't allow you a means to communicate that frustration, you start burning shit down.

Am I excusing this shit? No, not at all. But this is a little different than "Our hockey team lost, RAWR FUCK THE COPS." This is a situation where I don't condone, but I can certainly imagine and, to an extent, empathize.

"the people" do not feel that

SimBen

Poorochondriac wrote:

Hunter wrote:

So because police shot some guy, people think it's OK to rob a store or burn down a building?

I will never understand people.

While things have obviously escalated and gotten co-opted by generically dickish people, let's back up and look at this shit in a vacuum.

If people feel like the Powers That Be are corrupt, or abusing their power, what recourse does the average man on the street really have, when you get right down to it? If an innocent man is killed by a crooked cop, what can you do about it? You can't go to the authorities - they're the ones who did the deed. You can't go to their bosses - what does any politician have to gain by publicly siding AGAINST the police? If you feel like the entire system is a rigged game, and you're on the wrong side of the table, what the fuck can you do?

That frustration is profound, and can only be swallowed so many times. Say it ain't even a shooting, but just littler things. Trumped up minor charges; unwarranted searches; unnecessary force. That resentment and bitterness builds up, and when a line appears to be crossed, it's gonna boil over somehow. And if the system won't allow you a means to communicate that frustration, you start burning shit down.

Am I excusing this shit? No, not at all. But this is a little different than "Our hockey team lost, RAWR FUCK THE COPS." This is a situation where I don't condone, but I can certainly imagine and, to an extent, empathize.

Nope. These rugs and computers had nothing to do with what happened. The rioters are shitheads and ultimately hurt their own cause, not that I believe they even cared about it.

bwanie

please not to be projecting your own american police problems on these issues.

they're of no consideration.

Solar

I mean, the met have a division specially made for policing the Black Community. And then they are surprised when people hate them. Not all people, not all Londonders, but a higher number than one would like.

HeavyVillain

bwanie wrote:

HeavyVillain wrote:

and dont get me started on the rich white people loftly talking on the radio about social factors and outlets

yes they are all so rich and white, what would they know.

noone likes being patronised by "experts" that keep mouthing the same things without citations and them being rich tories from privileged backgrounds just exacerbates it all when they talk about racial factors

i mean fuck we dont even know what happened during the shooting yet and people still marched in protest o corruption or whatever the hell they decided was going on

Poorochondriac

Hey yo that's cool, except that Solar literally confirmed my take.

And I also said that the riots got co-opted, and wanted to just discuss the core, initial problem!

But no no, carry on with flippant dismissals, that's a fun way to carry on a conversation

Langly

Pooro I am behind everything you said, except that those rugs didn't do nothing to no one. Rioting against the cops, while wrong, is something that I can at least understand.

But looting and vandalizing the citizens you are supposedly in this together with is just you being a complete dick.

M.D.

Poorochondriac wrote:

Hunter wrote:

So because police shot some guy, people think it's OK to rob a store or burn down a building?

I will never understand people.

While things have obviously escalated and gotten co-opted by generically dickish people, let's back up and look at this shit in a vacuum.

If people feel like the Powers That Be are corrupt, or abusing their power, what recourse does the average man on the street really have, when you get right down to it? If an innocent man is killed by a crooked cop, what can you do about it? You can't go to the authorities - they're the ones who did the deed. You can't go to their bosses - what does any politician have to gain by publicly siding AGAINST the police? If you feel like the entire system is a rigged game, and you're on the wrong side of the table, what the fuck can you do?

That frustration is profound, and can only be swallowed so many times. Say it ain't even a shooting, but just littler things. Trumped up minor charges; unwarranted searches; unnecessary force. That resentment and bitterness builds up, and when a line appears to be crossed, it's gonna boil over somehow. And if the system won't allow you a means to communicate that frustration, you start burning shit down.

Am I excusing this shit? No, not at all. But this is a little different than "Our hockey team lost, RAWR FUCK THE COPS." This is a situation where I don't condone, but I can certainly imagine and, to an extent, empathize.

Shouldn't this stuff like being brought to court and trials and junk resolve this and dish out the proper punishment if the cop was corrupt and shot a dude for no other reason then he didnt listen to him?

bwanie

you know what. maybe i'm just wrong.

HeavyVillain

yeah anyone who says "what alternative is there??" is being fucking stupid

how about not injurin people and burning shit down, theres your alternative

the fuck do carpets and cars and apartments have to do with shit

and before anyone says that peaceful protests dont work there are a lot of fucking worse situations that got brought down by peaceful protests

but re: met corruption yeah after that brazilian guy w shot dead and they outright lied about the reasoning its not hard to see why people dont trust the cops

Poorochondriac

Langly wrote:

Pooro I am behind everything you said, except that those rugs didn't do nothing to no one. Rioting against the cops, while wrong, is something that I can at least understand.

But looting and vandalizing the citizens you are supposedly in this together with is just you being a complete dick.

I said it got co-opted! In my very first sentence! Like, immediately! Just wanted to dig deeper.

Hunter

Poorochondriac wrote:

Hunter wrote:

So because police shot some guy, people think it's OK to rob a store or burn down a building?

I will never understand people.

While things have obviously escalated and gotten co-opted by generically dickish people, let's back up and look at this shit in a vacuum.

If people feel like the Powers That Be are corrupt, or abusing their power, what recourse does the average man on the street really have, when you get right down to it? If an innocent man is killed by a crooked cop, what can you do about it? You can't go to the authorities - they're the ones who did the deed. You can't go to their bosses - what does any politician have to gain by publicly siding AGAINST the police? If you feel like the entire system is a rigged game, and you're on the wrong side of the table, what the fuck can you do?

That frustration is profound, and can only be swallowed so many times. Say it ain't even a shooting, but just littler things. Trumped up minor charges; unwarranted searches; unnecessary force. That resentment and bitterness builds up, and when a line appears to be crossed, it's gonna boil over somehow. And if the system won't allow you a means to communicate that frustration, you start burning shit down.

Am I excusing this shit? No, not at all. But this is a little different than "Our hockey team lost, RAWR FUCK THE COPS." This is a situation where I don't condone, but I can certainly imagine and, to an extent, empathize.

The building that was firebombed had nothing to do with the cop or the shooting, so no it's not acceptable at all.

If the corrupt cop got lynched by the mob, then while I wouldn't condone the action I would still at least understand it at some basic level.

Solar

The Met is corrupt. That is a solid fact. That has just been in the news surrounding one of the biggest British political scandals in living memory.

And then some guy is shot dead by the cops.

And the met says he had a gun and let's be honest may very well be lying. I mean, they shot Charles De Menezes in the head seven times and he was an unarmed civilian, and they lied about that too. And the economy is terrible right now. And government cutbacks have closed many youth clubs in London. And the government is horribly unpopular.

And thus, riots.

I am not saying it is right. What I am saying is that given that human beings are human beings it is entirely understandable, and that it is not quite as simple as "people are being irrationally angry about this man, that is just stupid." People are angry for quite rational reasons, though their actions as a result of that are irrational and criminal. It's almost like, again, they are human beings.

HeavyVillain

Still if I was the police Id fasttrack investigations into fatal shootings instead of sitting on the info for days.

I wonder how far off we are from officers using cameras to record there operations