Panic on the streets of London

[The Captain]

...apparently in Birmingham and Leeds too...

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europ ... 88629.html

[get_with_it]

well Macaris windows are bereft of guitars and pedals and the riot shields are locked down so fingers crossed .

[stella_blues]

Watching Newsnlght right now, some crazy shit going on, alot of fires and strategic looting.

If you need to stash your stock Ant, I'm sure there's plenty folk on here that'll help you out

[smogfalls]

craaaaazy shit indeed! Don't know of the details, but somethings kicking off regarding a drive by shooting in Leeds.
Xan

[imsilly]

This used to be an annual tradition where I grew up, they even wrote a song about it.



I think this sums it up nicely too.



In fact it's basically like being in the first two Clash albums.

[waveclipper]

most of them for the wrong reasons it seems .

Thats the way I see it, this really dose seem to be a bunch little cunt burning shit up under a different flag of I issue they have fuck all to do with.

The media dont seem to be helping it by trying to crowbar these acts of vandalism into the same paragraphs as Notting Hill, Broadwater Farm, and Brixton!

Absolutely bang on. The little tossers that join in with the sort of thing are basically having a summer riot festival. I have been caught in the middle of riots on numerous occasions (originally a Belfast native - there's a reason I live in Galway now!) and the spides (chavs) used to drink all day on the streets with black binliners to collect all the bottles which they would then use as projectiles when the police came around. There is a dark party atmosphere - unpleasant and malignant - under the pretence of some sort of political or social agenda. I remember a couple of young bucks offering (quite politely bizarrely) to burn out my car for the blockades they had put up as they told me I would get more money than it was worth (as long as I had road tax) from the subsequent claim. The media are always trying to find some sort of political angle but really it is just bored kids with too much energy and alcohol and that give no shit about anybody else. My sympathies to the vast majority of londoners right now

[Jasper the Cracker]

Wow..Can't believe all I am hearing. My heart goes out to all of you caught up in this. I am all for protest for purpose but it seems this is blatant opportunism. Be safe everyone who is around any of it.

[fuzzlight]

It has been insane what these pricks have done, Croydon, Clapham and colliers wood are all not far from me and we were genuinely worried watching the telly last night.

What has directly affected us it that the idiots torched the Sony center in Enfield. This place was a repository for records and back catalogs of a lot of small independent labels like Beggars, 4AD, XL, Matador and Subpop, to name a few. Some of the labels folded this morning unable to carry on trading. Also a lot of the older records will now be deleted and not repressed. sad.

[slomatic]

Is this Camerons 'Big Society' then?

[imsilly]

What has directly affected us it that the idiots torched the Sony center in Enfield. This place was a repository for records and back catalogs of a lot of small independent labels like Beggars, 4AD, XL, Matador and Subpop, to name a few. Some of the labels folded this morning unable to carry on trading. Also a lot of the older records will now be deleted and not repressed. sad.

That is fucking awful.

The problem seems to be that the small element in society that just doesn't give a shit, actively wants to fuck stuff up and those trying to make a quick buck saw the police napping and took their opportunity.

Basically it shows up how inadequate the police are in terms of leadership, organization and resources. They are brilliant at rehearsed set piece events like Royal weddings, football matches, strikes and legitimate political demonstrations, but anything out of the ordinary they just freeze. It was obvious from the moment the first looting took place on the weekend that they should have done more to stop it. When they didn't people got the idea they could do whatever the fuck they wanted to and they did. People were complaining that the police showed up too late in too few numbers and didn't even do anything when they got there. I know they have to follow orders and procedures but a common sense says if you show up and see looters 5 feet away you don't just stand there an watch, which is what they did in places like Hackney early on. The message from then on was the police won't do a thing until it's too late. It only takes a small number of extreme dicks to instigate and esculate the violence and destruction.

The whole thing could have been easily prevented. I'm a Londoner and I know there are numbers of people with the mentality and the associates to do this kind of stuff at a moments notice. I have no idea why the police weren't more ready. Everyone knew something was going down. Neighbors were phoning me up telling me to be careful because there were rumors emanating from the nearest housing estates they were going to hit nearby shopping streets. People like to deny it, but there is plenty of gangs and criminals in certain areas. A lot of the time the police, politicians and media kind of ignore it because it's just poor people screwing over other poor people in places they never go, or have even heard of. When you saw the lists of places with looting they were all next to well known trouble spots, which you don't go without a reason to any day of the year here in London. Nothing that happened was surprising in the little. I've been to most places where they looted and my initial reaction was, "probably the same arseholes they tried to merc me last time I was there." They probably already know who the ring leaders are because they tend to be well known to locals and social services in areas.

My friend told me that in certain places because the police refused to turn up locals went all vigilante on gathering groups of looters before they could start thieving. After the initial stuff in Hackney the Turkish people of Dalston/Kingsland which is surrounded by housing estates basically went around in a group making it clear if anyone touched their shops or restaurants they'd crack skulls. That is probably the only thing that prevented that area from going up in flames like Tottenham and Enfield nearby. Most people aren't like the Turkish community in that area i.e. fucking mental enough and close enough to do stuff like that. In places like suburban Ealing there were easy pickings. Sad when the only thing that saves a high-street from being burnt are mad club wielding Turks.

Also it looks like the police did lie about how that guy in Tottenham died, clusterfuck of epic proportions. That isn't helping matters at all. They shouldn't say anything or tell the complete truth from the beginning. Instead they make up the best sounding lie and wait for forensics or eye-witnesses to blow it out the water. I hope the newspaper stories are not true and he wasn't gunned down, by a nervous armed police officer who managed to hit another policeman which they blamed on the guy shot dead. I just hope that news story was not true, I really do otherwise things will get worse. Especially now that the Police and tabloids aren't bribing each other and scratching each other's backs all the time due to the News International scandal. There is going to be such a shit-storm whipped up by the media and directed at hoodies for being little cunts and the police for being inept.