I have just been watching live BBC helicopter footage of a group of young criminals attempting over a long period to break into a bookmakers and other businesses in (I think) Hackney. Police in full riot gear were just down the street, watching and making no attempt to disperse them.
I have been on perfectly peaceful demonstrations and been pushed around by policemen acting far more aggressively – and in hugely greater numbers – against non-violent protestors than they are reacting against violent criminals against whom, frankly, the police should be reacting with force; proportionate, but force.
Very hard to understand this at all.
Not counting various locations in the Birmingham area:
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‘young criminals’ have so far presented themselves, with varying degrees of damage & devastation, in the following areas of London:
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Tottenham
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Wood Green
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Enfield
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Ponders End
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Lewisham
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Old Kent Road
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Tower Bridge
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Peckham
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Ealing
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Notting Hill
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Shepherd’s Bush
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Croydon
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Harlesden
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Brixton
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Camden Town
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Chalk Farm
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Clapham
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Hackney
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Woolwich
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Whitechapel
.l
Waltham Forest
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East Ham
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Dalston
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Islington
Some more pics, not quite as interesting but certainly indicative of a large police scramble:
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http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=1247cjo&s=7
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2wokrrc&s=7
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2m85zld&s=7
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2qxtevn&s=7
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=j12iwi&s=7
@ Tom,
“…and NATO bombs London to prevent civilian casualties?”
Precisely the point Tom. If you are honest and think it out for a moment – let’s look at this whole global collusion of dishonesty and corruption…
1. A guy in Libya takes power somewhere around 1968 – with about 80% of his people dark, dim, dismal, uneducated – and he who takes power from King Idris is the one who sets out to change the dynamics of that reality of impoverishment and underdevelopment.
2. The reality today is that his people are on general average the best educated – whether it be in the Arab portion or sub-Saharan African section of Africa. The UN statistics and even the CIA Factbook information bear this out.
3. When Reagan and Thatcher were busy supporting Apartheid and the Portuguese held sway over Mozambique and Angola, he trained ANC fighters and funded the liberation struggles of Angola and Mozambique.
4. Post the collapse of Apartheid the leaders of the West tried to get Nelson Mandela to condemn Gadaffi. To the contrary – he embraced him.
We can look at that recent history and fast forward to the UK today, and more specifically – London today. I don’t want to be unduly simplistic, yet – what do these bombs and missions over Libya cost HMG on a daily basis? The ones who riot may themselves just consider the immediate criminal opportunities of grabbing a TV, some mobiles or whatever. That is not the point. The ones who bomb Libya may themselves consider the immediate criminal opportunities of grabbing the oil and the water ( i.e. the world’s largest irrigation scheme in Libya built over 20 years and functioning to bring water from an aquifer in the Sahara to the entire Libyan populace and Libya has excess water for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa) – that is the point. But who in the UK is funding the illegal war of this nature –which expenditures in monetary terms shall make actual cost of the riots pale in comparison. The criminal attempt at looting Libyan oil and the related costs do in fact shrink to insignificance the comparative costs of rebuilding on the streets of London – post riots. HMG – you chose to engage in illegality in Libya – and – should be held accountable as much as each looter should b in these riots in London!
Investment in human welfare does bear fruit. Ask the fathers who set out from birth to have their children enrolled at Eton or Westminster – what are they telling you? Ask Libyans from the time of King Idris to the present day under Gadaffi. Education is itself a wealth producer and a potential source of social cohesion. If you lack an educated vision of the broader dynamics and parametres operating socially – you lack a vision of the future that is on offer before you – but the youth do need opportunity – they need help -they need governmental care by way the denial of the money diverted to bomb innocent mothers, fathers, families and others in Libya, but by way of the money and the opportunities applied in the UK that ought to afford an “opportunity costs” diversion of funds from war making to peace-keeping – right ?
HOW IN ‘FUCK THE PEOPLE’S NAME’ DO Y0U BOMB THE SHIT OUT OF GADAFFI’S LIBYA – AND SPEND BILLIONS ON THIS ILLEGAL “BP – OIL GRAB MISSION” – THEN WITH A STRAIGHT FACE TURN AROUND TO THE YOUTHS IN THOSE RIOTING AREAS IN LONDON – CUT BENEFITS AND THEN TELL THEM – WE SIMPLY CAN’T AFFORD IT?
THINK – REACT – RESPONSD – OR – BE SUBJUGATED!
Jon, excellent reporting there. I think you should ask Mr Murray to put up a guest post with your photographs.
12.57 am
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Latest manifestations of ‘young criminals’:
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Canning Town
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& Toxteth, Liverpool.
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Thanks Angry. You heard it here first, etc 😉
. . . and Manchester.
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. . . and Bethnal Green
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& Stratford East.
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. . . Colliers Wood
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& Ilford.
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Wake up from your cosy liberal dreams! This isn’t a fightback by the deprived underclass. Quite the reverse. These supposedly impoverished youths are using Blackberries to coordinate their actions, for goodness sake! It’s plainly a pre-planned assault on our society. Has it not occurred to you that this is the way fascists operate? No doubt they have recruited an army of half-witted Anarchists to help them do their dirty work – just as they have recruited half-witted Islamists elsewhere. The police just stand back and let it happen. There is a connection to the Breivik business, mark my words.
@ All,
Just as I said to Tom – “Education has in America’s whole history been the major hope for improving the individual and society.”
Gunnar Myrdal
It was so then – it is so now. Let’s get back to baics.
Wake up from your cosy liberal dreams! This isn’t a fightback by the deprived underclass. Quite the reverse. These supposedly impoverished youths are using Blackberries to coordinate their actions, for goodness sake! It’s plainly a pre-planned assault on our society.
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Yes, Graham, but *yawn* who is behind it all?
Yes Angry – “who is behind it all?” – the situation on the ground does beg that question.
You may be right Graham. We will know soon enough by seeing what unfolds.
Hey Stupid, did any of those blazing building collapse like ragdolls? 🙂
@Graham – interesting thesis, that it’s a co-ordinated action from an unseen group… bit thin on evidence though! Meanwhile the ownership of a Blackberry is not evidence of a lack of poverty – one might choose to pour the little money one has into status symbols, but that will have little bearing on whether one has just lost a job, or had benefits refused, or seen the local health, welfare and education services cut under the coalition.
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From what I saw in Birmingham, the police weren’t letting rioters loot a store out of choice – in fact riot cops appeared to be quite thin on the ground, and were pulled from pillar to post as COs determined what would be the best use of their available manpower.
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A lot of the violence is mindless, yes – some of which I felt to be related to football violence (see earlier post). But that doesn’t mean that we should look no farther than the rioters – as Craig says, the gun-powder was there already, and the bare-faced dishonesty and selfishness of politicians may be an increasing contributing factor.
Jaded: You may be right Graham. We will know soon enough by seeing what unfolds.
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Why not just blame Mossad now? You’re going to do it later anyway.
2.12 am:
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now Bristol.
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You quoted the wrong sentence Stupid. 🙂
😛
2.15 am
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Huge fire at Sony distribution centre in Waltham Abbey…
A British Defence Secretary on the topic of shopping without money:
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http://tgr.ph/oAzhp6
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You know we gotta sit around at home
And watch this thing begin
But I bet there won’t be many left
To see it really end
‘Cause the fire in the street
Ain’t like the fire in my heart
And in the eyes of all these people
Don’t you know that this could start
On any street in any town
In any state if any clown
Decides that now’s the time to fight
For some ideal he thinks is right
And if a million more agree
There ain’t no great society
As it applies to you and me
Our country isn’t free
And the law refuses to see
If all that you can ever be
Is just a lousy janitor
Unless your uncle owns a store
You know that five in every four
WON’T amount TO nothin’ more
THAN watch the rats go across the floor
And make up songs about being poor
Blow you harmonica son!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiVFfOOm_GI
BBC ‘live’ text update struggles to keep track:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14449675
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This is truly despicable.
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http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150333636850851
Take one functioning society. Progressively give control to commercial interests. Develop advertising scientifically using psychology. Progressively reduce all roles to consumption and production. Encourage everyone to pump pollution into the atmosphere by pretending it doesn’t matter. Fill the media with trivia, violence, blatant propaganda and divisive racism. Progressively extend credit to unsustainable levels. Ensure that the only route to respectability is through wealth. Replace all politicians with rich, greedy liars.
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Everyone ready? Right. Start some expensive wars based on lies. Finally admit that the pollution has destroyed the environment and it’s too late to fix it. Give trillions to the bankers but cut off the credit and welfare. Remove any prospect of employment or education. Shoot some innocent bloke.
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Anyone got a match?
Meh! Much of what you included there is irrelevant to this. I mean, what on Earth has environmental pollution got to do with this?
I could say:
1. Take one preconceived negative worldview consisting of assorted interests and hobbyhorses.
2. Wait for bad stuff to happen.
3. Announce that said bad stuff is the inevitable result of preconceived negative worldview of assorted interests and hobbyhorses.
Riots? Responsibility? Nice Mr Clegg got it right first time:
http://bit.ly/okqQ6v
Yeah, I saw that Jonangus. I was appalled by the blatant product placement at the end as well: “Hobnobbing”!
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And if Clegg can be seen to have got it right before he got it wrong, Theresa May is just two helpings of wrong:
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The home secretary, Theresa May, has dismissed fears that deep spending cuts could undermine the ability of the police to tackle possible civil unrest, and insisted the British did not respond to austerity by rioting on the streets.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/15/theresa-may-cut-police-budget-without-violent-unrest
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If these riots are supposed to “further the ConDem agenda” then the ConDem agenda must be to make the ConDems look like the most incompetent government since, well… ever.
Going back to what Graham said, and we don’t yet know all the facts admittedly, I must say that the story of the police bullet lodged in the police radio is a bit of a hard story to swallow. And the timing of these riots does seem to fit in nicely with the ‘sense of crisis’ about the American credit rating cut, the Eurozone debt problems and the crashing stock market. If I have to lay my money donw somewhere it might well be on the stinky side.
Jaded: If I have to lay my money donw somewhere it might well be on the stinky side.
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When it comes to you, Jaded, there’s only ever a stinky side. 😛