WTF is going on in the UK????

[Canada Darrell™]

I'm always late to the party what with my reluctance to read news these days.

There is no "reason" for the riots? Just looks like a bunch of wankers much like the riots in Vancouver 2 months ago. Time for the cops to take off the kid gloves and load up some live ammo!

[Ian]

The police have their hands tied by our stupid 'Human Rights' laws. Let them crack a few skulls, get the water cannons out and also let them use tear gas, after all, it's only scumbags so what does it matter.

[greener_09]

The whole situation makes me embarrased to be british.I dont know the whole story yet but if the original shooting was a mistake then the police should apologise asap then perhaps people might stop the mindless violence but then again a majority of people have just taken the opertunity to start the violence and looting just for the fun of it so its time for the PM to take the gloves off and let the police sort it no holds barred

[Ian]

I know he would'nt, but if I found out my son had done anything like that I would sell his PS3 and all his games, his tv and then turn him into the police, plus give him a good hiding.

[Alianora La Canta]

What happened:

- Last Thursday, the police shot someone they were trying to arrest. Little is known about Mark Duggan or whether he had committed a crime prior to the shooting. At some point between Friday and Monday, a formal inquiry began, but answers are unlikely to be forthcoming for weeks or months.

- On Friday, some people in the community led a peaceful protest to demand answers from the police (this was before the inquiry was formally announced to the public). Some other people, believed to have known Mark, turned the protest violent. Note that this was expressly against the wishes of Mark Duggan's parents. This wave of violence had a political point along the lines of "If the police pushes us, we'll push back".

- Later that night, sporadic violence happened in other parts of East London, possibly due to friends contacting friends about what they were doing. Police were targetted, along with a handful of other targets. This wave had the motivation "If the police pushes us, we'll push back - and also push against those who pay for the police", though even by this point the message was getting lost in translation among some people.

- During the weekend, more areas of London experienced violence, as well as isolated areas of Birmingham and Liverpool. By this stage, friend networks weren't the main source of riots because people were hearing about what was happening and thinking along the lines of "My friends are doing that - let's join in" or even the dreaded "Ooh, that looks like fun..."

- By Monday, it was hard to find a part of London not experiencing riots at some point in the evening, and 5 other cities (including a spectacularly inept riot in Nottingham that led to most of the rioters getting arrested due to them not noticing police were following them - they were trying and failing to break into a shop). Motives fell into three categories:

• "Ooh, that looks like fun..."
• "Let's take the chance to make some free money"
• "Err... ...[half a sentence of reasoning]... ...blah... ...[another half-sentence contradicting the first one]... ...flail...  ...someone got shot and that meant nobody could get a job... ...or summat..." (basically, the category of people who don't know themselves why they did what they did".

[Alianora La Canta]

In case you are wondering, 2 people are already serving prison terms for their parts in the riots, and courts are working through the night to convict the rest.

Ian, that's a good attitude to have. The fact that you are bothered about what your son does with his time, and lay out consequences that are meaningful to him, is half the battle.

However, I don't think human rights have anything to do with this, since human rights include the right to understand consequences of actions and equality before the law. The rioters here have demonstrated a failure to grasp either concept. The problem is that from a young age society encourages bullying, discrimination and violence, wrapped up in hypocrisy. It's not just the schools, but (at least in my experience) most of the community that engages in this, including the very government officials meant to prevent rules and laws being broken. Only the very stubborn or those fortunate enough to live in places where human rights are more than rhetoric, get to escape the influence of bullying, discrimination, violence and hypocrisy.

Everyone else finds themselves at risk of falling into gangs and proto-gangs as early as age 7. The peer groups may practise bullying, but at least they're at the "right" end of it. Everyone in the group gets treated the same, with the possible exception of the leader. There's often a restriction on in-group violence. And when a peer says something to another in the group, it's generally meant. Bonus - gangs, unlike mainstream society, allows the development of a sense of belonging more meaningful than "the hoodies" or "them criminals-to-be". Which means for many of the things youngsters consider important, the peers look more "right" than the mainstream authorities. Hence why many youths prefer gangs to mainstream society...

[Ian]

I also think a lot of the problems boil down to the fact that there is a severe lack of self-respect in the younger generation, and if you have no self-respect you will have no respect for anyone or anything......Ergo, I can't afford it or they have it so I'll go and steal one.

[Ian]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024485/UK-RIOTS-2011-Manchester-police-shown-YouTube-video-chasing-gang.html

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see the video, this is how it should be handled, unfortunately the police involved will probably get prosecuted, I think they should receive a medal.

[David]

I thought the Northern Irish knew how to riot, but the English have taken it to a new level. 

Very badly handled by the police, way to light handed IMO. The police in NI don't wait too long before the water cannon are out and the plastic bullets are being fired. I'm all for peaceful protest if a people are unhappy, but this was just mindless criminality, and these scum bags should be halted with force.

All the same it was great to see decent people coming onto the streets to help with the cleanup and to speak up against the minority's actions.

[David]

Blunt but quite good reasons behind UK riots.

[Ian]

The only reason for the light handed approach is our panty-hose(no offence meant to our female friends on here) Government and their bloody human rights charter, tear it up and treat the rioters and looters as mortal enemies(which they are really) and shoot them like dogs(again, no offence meant to our dog lovers).

[Canada Darrell™]

^ Ian:

 

[Ian]

David, I want that guy in the vid you posted as Prime Minister, he speaks my language.       

[John S]

Blunt but quite good reasons behind UK riots.

This candidate for the Grumpy old men TV show might like to check the facts before before ranting on, a lot of the arrested people are employed or in full time higher education. This sort of response is a comedy show to most of the original participants in the dis-order

IMO a lot of this opportunistic criminal behavior stems from the instant gratification generation created by, no responsibily Video gaming (violent or not), ridiculous and often immoral reality lifestyle TV - the cult of fame at any cost, so called social & video clip computer or mobile device sites, etc. etc.

Sure some of the crims are drug dealing gang members, but If it's ok for everyone to regularly view and laugh at tons of illegal, immoral or plain stupid behaviour why are we really suprised at what some of the younger population have just got up to. They may not all have set out to cause such mayhem but when the adrenaline gets running and mob motivation kicks in, far to many get carried away in the lawlessness. This is in no way an excuse for their behaviour, it's my stab at an explanation for some of it.



     

[cosworth151]

regularly view and laugh at tons of illegal, immoral or plain stupid behaviour

Over here, that means watching C-SPAN (The channels that carry live sessions of our Congress and your House of Commons) 

Seriously, I remember the riots of the 1960's. Jack Sensenbrenner, the mayor of Columbus at the time, went on TV and told the police, "Shoot to kill." That was the end of the riot.