Thought I might go out for a ride, so I got kitted up and took off. Rode down my little part of the world, some of the local shops are closing, saw about 20 kids (and they were kids, at least to me they were), heading towards Wood Green. Not in a big group, all separated out.
Stopped in at where I get my milk, guy was closing up. Asked him what was up and they had been asked to close early. Some have chosen to stay open.
Colleague who lives in Peckham is stuck in Herne Hill. Her neighbours have told her that the shop next door to her house has been done, and Rye Lane nearby.
Friends in Hackney is still inside. Watching their local shops get looted from their window. Local as in, they know the people who own them, the shops are just little independent grocers.
I don’t actually want to sit in and watch this pan out. It’s just making me anxious because it’s all too close to people I know.
the street in hackney they are showing is where i lived for many years as a kid i bought my sweets from the shop they just raided, its quite sad to watch, where the foook is the army when you need them
I was a bit surprised to hear on the news, listening on the radio, the claims that this is just a criminal element and that there are no other reasons for the violence.
Seems a bit naive to think that all the criminals got together for the first time in a decade to go on a rampage and there is no reason for it?
I have just been told to clear the streets and not to go out by the MP for Southwark on the news. He has also said ‘if any parents and older brothers and sisters are listening, please tell your young people this is no way to carry on and not a fun way to spend a summer holiday evening.’ He then announced - ‘and this is a message to all you young people, please stay at home, this is not an exciting thing to do.’ I’m sure this will all be very effective!!
There are reasons for things, and there are excuses for things. The shooting and the stop and search are just excuses for this level of random violence, not the reason for it.
There are other ways to deal with those events and issues.
Also, if you are in one of the areas, you might want to consider bringing your bins in. I’ve just been asked to help bring in the building’s big commercial bins.
Yeah but I don’t think that it is it, I think those are ideas thrown around by some, but I don’t think that adequately explains why hundreds or even thousands of people have now decided to go out looting and destroying their own communities.
Sounds to me like a cop out, like ignoring the reasons behind something happening, because you don’t want to deal with the problems that have led to this happening.
But people were dealing with it. They really were - in Tottenham they were.
If anyone is ignoring anything it’s the people doing this sh!t - and they’re ignoring the work that had been done and sh!tting all over people’s lives.
I know that in Tottenham it started because people wanted to have more information about the shooting, and they didn’t get it. All it would have taken is for one police officer to come out and say “Look, these things take time, it’s not like CSI: Miami, we can’t do it in a day.” That’s all it would have taken, but they didn’t. Now that I can accept as a reason for a protest in Tottenham.
What I can’t accept is that the spread of this behaviour across London is a protest against that - it’s not. They’re not “protesters” because that would imply some kind of socio-political agenda, and there isn’t any agenda for this beyond getting new Nikes or a new computer, because if there was they would be targeting police stations and icons of power instead of randomly attacking anything in sight. What happened in Tottenham is being used as an excuse to cause utter havoc.
Meanwhile, the sirens have started up around here again. Heard a blip of one outside my flat as I was typing this.
Again though, much like the Authorities are, you are trying to pin everything on a single event and then proclaim that this event cannot be the cause so therefore it is just mindless thugs and criminality with nothing else going on.
You don’t think that the incident was just a spark that lit up a much deeper underlying problem that put this many people into this frame of mind?
I think that question has to be asked. Of course I doubt that a bloke being shot in Tottenham would lead to riots in Birmingham…but there are incidents there, whether they are riots or not is not clear, but unrest has spread far beyond Tottenham and far beyond the initial reason.
