London's Burning
Cyrus: You're standing right now with nine delegates from 100 gangs. And there's over a hundred more. That's 20,000 hardcore members. Forty-thousand, counting affiliates, and twenty-thousand more, not organized, but ready to fight: 60,000 soldiers! Now, there ain't but 20,000 police in the whole town. Can you dig it?
Gang Members: Yeah.
Cyrus: Can you dig it?
Gang Members: Yeah!
Cyrus: Can you dig it?
Gang Members: YEAH!
[shouting and Cheering]
"I'm a bit worried about all this rioting that's going on. I don't know how it's happened." Says a concerned wife as she gets in from work. I suspect I see a look of mild exasperation cross her face but I ignore it as she adds "You're going to tell me how it all happened aren't you"
Yes. Yes I am.
Well it all started with the police shooting twenty nine year old, father of four[1] Mark Duggan, in a Taxi in a crowded street, in Tottenham. It must be noted that this wasn't a random stop, this was a planned operation Mark Duggan had a arrest warrant out on him and was obviously perceived as a potential lethal threat otherwise CO19[2] wouldn't of been there. Something obviously went wrong with the arrest as shots where fired, the police claiming "He shot, we shot back". It should be noted that the bullet that hit a police radio turned out to actually be a police bullet, so possibly a ricochet.
A little later the was a march by the family and friends of Mark to a police station in London. They waited four hours for a senior policeman to talk to them. When you have a large group of already annoyed people waiting around in hot weather keeping them waiting is going to make them more angry and annoyed until something gives.
I haven't been able to find anything confirmed on this[3] but at this time a teenager, angry and tired of waiting, threw a rock at the police who then beat her. That may of happened or it may not. Either way from that small protest things escalated.
That is pretty much where the initial spark was but from there you've got a society that is fed up. Fed up with all the cuts that are happening. Funding cuts on school books, youth clubs closed, job cuts, the whole university fees fiasco. These and many more small issues although small all add up and make people upset. People have taken to the streets to unleash there anger at the situation and to show those in charge that they won't take it any more!....Well that and to get a nice new 40" plasma TV.
Because when you get down to it now, it's not about being pissed off about recent cuts, about government polices, it's not about having to wait an unreasonable amount of time outside a police station to talk to someone, it's certainly not about a bloke who most rioters haven't heard of being shot in a taxi by police in Tottenham. It is about, as they say in the online computer games, Phat Lewt.
It's about looting the shops and getting as much expensive gear as you can. It's like some sort of crazy game of Super Market Sweep!
"Why doesn't somebody stop it though?!" I hear you cry "Where are the police?!"
Well there's been a gap between many communities and the police for a long time. One that's been growing dangerously wider over recent years. Shootings like those of Jean Charles de Menezes and the consequent lying and falsifying of records, the phone hacking scandal bribes and the kettling of riots have all eroded the Mets reputation and influence with the general public so their appeals for peace have fallen on deaf ears.
Of course trying to physically restrain the rioters doesn't work at it's current level. It's a simple maths equation. There are far more rioters then police. Say usually they would go, there are 200 rioters lets send 600 police. It's a show of force designed to quickly dampen any resistance. However when you have all the police out and the rioters still outnumber them then this simply won't work. So the police are in a difficult situation, do they step up there game and start deploying more extreme measures such as rubber bullets and risk the rioters upping the game as well. Or do they wait and hope that it all burns out before it gets to bad.
By the way I've not seen this mentioned really but according to the RIOT (Damages) Act 1886[4] the police have to pay for all damages. I wonder if that's why I don't think I've heard the police refer to it as a riot yet.
I don't know when or how this will end, I just hope it's soon before anything to tragic happens. We need to be like a nation of Fonzies right now; and what's Fonzie? Cool? Correct-amundo.
[1] I'm not entirely sure why it's important for the news to make this statement and make no mention about him being a gang member who had become increasingly paranoid and had taken to carrying a gun after his friend and fellow gang member was stabbed outside a nightclub. What do I know about journalism though, so I best put any of that in and just leave it as "Father of Four".
[2] Firearms squad. I just said CO19 so y'all think I'm hip and cool and know what I'm talking about.
[3]But why should I bother really there's plenty of news agencies making money from making up their own "facts".
[4]RIOT (Damages) Act 1886
Compensation to persons for damage by riot. Where a house, shop, or building in a police area has been injured or destroyed, or the property therein has been injured, stolen, or destroyed, by any persons riotously and tumultuously assembled together, such compensation as hereinafter mentioned shall be paid out of the police fund of the area to any person who has sustained loss by such injury, stealing, or destruction
Cyrus: You're standing right now with nine delegates from 100 gangs. And there's over a hundred more. That's 20,000 hardcore members. Forty-thousand, counting affiliates, and twenty-thousand more, not organized, but ready to fight: 60,000 soldiers! Now, there ain't but 20,000 police in the whole town. Can you dig it?
Gang Members: Yeah.
Cyrus: Can you dig it?
Gang Members: Yeah!
Cyrus: Can you dig it?
Gang Members: YEAH!
[shouting and Cheering]
"I'm a bit worried about all this rioting that's going on. I don't know how it's happened." Says a concerned wife as she gets in from work. I suspect I see a look of mild exasperation cross her face but I ignore it as she adds "You're going to tell me how it all happened aren't you"
Yes. Yes I am.
Well it all started with the police shooting twenty nine year old, father of four[1] Mark Duggan, in a Taxi in a crowded street, in Tottenham. It must be noted that this wasn't a random stop, this was a planned operation Mark Duggan had a arrest warrant out on him and was obviously perceived as a potential lethal threat otherwise CO19[2] wouldn't of been there. Something obviously went wrong with the arrest as shots where fired, the police claiming "He shot, we shot back". It should be noted that the bullet that hit a police radio turned out to actually be a police bullet, so possibly a ricochet.
A little later the was a march by the family and friends of Mark to a police station in London. They waited four hours for a senior policeman to talk to them. When you have a large group of already annoyed people waiting around in hot weather keeping them waiting is going to make them more angry and annoyed until something gives.
I haven't been able to find anything confirmed on this[3] but at this time a teenager, angry and tired of waiting, threw a rock at the police who then beat her. That may of happened or it may not. Either way from that small protest things escalated.
That is pretty much where the initial spark was but from there you've got a society that is fed up. Fed up with all the cuts that are happening. Funding cuts on school books, youth clubs closed, job cuts, the whole university fees fiasco. These and many more small issues although small all add up and make people upset. People have taken to the streets to unleash there anger at the situation and to show those in charge that they won't take it any more!....Well that and to get a nice new 40" plasma TV.
Because when you get down to it now, it's not about being pissed off about recent cuts, about government polices, it's not about having to wait an unreasonable amount of time outside a police station to talk to someone, it's certainly not about a bloke who most rioters haven't heard of being shot in a taxi by police in Tottenham. It is about, as they say in the online computer games, Phat Lewt.
It's about looting the shops and getting as much expensive gear as you can. It's like some sort of crazy game of Super Market Sweep!
"Why doesn't somebody stop it though?!" I hear you cry "Where are the police?!"
Well there's been a gap between many communities and the police for a long time. One that's been growing dangerously wider over recent years. Shootings like those of Jean Charles de Menezes and the consequent lying and falsifying of records, the phone hacking scandal bribes and the kettling of riots have all eroded the Mets reputation and influence with the general public so their appeals for peace have fallen on deaf ears.
Of course trying to physically restrain the rioters doesn't work at it's current level. It's a simple maths equation. There are far more rioters then police. Say usually they would go, there are 200 rioters lets send 600 police. It's a show of force designed to quickly dampen any resistance. However when you have all the police out and the rioters still outnumber them then this simply won't work. So the police are in a difficult situation, do they step up there game and start deploying more extreme measures such as rubber bullets and risk the rioters upping the game as well. Or do they wait and hope that it all burns out before it gets to bad.
By the way I've not seen this mentioned really but according to the RIOT (Damages) Act 1886[4] the police have to pay for all damages. I wonder if that's why I don't think I've heard the police refer to it as a riot yet.
I don't know when or how this will end, I just hope it's soon before anything to tragic happens. We need to be like a nation of Fonzies right now; and what's Fonzie? Cool? Correct-amundo.
[1] I'm not entirely sure why it's important for the news to make this statement and make no mention about him being a gang member who had become increasingly paranoid and had taken to carrying a gun after his friend and fellow gang member was stabbed outside a nightclub. What do I know about journalism though, so I best put any of that in and just leave it as "Father of Four".
[2] Firearms squad. I just said CO19 so y'all think I'm hip and cool and know what I'm talking about.
[3]But why should I bother really there's plenty of news agencies making money from making up their own "facts".
[4]RIOT (Damages) Act 1886
Compensation to persons for damage by riot. Where a house, shop, or building in a police area has been injured or destroyed, or the property therein has been injured, stolen, or destroyed, by any persons riotously and tumultuously assembled together, such compensation as hereinafter mentioned shall be paid out of the police fund of the area to any person who has sustained loss by such injury, stealing, or destruction
Labels: London Riots, political, riots
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