Do Something.

"What a bloody stupid thing to do" I say to myself as I turn the corner in my car and see the child dancing on the window sill by the large open window. "He'll fall out and kill himself"
I carry on up the road and pull my car up in the Medical Centres car park.
I'm here to do a survey of a room to plan out where new network and power points need to go, so I grab my pen and a pad of paper and exit the car.
As I make the for the Medical Centres entrance I hear it. It's a mournful crying and wailing that cuts me right to my bones. I turn slowly and without realising it, my feet have started me walking back down the road.
I cross the road and as I pass the parked cars I see on the ground a small shape with a slightly larger one standing by it clutching a phone. My eyes are drawn back to the small shape on the floor.
Time stops.
do something
So Small.
do something
So young.
Do Something
He's probably about the age of my nephew.
DO Something!
He's not moving.
DO SOMETHING!
Time starts.
"Have you phoned an Ambulance?" She doesn't answer she just wails more.
"Don't move him" I call over my shoulder I'm sprinting up the road now towards the medical centre; when did that happen?
I'm in the Medical Centre now; at the reception.
"I need a Doctor outside now, and I need you to phone an ambulance. A child has fallen from the first floor window" It's strange, I don't think I've ever heard my voice so emotionless before.
The reception staff are brilliant they jump to it, one runs to get a doctor, one grabs a phone and rings an ambulance a few run out to offer assistance. They make me feel like a useless incompetent fool. I have no idea what I'm doing, they know exactly what to do. I stand in reception staring round as everybody moves like a well oiled machine making themselves useful. I stand in the middle stupefied, gazing around.... I don't know what to do.

"I'll deal with the I.T guy" comes a voice from the crowd. I follow the voices owner who takes me off to the room that requires the room survey. Then it's all measuring and note taking and I'm away from everything that's happening outside. It's a quiet Oasis of calm away from the madness of moments ago. Things make sense here it's all numbers and logical. I finish my work and leave the room.

As I walk out of the Medical Centre two of the receptionists are talking together looking down the road. A couple of first responders have turned up and are crowded round the boy.
"Thanks for that." says one of receptionists nodding down the road. I nod, get in my car and drive off. An ambulance whizzes up the road in the opposite direction, lights flashing, sirens blaring. That's got to be good right? They don't send ambulances for...........people who no longer need them.



"Thanks for that." She said.

I know it's not really my fault but I said "He'll fall out and kill himself".

...Stupid prophetic me.


....I guess I'll never know if I was right.

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

The First of Many I hope.


We played our first gig in ages a little over a week ago. It was good. Not the best place we've ever played, there where a lot of townies just in for a drink who aren't really the sort of people who I would imagine our music would go down well with.

Overall though most people seemed to like it, which was nice. Also it was great fun to be out doing what I've been telling the rest of the band we needed to do for ages i.e. play gig. I guess they just needed to get someone else to tell them to do it huh?

Playing was brilliant it really invigorated me about the band side of my life, which is good because of late I seem to of been putting up with more bollocks then usual which was beginning to make me wonder if it was all worth it.
When you put on that guitar with a crowd in front of you though, all the bullshit just melts away and you can just be free of all your troubles for a little while, it's a great feeling.