Reaction to riots around the UK…

 

I spent quite a while watching the coverage of the riots on TV last night and this morning. I also made a few angry posts on twitter. Not surprisingly I am still pretty angry about everything this morning. What follows will be a rather extreme rant about the situation. Look away if easily offended…

What were the recent incidents *not* about?

  • This is not a mass uprising. London has 12 million people and only a few hundred scum are doing this.
  • This is not a race-specific issue. I’ve watched the footage and the crowds are made up of people from all races. Roughly speaking, the mix reflects the racial mix of the area that is being attacked. Don’t use this incident to further your racist (positive or negative) agenda!
  • This is not political. We are not under the control of some unjust dictator and fighting for our political freedom. Likening this to the recent events in the middle east is offensive. Since when has looting a PC store or a phone store been political?
  • This is not about “the kids”. The age range of the people is mixed.

What should be done in my opinion?

  • They should announce a curfew. Being on the streets after that time means you accept the consequences of anything that happens to you. Good people will be off the streets, so you know if you see someone they are up to no good.
  • Police and army reserves should be mobilized. They should be issued with rubber-bullets given a “shoot first, ask questions later” policy.
  • If someone gets injured or killed as a result of the police/army action, tough! No claims. No law suits. No apologies. Tough! If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t be there.
  • We have loads of surveillance cameras on our streets. Faces from the footage should be placed on a website where the public can anonymously shop them to the police. I would encourage anyone who recognizes any people from the footage, or has information from any social network sites, to pass the information to the police and get these people off our streets.
  • Everyone identified should be prosecuted and get a custodial sentence. If it means cramming them into cells and “infringing on their human rights”, so be it. They gave up their rights when they decided to do this.
  • Stop putting “community leaders” on TV who try to justify this crap. I’m sorry, but as a disenfranchised man I do not feel the need to rob a new pair of trainers or a mobile phone. Some of the footage showed a group of kids talking and one said, “Let’s get some watches!” Nuff said!

This country is going to hell in a hand basket. We need to stop pussy footing about and get some authority back.

Cheers

Tim…

PS. If this stops me seeing Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I’m going to kick off… 🙂

Author: Tim...

DBA, Developer, Author, Trainer.

16 thoughts on “Reaction to riots around the UK…”

  1. I couldn’t agree more Tim, good post.. I think that’s what most people are thinking.

  2. Right on brother. Don’t get me started.

    Bang them all up, give them bread and water, and make them work for their food – chain gangs to litter pick etc… Get out of the human rights act, bring back hanging…stop paying people to sit on their backsides…welfare is right, but not for spongers…it should be for people who have a genuine need.

    Ban ambulance chasers as well!

    Completely agree with the shoot first, ask later policy…only I wouldn’t be using rubber bullets.

    ….and breathe….

    😉

  3. @Niall: Not sure how you calculate that >25%? The news reported this evening that he didn’t discharge his weapon, however, he was carrying a loaded, hidden gun…statistically, I stand by the stated policy 100%.

    Honestly, I did say, don’t get me started…I was listening to some bleeding heart liberal on the radio on the way home, going on about how hard a life some of these people have had…so what? I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth and I went to a “difficult” school where many of the kids ended up in prison or on the dole, but I made a success of things because I bothered to stick to the rules and worked hard and hey, shock horror, I didn’t commit one single crime….see, it can be done.

    No more excuses…time to build more prisons and lock more of these oxygen abusers up…and no the overall budget for prisons should still reduce because we shouldn’t be stocking the prisons with colour TVs and other luxuries…and yes, I watched in horror the other night, a program on ITV about some paramedic who murdered his girlfriend…and was then shown in prison being interviewed…in the “games room”, with the widescreen TV, pool table and other leisure items…for heavens sake, We’re paying for that lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Cheers
    Jeff

  4. “If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t be there.”

    Well, I have to take issue with this one. I had a db conversion contract at Warner Brothers television. 3PM, they sent everyone home as the riot grew. This dumped me out into the worst traffic jam ever (and I grew up in Los Angeles, movies have been made about its traffic). After a couple of hours, I made it back to my motel two miles away. I turned on the TV and watched the riot come closer. No food, no restaurants or stores open, 120+ miles from home. (Years later I read that Porno For Pyros came from watching the same TV coverage).

    So where should I be?

  5. “No more excuses…time to build more prisons and lock more of these oxygen abusers up”

    that’s working out fabulously well in the US.

    “shock horror, I didn’t commit one single crime”

    really? not one?

    the short term solution to what is happening seems to be pretty clear but long term solutions that decrease the likelihood of similar events will require a little more consideration than what you appear to be willing to give it.

  6. I know nothing of the penal system in the US, so I can’t comment on that at all.

    …I’ll give you that Chris…I occasionally broke the speed limit in my early days of driving and I probably had a few beers before I was legally entitled to…What I should have said was that I didn’t go around committing mindless acts of burglary, looting, assault and public order offences just because “the system is against me and nobody cares about me and life is too hard etc…”…that’s not to say that traffic offences and under age drinking are not “serious”, of course.

    All I’m saying is that there are a number of people out there who want an easy way out – they seem to think that their only career path in life is to either win a reality contest or kiss and tell a sportsperson…then, when they realise that it’s not going to happen, which, for most people, is the case, they want to blame everyone and everything else for them not having a million pound lifestyle…oh it’s the bankers fault, or the government, or the council, or whatever…sorry, I’m not buying that, especially, as I said, when I grew up without a silver spoon, on a coal miners housing estate, where opportunities were not exactly growing on trees…and I still made myself into a successful, law abiding, positive and generous member of society. I know some of the children I went to school with, did not make such a success of their lives, even ending up in prison, but that was down to the choices they made.

    There were examples on the news, throughout the coverage, of both of these “types” of people…I watched the girls who said “I stole it cos I wanted an Ipad 2” and “We’re just showing them we can do what we want, when we want”…good luck when the police come knocking on your door in the next few days luv, I say. I then saw the guy who said “nah, they’re just using it as an excuse…I’m from the same place and it don’t mean you gotta steal and rob people”…absolutely right it doesn’t and those oxygen abusers doing that, need locking up.

    The guy who came to “the rescue” of the guy who’d been mugged and then it actually turns out he’s mugging him…are you saying he doesn’t deserve a long stretch inside?

    Are you happy that prisons have games rooms with big flatscreen TVs and pool tables? Please don’t tell me they need something to stop their boredom…if they were out on chain gangs working hard during the day, then they wouldn’t be bored and they wouldn’t have the energy to riot.

    Are you happy that young offenders get all expenses paid trips to Alton Towers?

    The whole of the western economies are currently in a massively indebted state because too many people thought they were entitled to too much and thought they could have what they thought they were entitled to, by living off credit…well, the reality check has arrived and now we’ll all be paying this off over the next 10-20 years…that will, inevitably, lead to a society that is suffering cuts in things, like EMA grants and council services and increases in charges for things like education…that’s unfortunate, but it’s reality and people will need to deal with it…but dealing with it, does not mean rioting…things are probably no worse than after the second world war and at that time, people rallied around in a “big society” kind of way…they pulled together and rebuilt Britain…they didn’t have riots just because things were tough…how times have changed.

    I’m not so naive as to think that locking up the looters will fix the whole of society…clearly it’s a much bigger task than that…but those scumbags who are doing this kind of thing deserve some rough justice, not kid gloves and trip to Alton Towers!

  7. @Tim:

    Yeah, but how long must one stay in a motel with no food, while riots approach from two directions? Of course I’m not going to loot (though circumstances can be worse and make us do anything to survive), I nervously drove to an ex-girlfriends place. It was so strange, no traffic at all. We watched one of the riots go to where she lived when we were going together. I simply don’t accept your assertion that “good people will be off the streets,” because I’ve personally observed it isn’t true.

    But more to the point, riots are chaotic and rise rapidly and unpredictably. There is a serious problem with expecting people to know about this mobilization of forces. Either events happen so rapidly that innocents get hurt (Kent State bystanders, 1970, unwitting innocents driving into riot in 1992 and getting dragged out of their vehicles and beaten, of which Reginald Denny only differed by being live on TV), or, well, Syria.

    Also, rubber bullets aren’t all that good. Non-lethal riot control is actually pretty difficult in practice. Makes for a good rant, but the reality is more complicated, not the least of which is an arms race can develop between the police and the a-holes.

    Will you really love Big Brother when the non-lethal bullet comes through your window and enters your brain through your eye?

  8. I’m inclined to agree with the point made that not everyone on the street is fair game. My wife was working late in offices in the centre of Birmingham and the first she knew anything was going on was when she left work and found herself in the middle of a group of riot police. It could have been worse they could have been rioters! Luckily she seems to have finished work during a lull in the activity and made it to the railway station without encountering further trouble.

    Having said that I think anyone trying to hide their identity behind a mask or hoodie should be considered a target for removal to the cells overnight by the police.

  9. Trains, buses, airports and freeways were shut down at times in the ’92 riot.

    My wife also was wondering how I would get home on 9/11, as they shut down my train, the one that runs past the nuke plant. I was spending that month evaluating whether I should commute via train or buy a new car. Bought the car.

  10. I guess thats what happens when you take away citizen rights to bear arms to protect themselves.

  11. It’s all about morals and what a society allows. Banker can ransom the country and get away with it. Politicians forge their expenses and largely get away with it. Journalists cheat and lie to get the story about a dead girl. Senior police officers take bribes in kind.

    When those in positions of power behave so badly and receive no punishment then it soon becomes a free for all. I agree shoot them all; Greedy Bankers, On the Make Politicians, Immoral Journalists, Corrupt Police officers and Looters.

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