London looking like Mogadishu...

[WaltonRed]

mentioned on the BBC but not running with it like they should be doing.

[J-V]

mentioned on the BBC but not running with it like they should be doing.

 

The BBC and Sky are hardly mentioning anything about what's going on at present.

[Guest barralad]

 

Police vans in the market. The BHS they've looted is on the left just out of shot.

 

Notice the beam of light.

Without knowing it the photographer has managed to capture the beginnings of a rapture.

[Wor Horse]

 

Seems to have calmed down now apparently, group of looters tried their luck but were pushed away fairly quickly by coppers in riot gear.

[Wor Horse]

Guaranteed they'll cancel this years Notting Hill carnival after this.

[Wor Horse]

I know no one's really arsed but the BHS i mentioned before:

 

[WaltonRed]

I think they'll have to.

 

I reckon other inner cities might kick off elsewhere if this keeps going.

[Wor Horse]

Walthamstow Blue Inc

 

[gingerhulk]

Brixton is getting it now

[Horus]

Straight outta Tottenham

 

[Joe Le Taxi]

Riots spread to Nottingham for some strange reason.

 

Fuck it I'm blasting out Skrillex, I have no cares in the world.

[Wor Horse]

for clarity areas affected locally - walthamstow high st, green man tescos, leyton tescos, chingford mount & leyton mills. Police aware.

 

.

[Unrighteous]

When you cut people off they're going to get pissed off. They'll either wage a war of self destruction such as with binge drinking and screwing around, or their frustrations will boil over. I'm not too far from this mindset myself in all honesty, after working hard and trying to get myself educated, I came to the realisation that if the financial system did collapse - I'd have nothing to lose anyway due to the fact I don't have a pension, house, or indeed any money. In fact being 18 stone and 6'3, we might get some genuine survival of the fittest style shit going on, rather than the current 'my daddy works at the bank and made me rich' bullshit.

 

Where's my ball-peen hammer? Some anti-social Darwinism is calling me.

 

The problem for that scenario in England, is that all the bottom feeders will just band together into packs.

[gingerhulk]

Footlocker, H&M and M&S on fire now.

[Chocoholic]

Some guy is going to get himself arrested and beaten up by the police on purpose for looting some shop... wanting S&M

[Joe Le Taxi]

Yep it's reached Nottingham, I text my mate about it and he replied saying he had 4 new iPhones, a range of hoodies, trainers and Stone Island jackets.

[Unrighteous]

Yep it's reached Nottingham, I text my mate about it and he replied saying he had 4 new iPhones, a range of hoodies, trainers and Stone Island jackets.

 

Send his info to the police.

[Chocoholic]

From Tottingham to Nottingham. What about a nice bit of carpet for the hall, stairs and landing?

[Joe Le Taxi]

Edit: He's drunk and trolling, nothing to see here...

[Guest ShoePiss]

Wonder if it will spread here? I might have to nip out for a pint of milk and a 12 gauge pump action from Walmart.

[TheResonator]

It's already been touched on that the riots are the result of economic conditions, but just to chuck my 2 pence in I think it's a rebellion against the overarching idea of being governed by people who do not - in the slightest - give a fuck about your welfare as long as their own needs are protected. Politics nowadays attracts exactly the sort of people you do not want looking after your interests; a bunch of power-hungry rich-kids who are divorced from the common man, whether he's dying in the sand out in the Middle East or bleeding to death on a bus in South London, the real problems that a country faces come from a world that the people who are tasked with dealing with them never have to see. And it's crushing.

 

The inescapable fact is that the world under capitalist governance is - by and large - hostile to the curious. It does not encourage it's denizens to think about things or to discover something new (unless that something is marketable), it only demands that they work a job, buy products, and protect economies -- and it is run by people who understand that it is their job to facilitate the operation of this world, and they are democratically elected because they run unopposed. For, at the end of the day, what person understanding the horror of protecting such a dull and uninteresting place would want any part in the game of its machinations? It is a monster too big to be toppled by one man.

 

And because politics is run by these people, politics in itself is incurious. Section touched on it in a post earlier in this thread (which was an excellent post, by the way) -- that politicians are not interested in the root problems behind rioting, or areas of intense social deprivation, or the widespread use of drugs and alcohol, because it does not pay for them to ask these questions or to explore them as long as it doesn't impinge too heavily on the political prerogative of protecting economies. The point at which these issues are addressed is the point at which the wide-reaching financial penalties of not-addressing them are greater than the cost of addressing them. The bottom line being, of course, money, rather than any ideal, principle, moral or ethical code, belief, or sentiment. And, to some degree, it was probably always thus -- but perhaps never so universally or profoundly.

 

The conflux points of this lack of pastoral and economic care for certain sections of society occur in places like inner-city London, in which people are told to buy things, to contribute to society, and to respect its laws and order. They are told this in spite of the fact that there are no jobs, few prospects, and a culture of violence that few people want to deal with. The order to obey and integrate comes from a callous entity that has subjugated their communities and does so under a thin veil of profound regret for their condition and promises to find its remedy. This is the reality of contemporary elected democracy for these people. Is it a surprise they want to burn down that world?

 

There is a lot of talk about 'mindless' thuggery on this thread, but no man is mindless. They may be ill-educated, or psychologically traumatised -- some may be intellectually subnormal -- but everybody has an unconscious to watch over them (in some ways as friend, and in others, a suzerain) and that part of the psyche is there to tell you when things just aren't right, and it tells you in a way that you cannot escape and it is more powerful and intelligent than any sequence of conscious thoughts you can ever put together. The unconscious knows if you're being spread bullshit straight from the top, and whilst a man might attribute his anger to joblessness or circumstance when he is hurling a petrol bomb through a shop window, I would argue that the action is in fact that of a hive mind rebelling against a tyrannical principle. The actions of the individual will still be called to account and the argument may not stand in mitigation, but the shadow of the same point will also stand in the courtroom.

 

In essence although I don't agree with or understand the people who are rioting, I believe that I hate the same idea as they do. Not because I have suffered at its hand, but because I find it turns a beautiful world into a cold and boring place; because it does not make time for the things that elevate humanity like curiosity, wisdom and compassion; and because I can't stand the idea of our elected leaders being such slimy antitheses of every noble human trait. In truth, I feel more comradeship with these people than condemnation for their actions.

[withnail71]

It's already been touched on that the riots are the result of economic conditions, but just to chuck my 2 pence in I think it's a rebellion against the overarching idea of being governed by people who do not - in the slightest - give a fuck about your welfare as long as their own needs are protected. Politics nowadays attracts exactly the sort of people you do not want looking after your interests; a bunch of power-hungry rich-kids who are divorced from the common man, whether he's dying in the sand out in the Middle East or bleeding to death on a bus in South London, the real problems that a country faces come from a world that the people who are tasked with dealing with them never have to see. And it's crushing.

 

The inescapable fact is that the world under capitalist governance is - by and large - hostile to the curious. It does not encourage it's denizens to think about things or to discover something new (unless that something is marketable), it only demands that they work a job, buy products, and protect economies -- and it is run by people who understand that it is their job to facilitate the operation of this world, and they are democratically elected because they run unopposed. For, at the end of the day, what person understanding the horror of protecting such a dull and uninteresting place would want any part in the game of its machinations? It is a monster too big to be toppled by one man.

 

And because politics is run by these people, politics in itself is incurious. Section touched on it in a post earlier in this thread (which was an excellent post, by the way) -- that politicians are not interested in the root problems behind rioting, or areas of intense social deprivation, or the widespread use of drugs and alcohol, because it does not pay for them to ask these questions or to explore them as long as it doesn't impinge too heavily on the political prerogative of protecting economies. The point at which these issues are addressed is the point at which the wide-reaching financial penalties of not-addressing them are greater than the cost of addressing them. The bottom line being, of course, money, rather than any ideal, principle, moral or ethical code, belief, or sentiment. And, to some degree, it was probably always thus -- but perhaps never so universally or profoundly.

 

The conflux points of this lack of pastoral and economic care for certain sections of society occur in places like inner-city London, in which people are told to buy things, to contribute to society, and to respect its laws and order. They are told this in spite of the fact that there are no jobs, few prospects, and a culture of violence that few people want to deal with. The order to obey and integrate comes from a callous entity that has subjugated their communities and does so under a thin veil of profound regret for their condition and promises to find its remedy. This is the reality of contemporary elected democracy for these people. Is it a surprise they want to burn down that world?

 

There is a lot of talk about 'mindless' thuggery on this thread, but no man is mindless. They may be ill-educated, or psychologically traumatised -- some may be intellectually subnormal -- but everybody has an unconscious to watch over them (in some ways as friend, and in others, a suzerain) and that part of the psyche is there to tell you when things just aren't right, and it tells you in a way that you cannot escape and it is more powerful and intelligent than any sequence of conscious thoughts you can ever put together. The unconscious knows if you're being spread bullshit straight from the top, and whilst a man might attribute his anger to joblessness or circumstance when he is hurling a petrol bomb through a shop window, I would argue that the action is in fact that of a hive mind rebelling against a tyrannical principle. The actions of the individual will still be called to account and the argument may not stand in mitigation, but the shadow of the same point will also stand in the courtroom.

 

In essence although I don't agree with or understand the people who are rioting, I believe that I hate the same idea as they do. Not because I have suffered at its hand, but because I find it turns a beautiful world into a cold and boring place; because it does not make time for the things that elevate humanity like curiosity, wisdom and compassion; and because I can't stand the idea of our elected leaders being such slimy antitheses of every noble human trait. In truth, I feel more comradeship with these people than condemnation for their actions.

And there was me thinking it was just a bunch of robbing bastards looking for an excuse to fill their pockets.

[Malarkey]

Yep it's reached Nottingham, I text my mate about it and he replied saying he had 4 new iPhones, a range of hoodies, trainers and Stone Island jackets.

 

That's just an everyday thing up here, mate!

 

On another note. Power to the people. Down with the establishment.

[Chairman Meow]

There is one thing that Labour definitely did get right.

 

 

Riots, strikes and rising unemployment. It's like the last 15 to 20 years of my life never happened.

[PestiRed]

Posing with loot & putting the picture on the internet. These guys are not criminal genuises