England Riots 2011

[TriWooOx]

Quote:What should you do if you discover an anarchist living next door? Dust off your old Sex Pistols albums and hang out a black and red flag to make them feel at home? Invite them round to debate the merits of Peter Kropotkin's anarchist communism versus the individualist anarchism of Emile Armand? No – the answer, according to an official counter-terrorism notice circulated in London last week, is that you must report them to police immediately.

This was the surprising injunction from the Metropolitan Police issued to businesses and members of the public in Westminster last week. There was no warning about other political groups, but next to an image of the anarchist emblem, the City of Westminster police's "counter terrorist focus desk" called for anti-anarchist whistleblowers stating: "Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. Any information relating to anarchists should be reported to your local police."

The move angered some anarchists who complained that being an anarchist should not imply criminal behaviour. They said they feel unfairly criminalised for holding a set of political beliefs.

The feeling of disproportion was compounded by the briefing note author making a similar request about Islamist terrorists a few lines further down. Under an image of flag with a gold dot beneath some Arabic script it added: "Often seen used by al-Qaida in Iraq. Any sightings of these images should be reported to your local police."

"It unfairly implies that anyone involved in anarchism should be known to the police and is involved in an dangerous activity," said Jason Sands, an anarchist from South London. "There is nothing inherently criminal about political philosophy whatever it is. The police work under the convention on human rights which disallows discrimination against people because of their political beliefs and even the request for information would seem to be in breach of that. It also seems to be a bit useless as a way of gathering intelligence. It isn't focused on anything specific and they are just asking for general information. Imagine calling up and saying 'there's an anarchist in my building. What should I do?' It doesn't make sense."

The note was issued from Belgravia Police Station as part of Project Griffin which aims to "advise and familiarise managers, security officers and employees of large public and private sector organisations across the capital on security, counter-terrorism and crime prevention issues".

Sean Smith, external relations officer for Solfed, the British section of the anarcho-syndicalist International Workers' Association, said of the call for whistleblowers: "It's pretty absurd, but not surprising, when the state seeks to criminalise ideas it deems to be dangerous to its own survival".

"We are a revolutionary union initiative," he explained. "Members of our organisation believe in bringing about radical social change through workplace and community organising, not acts of terrorism. We have made extensive information about our ideas and strategy freely available online."

Small groups of anarchists masked and dressed in black did cause some damage to shop windows in central London during anti-cuts demonstrations in the Spring, but there has been little activity of late. The next big anarchist event in London appears hardly likely to concern the police. It is a book fair in October with "all-day cabaret starring assorted ranters, poets, singers and comics; all-day film showings and two kids' spaces".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/31...wer-advice

[Dunamis]

Are they serious? This cannot last long, surely.

[R.R]

Quote:London riots: Dozens injured after Tottenham violence

7 August 2011

More than 40 people have been arrested after rioting saw police attacked, buildings looted and vehicles set alight in Tottenham, north London.

Twenty-six officers and three others were hurt in the violence which erupted after a protest over the fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggan on Thursday.

Residents surveyed the damage after homes were looted and shops burnt down.

The Metropolitan Police warned over "ill-informed speculation" on social networking sites of further problems.

All injured officers have now left hospital, the force said.

The people arrested remain in custody for offences including violent disorder, burglary and theft.

Meanwhile, the family of Mr Duggan said they were "not condoning" the violence that erupted.

"Please don't make this about my brother's life, he was a good man," his brother Shaun Hall said.

BBC crime reporter Ben Ando said there were rumours in the community that a teenage girl who was part of the peaceful protest had been in a kind of confrontation with police.

He said: "That appears to be the flashpoint. That was the moment at around about just after eight o'clock when it seemed that elements in the crowd decided to pick on two police cars. They were then set on fire."

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating Thursday's shooting.

A police officer was also shot in the incident, which happened in what was called a "pre-planned" event, under Operation Trident, which investigates gun crime in the African and Caribbean communities.

Police had stopped a minicab which Mr Duggan had been travelling in.

Met Commander Adrian Hanstock warned people not to believe rumours.

He said: "Throughout the day we have been monitoring social networking sites and I'd like to say right from the outset, we're conscious of some really ill-informed speculation on those sites relating to potential further problems."

On Saturday night, shops and homes were raided and cash machines ripped out in Tottenham. There were also thefts from shops in nearby Wood Green.

London Fire Brigade said it had attended 49 fires in the area.

Some smoking buildings were still being dampened on Sunday, while residents surveyed the damage from behind a police cordon.

During the riot, which erupted at about 20:20 BST, people threw petrol bombs, reducing many buildings and vehicles to charred wrecks.

A double-decker bus, two police cars and a carpet shop were among the vehicles and buildings destroyed.

Crowds of looters smashed shop windows in a retail park near Tottenham Hale tube station.

The front window of Currys electrical store was smashed and the door of Argos was shattered after looters raided the stock room.

Every handset was stolen from a mobile phone store.

Home Secretary Theresa May condemned the violence saying: "Such disregard for public safety and property will not be tolerated and the Metropolitan Police have my full support in restoring order."
Labour MP for the area David Lammy said the community which "was already hurting has had its heart ripped out". He added: "This is an attack on Tottenham, on people, shopkeepers, women, children, now standing homeless."
A Downing Street spokesman called the rioting "utterly unacceptable".

London's deputy mayor Kit Malthouse said: "It's absolutely outrageous to see it on the streets of London. We'll do as much as we can to ensure there's no recurrence tonight."
An 18-year-old man, who did not want to give his name, said: "Police know what they should have done, they should have come to speak to the community themselves. They don't care."
The Reverend Nims Obunge, Pastor at the Freedom's Ark Church, in Tottenham, said: "It is right that this community should have questions they have answered. Until those questions are answered I don't think we can effectively rebuild the community."

Teenagers and adults were said to have turned up in cars to Tottenham's retail park and filled their boots with stolen items, unimpeded by police.

Others arrived on foot and piled shopping trolleys high with looted electronic goods, a local woman, who did not want to be named, said.

Another local resident told the BBC that looting had continued beyond daybreak on Sunday.

Meanwhile, shops including Vision Express, the Body Shop and Boots, in nearby Wood Green's High Street were also raided. Two cars there were also burnt out.

The BBC's Andy Moore said that since riots in 1985, relations between the local community and police had been generally good, but last week's shooting of Mr Duggan raised tensions.

A friend of Mr Duggan, who gave her name as Niki, 53, said those who had joined Saturday's protest, which began with a march from Broadwater Farm area, wanted "justice for the family".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14435251

[TriWooOx]

@4:40 might explain why it all turned to shit as well...

[R.R]

lol @5:08 "What do you mean by set upon?"

Come on you silly bitch, do you live that much of a sheltered life that you don't know what that means?

I wouldn't be surprised, its not the first time the police have helped things to escalate.

4:14 is very interesting too.

---

Quote:Sad truth behind London riot

By Martin Fletcher, NBC News

As political and social protests grip the Middle East, are growing in Europe and a riot exploded in North London this weekend, here's a sad truth, expressed by a Londoner when asked by a television reporter: Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?

"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"

The TV reporter from Britain's ITV had no response. So the young man pressed his advantage. "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."

Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere.

The truth is that discontent has been simmering among Britain's urban poor for years, and few have paid attention. Social activists say one out of two children in Tottenham live in poverty. It's one of the poorest areas of Britain. Britain's worst riots in decades took place here in 1985. A policeman was hacked to death. After these riots, the same young man pointed out, "They built us a swimming pool."


Police and local leaders in Tottenham made real progress in improving community relations in the intervening years and that's true about all of Britain. The best way to prevent crime, the theory goes, is to improve the lot of the people, then they won't need to commit crimes. But caught in a poverty and joblessness cycle, young people in many British urban areas have little hope of improvement.

So when a local 29-year-old father of two, described by police as a gansgster, was shot dead by a policeman, allegedly after he fired first at the policeman, whose life was saved when the bullet hit his walke-talkie, the response came quickly.

Mark Duggan was killed Thursday. On Saturday night about 50 relatives and friends protested outside the Tottenham police station.
Local young men, almost all with their heads covered by hoods - known here as hoodies - took advantage to indulge themselves in a favorite sport: cursing the police. This quickly escalated into a night of hurling rocks, bottles (Jack Daniels, one young man told me - "we broke into the liquor store, drank the Jack Daniels and threw the bottles at the cops" - burning two police patrol cars, torching buildings, smashing shop windows and carting off hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of phones, cameras and clothes.

The looting and rioting had nothing at all to do with the killing of Mark Duggan. That was the spark. The bonfire had been prepared by years of neglect, fueled by the anger of young men with no stake in the system, angry at everybody and quick to exploit fury at the killing of a local man, even if he did allegedly fire at the policeman first.

So now the question people in Tottenham are asking is: will the government pay attention to the social issues underlying the anger?

And a wider question is: Would anyone care at all if there had not been violence?

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/201...ondon-riot

[rsol]

Barnet has been evacuated, Enfield, Walthamstow...

police are getting prepared and from what ive gathered, so has everyone else.

[IanPotter]

(08-08-2011 05:28 PM)rsol Wrote:  Barnet has been evacuated, Enfield, Walthamstow...

Approx. half a million people have been evacuated?

Never. Certain streets maybe, but that's it.

NB: It doesn't matter, but my estimate was off. The actual population of the Borough of Barnet is 331,000+ (at the very least). https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e..._of_Barnet

[R.R]

Quote:London riots blamed on video games

By Lexton Snol | PC Advisor | 08 August 11

Quoted in the London Evening Standard the unnamed police constable advised residents in Tottenham: “"Go home, get a takeaway and watch anything that happens on TV.

"These are bad people who did this. Kids out of control. When I was young it was all Pacman and board games. Now they're playing Grand Theft Auto and want to live it for themselves."

The newspaper reports that the police are hunting mobs of children who joined the riots across the capital “when parts of the city descended into lawlessness for a second night”.

Grand Theft Auto is set mainly in American cities but was created in the UK, with the original release featuring an expansion pack set in London.

The violent game in which players act out the crime-filled lives of various gangsters and lowlifes is frequently blamed for encouraging youths to commit crimes.

The looting and arson that has spread to several inner-city boroughs began in Tottenham on Saturday night, sparked by the fatal police shooting of a local man (reportedly armed with a replica firearm) on Thursday.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said that over 160 arrests had been made so far, and that 16 people have been charged for a range of offences including burglary and possession of weapons.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/game/329...deo-games/

Of course 100% of the blame cannot be attached to GTA. Kids often copy the latest craze, although in this instance I'd wager a very high majority of the punks could give you many tips on the game in question. To be honest I'd say it is part of a wider issue including terrible musical taste such as grime, gang mentality, cowardly machismo and wanting a British version of glamourized American ghetto culture which has also led to increased gang strife including gun and knife crime. While such things are not new, the ages of the perpetrators are getting lower all the time and one wonders what effect these games have on their impressionable minds. Perhaps their parents (or should I say their single mothers) shouldn't buy these games for them but again, they too thought it was 'cool' to mess around with things that their peers were also doing, popularised by, well, 'popular' culture. So they become promiscuous whores, had children, use this to claim a variety of benefits (which also strengthens government), occupy the kids' time by letting them play such stupid games and then the fuckers grow-up into scum (partially because they had no positive MALE role-models in their lives which is also promoted by cutting benefits if the father is present) - in fact in this instance they are not even grown-up, a scary thought. Blaming parents is the easy way out though, I prefer to look at the myriad of social movements (birth-control, feminism, welfare state, hatred of 'tradition' etc), most of them having some influence from the socialist Fabian Society, about a 100 years ago which in all honesty were a mask for eventually implementing wide scale eugenics - and these bastards certainly seem to give a lot of reasons to implement such drastic measures.

All that carnage for a few mobile phones, trainers, jewellry etc further showing the grip of consumerism (and associated mind control methods used in its promotion). On top of that they've been bashing the word 'anarchy' (a dirty word at the moment) again, as if these looting idiots want an end to governmet and their handouts. If anything they are partially crying at (or will use it as an excuse) the cuts in handouts, so in all actuality it is a subtle demand (and an obvious one from the public) for bigger government to look after all the irresponsible morons - not anarchy, which would demand the abolition of government and a return to communities making their own rules - anarchy means WITHOUT A RULER (government) NOT without rules as these pro-government assholes would have the public believe. They'll get their wish for bigger government when more draconian laws are passed and phone snooping is 'legalised' to pre-empt this kind of thing happening again. Some have even called for the army to take to the streets, although I'm sure an armed public would have stopped it even quicker but thanks again leftist groups.

Right on cue:

Quote:Left-wing cynics blame the Tory cuts for orgy of violence: MPs and activists line up to make excuses for thugs

By Tim Shipman

Last updated at 10:55 PM on 8th August 2011

Left-wing politicians have cynically sought to make political capital out of the riots, blaming government cuts for the orgy of violence.

Labour MPs and activists lined up to make excuses for the thugs, spouting claims that disadvantaged youth had no option but to smash up high streets.

Chris Williamson, Labour MP for Derby North, suggested the Government’s austerity drive was to blame.

On Twitter, he said: ‘The Tories are back alright. Why is it the Tories never take responsibility for the consequences of their party’s disastrous policies. #tottenham’

Minutes earlier he had endorsed the comment of another Twitter user who said:

‘Riots. Protests. Cuts. Unemployment. Disaffected Youth. Strikes. Recession. Police Brutality.’

Swift to jump on the bandwagon was Lee Jasper, a former adviser on policing to Ken Livingstone when he was Mayor of London.

He blamed the ‘economic violence’ of the government for the riots and expressed no sympathy for businesses that were smashed up.

He claimed some were attacked because they do not help create projects for under-privileged youths and was quoted as asking: ‘When did Curry’s build a school?’

Mr Jasper was following the example of his former boss. Mr Livingstone said that the austerity drive had created a ‘social division’ which was forcing the police into conflict with communities.

He said: ‘The economic stagnation and cuts being imposed by the Tory government inevitably create social division.

‘As when Margaret Thatcher imposed such policies during her recessions this creates the threat of people losing control, acting in completely unacceptable ways that threaten everyone, and culminating in events of the type we saw in Tottenham.’

Mr Livingstone and his acolytes came under fire from furious Tories, who pointed out that he of all people should know that vast investment has been piled into Tottenham, Hackney and Lewisham over the last three decades.

Mike Freer, Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, said: ‘It’s complete nonsense. These riots are about vandalism. If Labour politicians want to ride on the back of the rioters in order to obtain some spurious political advantage they should be ashamed of themselves. To the best of my knowledge, we talked about cuts but most of them have not bitten yet. If Labour politicians really believe that, let’s have a list of cuts that they think justified people turning to violence. Even the local MP David Lammy has rejected that approach.’

Mark Field, MP for the City and Westminster, added: ‘Of all people, Ken Livingstone should know how much Hackney and Lewisham have changed beyond all recognition over the last 30 years.

‘This is opportunistic criminality. The events in Tottenham need investigating but these copycat riots in Lewisham and Brixton are nothing to do with the cuts.

‘It is reprehensible to make any such parallel.’

Black London Labour MPs including Mr Lammy, Diane Abbott and Chuka Umunna distanced themselves from attempts to blame the cuts.

Miss Abbott said: ‘Cuts don’t turn you into a thief. What we saw was people thieving for hours. Mr Umunna said the violence in London was ‘totally opportunistic and utterly unacceptable’.

He added: ‘I think we have got to be very careful about seeking to draw general conclusions from a series of events around London to make some kind of historical judgment about what is going on.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ayhem.html

What a fucking mess.

[crystal]

riot map. not good
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=20...5,0.298691

[Dunamis]

Liverpool (Currently a gang of around 150), Birmingham and recent reports of Bristol now joining in for the third night.

[Edit]
A huge Sony Center (Employs 750+) now burns in Enfield after being set alight, it's thought the roof collapsed in on itself. Source: BBC News - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv/bbc_news24/watchlive (UK only I think).

[R.R]

Handsworth, Birmingham (not too far from the city centre where riots occured earlier in the day) has seen burnt out out cars, cars tipped upside down, rubbish all over the streets, knocked over bus stops, shops looted including electrical stores and banks and currently has a heavy police presence. Eyewitnesses said a gang of around 50 people, including 'blacks, Iraqis and Polish' were throwing and burning crates, smashing shop shutters and setting cars alight. They claimed the police stayed at the top of the road and basically watched.

Bad scenes.

[Dunamis]

I wonder how you can tell a person is Polish from a distance? Or Iraqi for that matter. It probably would have been simpler if they'd said "yea, I saw them, but there weren't any white English people rioting, honest".

Bad scenes indeed though, seems exactly what tptb ordered...chaos.

[R.R]

They probably meant Kurdish, there's a small Kurdish and Polish community around that area. The Poles have even opened up a few shops around there and have been trading for a few years, mainly in groceries and off-licences, so I'd imagine the locals could tell them apart. People have been saying the gang were almost definately out of towners though. Fuck knows what's happening, Channel 4 were down there but no reports so far.

Apparently there's been shootings in London and Liverpool.

[Dunamis]

All it takes is one or two with some fairly good acquaintances to go to a city and stir up trouble. Once the first brick is thrown it seems to domino. Especially with how tense and angry most teenagers and young people are these days, and rightly so. But of course we all know how easy it is to get caught up in the moment when you are young and "loose yourself", leading to those mistakes of our youth that we all know too well. It's no different in what is happening now, just how it's happening and the 'cooperative' rebellion, retaliation and attacks are becoming.

Sychronicity clearly works...for positive and negative group-think.

[snecker]

whats been forgotten is this all started because the police would not talk to mark duggan's family. they still have'nt. the rest is a domino effect. shop owners want the army on the streets,jesus are they mad. but their all fighting pointless wars,and being de-commissioned. i remember the 80's, industries destroyed, mass unemployment, social unrest,poverty, no prospects for anyone, does this sound familiar. the same as now. who was in power then yep thatcher, the tories. who's in power now, the tories. this party does not like the working class,the fact they are all millionaires says it all, they will look after themselves and fuck the rest of us always have always will. when will the people wake up and realise this. and no i'm not a leftie,i don't vote because they are ALL lying bastards. is martial law coming, i really hope not. the media are not reporting all sides only the looting. the questions that have to be asked is why are they doing it, not all the negative to convince the masses that the army, martial law or whatever is the way to go.

life is just a ride.........