This is actually sickening, and these riots that started 3 days ago have now spread to my local city (Nottingham). My friends have just been shopping there; apparantly everything is smashed up but the shops are open anyway. I just don’t get the need for this. It makes me so angry, and these people are now going to stigmatise and tarnish a generation. 
And probably the worst bit: the goverment seem very reluctant to do anything.
That sucks. London seemed so chill before this happened. Maybe it’s a symptom of pre-apocalyptic hysteria?
Heh, maybe.
It’s because an innocent man got shop by the police so they staged a peaceful protest, but somewhere down the line it’s gotten out of hand.
My thoughts have been with that for the last days. I seriously hope that comes to a peaceful end, and soon.
I’m sorry you’ve had riots so close to you definedancing. I think it’s absolutely sickening the way in which people are behaving and it just makes me so angry. It’s not as if they’re even doing it for a cause - it’s just for the sake of looting and causing trouble. It saddens me greatly that there are people in our country who choose to behave like this… it really does.
I read about it in a free tabloid yesterday. My heart goes out to all the victims of this tragedy, and I hope it ends soon. Apparently, the government are cracking down on Twitterers for inciting violence, which just goes to show the power of social media nowadays. Never underestimate the power of the ‘hive mind’, whether it is fan-gushing about a Pixar movie or instigating protestors to stage a violent rebellion.
I hope they get this under control soon. Protesting is one thing, which is why and how a lot of European countries provide excellent living conditions (because once they try to take it away, people will speak up), but this is just opportunistic vandalism and theft by yobs.
Actually he wasn’t innocent at all from what I heard- I heard he was an armed gang member. But yes a justified peaceful protest were started, but then rioters piggy backed on it, burned down buildings and stole stuff and ruined people in their own communities. They think they’re getting back at ‘rich’ people but in fact they’re damamging the livelihoods of people who weren’t rich to begin with in their own areas it seems.
This is probably the worst part of it, that they’re burning and looting peoples pubs, shops and so forth. People have worked so hard for these business’ and yet they’re having them destroyed by mindless idiots.
I heard the guy was innocent, but what does it matter? The whole situation is still wrong 
I’m really late to this topic, I know.
Usually I’m on top of current events, but I believe I was camping when this all was happening, so I don’t know too much about what happened aside from riots, and hearing London Burning.
What were they rioting about, may I ask?
e-j-e: I don’t think anyone really knows for sure, but a guy called Mark Duggan was shot to death by police officers. Apparantly he was armed, but nobody can prove it, but they shot him down anyway, and because theres quite a bit of gang culture in London, as there is in most places I imagine, it caused a lot of controversy. There was then a peaceful protest, but somewhere down the line, the protesters started throwing rocks at buildings and police officers, and allegedly through social networking, a lot of people started rioting for the sake of it.
Whats really interesting that people of all ages and all backgrounds were rioting. Of course the media pinned it on the young people, the gangs and the lower class, but when it came to taking the rioters to court, it wasn’t just these people; there were university students, teachers, social workers, middle aged people who were rioting too. I get angry about the stigmatisation of young people, although this probably isn’t the appropiate place or time to bring it up.
So far, over 3000 people have been arrested. The riots spread round the country, so lots of major cities like Birmingham, Bristol and Nottingham were attacked too.
People have blamed it on lots of things. 20% of 16-25 year olds in the UK have no job, training or college course. I’m fortunate to have a job, even though the pay and hours are rubbish. Gang culture and rap music has been blamed. The growing gap between rich and poor has been blamed too. I think it’s a combination of all of these things, but you know what? If things suck, there are ways to go about it that doesn’t involve burning down houses with children inside, and destroying the businesses of hardworking, tax-paying people. These people derserve every last jurisdiction they deserve.
Rant over 