www.ditl.org

Third night of rioting in London, supposedly over the Mark Duggan shooting but once again thugs seem to be using any excuse to commit violence.

Things are getting really bad down there. Looting, shops being burnt down, and I'm hearing reports of peoples houses now being broken into by looters. Ironically, the public now seem to be calling for the police to come and crack some heads.

Couple of links.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/ ... night-live

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14450248

Edit: Can someone fix my dodgy spelling of Rioting in the thread title please?

kostmayer wrote:Edit: Can someone fix my dodgy spelling of Rioting in the thread title please?

Yep.

So the civis riot and then complain about the rioting going on... And the cops should care enough to risk their own safety why?

Some audacious looting going on as well...

Unfortunately, that gull is a good analogy. These riots aren't about Duggan; they're about a city's worth of animals who are using the Duggan case as an excuse to excercise their animal tendencies. Otherwise, there would be a good rationale for how stealing someone's TV could help in the Duggan case.

This is why we have marshal law...

"Go home or get shot."

The trouble with that approach is that as soon as the plod make any move to grip the little bastards the bleeding-heart liberals start screeching about human rights. There must be a clause in their version of the ECHR that states that lobbing bricks, Molotovs and fireworks is just a bunch of harmless little downtrodden youth expressing themselves, and that any attempt to put a stop to their antics constitutes police brutality.

Of course, being something of a softy, my personal view is that the plod should just shoot anyone who chucks something at them. It wouldn't take many before the rest suddenly remember a bunch of urgent appointments they had somewhere else.

I understand the argument that using rubber bullets or watercannons could lead to escalation, but as I see it the rioters have realised they vastly outnumber the Police. Without any real incentive to stop, this is just keep going, if not in London, then elsewhere. Theres underlying problems with the country that have led to this, but the more immediate problem is the businnesses being destroyed and people injured.

Social networks are again playing a bit part in this. It seems Blackberry devices are the most popular tool for organising gangs as the Police can't eavesdrop on them live. Although once sent messages have been archived they come under the Data Protection Act whose looser guidelines mean the Police can read the messages at will. Hacking groups claim to have stolen data on Blackberry employees, threatening to release them to the RIM cooperate with the Police.

Meanwhile Twitter is being widely used to report on trouble hotspots (not always accurately), and in organising cleanup groups.

Rioting is also now being reported in other UK cities, thankfully not as bad as down in London.

This is why I don't like big cities and I'm happy to live out in the sticks.

Captain Seafort wrote:lobbing bricks, Molotovs and fireworks is just a typical British football match.

Fixed it for you.

Captain Seafort wrote:my personal view is that the plod should just shoot anyone who chucks something at them. It wouldn't take many before the rest suddenly remember a bunch of urgent appointments they had somewhere else.

You're absolutely correct. The technological level of a weapon used against the police is irrelevant to the fact that the police should be able to respond. However, this would only work for you if your bobbies were allowed to carry anything more advanced than a baton.

Mikey wrote:However, this would only work for you if your bobbies were allowed to carry anything more advanced than a baton.

Would an MP5 count? The fact that this country isn't such a shithole that our plods need to be routinely armed doesn't mean we're stupid enough not to arm them in extremis.

Well, I hope those DITL posters living over there across the Pond are safe. Or as safe as can be. I don't know who lives in London or if it's spreading.

@ seafort

How is having a police force that is armed making a country a shithole? More so since most officers here will never even have to draw their weapons during their careers let alone use them. The respective view is that some countries may like to provide more equipment to their officers then a penis hat, poking stick and wishful thinking. You know, just in case there was a riot or something...

Storm in a teacup. It happened 30 years ago and will no doubt happen in 30 years as well as the inevitable boom and bust cycle of life continues on it's merry way round.

Say what you like about the whole armed law enforcement debate which will drone on and on and on and never be settled but I personally like that fact that the only time I ever set eyes on a firearm is the (these days) incredibly rare occasions when I'm at an airport or something.