"Not since the Blitz has London seen so many fires!" BBC quote

[icymist]

London is a blaze. I don't know what else to say. This is so mindless.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14449675

[chill_wind]

1. No one can get their arms around it

0500:

How the riots are being reported around the world: The Washington Post calls them the worst bout of urban violence to hit Britain in more than two decades, with parts of London "morphing into lawless no man's lands". The Times of India says the disturbances raise questions about whether London is safe enough to stage the 2012 Olympics. France's AFP press agency says the riots point to deeper social unease in poor areas of Britain's capital. Canada's Globe and Mail blames a "lost generation of young high school dropouts" but says the riots are a mystery to all - even the rioters.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14449675

[coalition_unwilling]

21. I'll bet not a one of them mentions UK police brutality, which is definitely

a factor.

[Tallulah]

2. This is wrong

so very wrong.

"I have never seen such a disregard for human life

"The grief they have caused people, the fear they have put in people's hearts, decent people who have done nothing to anyone.”


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8690213/London-riots-Croydon-residents-leap-from-burning-buildings-as-capital-burns.html

[icymist]

3. Indeed! I really feel for the interview of the ninety year old woman...

who was in a daze, watching her neighborhood in flames. The police had to escort her to 'someplace safe'. My God! She saw first hand what the Blitz did to London and now she has to see what displaced (no other word for them) youth has done to this city! I can't even imagine what's going on through her mind!

[Tallulah]

7. The picture

of the woman jumping is really sad.

I wish this had never happened. It's out of control.

[Atman]

4. Hmm...puzzling...haven't seen such disregard for human life...since, uhm...

Let's see, Iraq and Afghanistan come to mind. For starters.

[aquart]

6. Yeah, I thought that was a little ridiculous.

And let's not forget Ireland.

[shanti]

17. mississippi

just recently too....

[malaise]

35. Really?

Did you watch the Iraq invasion and occupation?

[chill_wind]

5. More liveblog, pictures, video

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8687177/London-riots-live.html

[reggie the dog]

8. not mindless at all, the rioters are attacking rich neighborhoods now

this is a reaction to being treated like shit by brutal cops and by asshole leaders who encourage unemployment and have sold out our futures through delocalization, sabotaging our economy, cutting our social programs, and cutting our educational opportunities.

[cali]

9. no, it's not. the peaceful protest in the beginning was that.

this shit? it's mindless mob opportunism. And what rich neighborhoods has it hit? Belgravia? Knightsbridge? Mayfair? Yeah, a couple of car windows may have been smashed in Chelsea and Kensington, but that's about it.

[icymist]

11. "Attacking rich neighborhoods now"... what is that implying?

Let's give a fictional example:
After attacking the poor neighborhoods, we figured out that the money was in the rich neighborhoods. My friend said that maybe we shouldn't be doing this type of damage, but I knew that those rich bastards, even though I don't know who they are, should pay for all of this. ... So how is this type of thinking going to help?

[reggie the dog]

14. how will it help? overt class warfare is how it will help

this is our side finally fighting back against the rich in the class war.

[icymist]

18. Oh BS! Where do you see disenfranchised youth taking up your cause?

These riots have nothing to do with you and everything to do with those who want violence and looting. Read the headlines.

[reggie the dog]

20. the headlines in the papers owned by whom and by members

of which class?

[coalition_unwilling]

22. Mao: "All oppression breeds resistance" - are you denying that

UK police brutality has nothing to do with these uprisings?

[icymist]

23. Your answer is to quote Mao?

???

[socialist_n_TN]

29. Don't like Mao? How about some Trotsky

From a Trotskyist writer in London:

http://www.workerspower.co.uk/2011/08/tottenham-ablaze-the-anger-is-back/

[cali]

25. Knightsbridge won't burn. Mayfair won't burn. Belgravia and Chelsea won't

burn. Homes of the poor are burning. Small businesses are burning. This won't touch the rich on Lowndes or Belgrave Squares.

[reggie the dog]

28. well let us hope that the newly criminlized anarchists

(the ones the interior minister said people should turn in to the police) will help move the rioters to the areas you mentioned. the bbc reports that riots have moved out of the poor areas already and they showed luxury cars burning in the district downtown

[socialist_n_TN]

30. Well, I've got to hope that the Reds

have more affect than the anarchists. :) But it IS a hot class war at this stage and DEFINITELY a prerevolutionary situation.

[Xithras]

34. I expect that it will end up a lot like the 1992 L.A. riots.

The police will do little while the poor burn their own neighborhoods, but once it starts moving towards the wealthier enclaves in any appreciable numbers the Army will be rolled in to put an end to it.

In the end, the poor will end up even worse off because many of those small businesses will never reopen, while the wealthier forget that it ever happened. In L.A., less than 1 in 4 damaged businesses ever reopened, and the impacted neighborhoods still haven't regained the level of economic vitality they had before the riots...nearly 20 years after the fact (and the economy in those neighborhoods was pretty bad to begin with).

[cali]

37. exactly.

[Violet_Crumble]

26. Those opportunistic looters are NOT on my side!

And anyone who thinks they're on 'our' side needs to realise that if their home was in the path of the rioters rampage, it'd more than likely be burnt down. There was nothing political or noble in destroying homes and property. It was mob violence that had nothing to do with the original protest. The family of the man killed by police spoke out against the rioting.

[reggie the dog]

33. really?

how many homes burnt? how many stores? how many vacant buildings, how many govt buildings, how many police cars?????

[dionysus]

31. glad to see you're cheering violence I bet you don't have the stones to join in on.

[reggie the dog]

32. i will be in cannes for the g 20

i live too close not to be, anarchists and communists from around the world will be there too, can you imagine !!!

[chrisa]

36. One of the worst posts I've ever seen on DU.

If your side consists of people who forcefully invade others' homes, beat innocent people up, try to kill cops, burn places with people still inside and local businesses trying to make a living, and run around in anarchy, then most people are going to want nothing to do with it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. What neighbourhood are you calling 'rich'? Ealing?

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/00aj.asp

Median unemployment rate for London (18th out of 33).

Croydon?

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/00ah.asp

Pretty much median unemployment rate for London (19th out of 33).

What are you calling 'rich'?

[reggie the dog]

27. a bbc report i heard on bbc radio last night saying riots

have moved to the more comfortable areas of the city

[chill_wind]

10. Check out this tweet:

01.41 John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, tweets:

Reaping what has been sown over 3 decades of creating grotesquely unequal society,with alienated young copying ethos of looting bankers.

John McDonnell
johnmcdonnellMP

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8687177/London-riots-live.html

[Dawson Leery]

12. The results of Thatcherism /Reaganomics /Friedman are showing.

[Kaleko]

13. That nails it.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[icymist]

19. I bet you are really looking foward to this.

I don't know what to say about you.

[emilyg]

15. So wrong.