UK Riots

Last night we had serious disturbances in Tottenham, North London, which was a chilling reminder of the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots.

Tottenham

There are suggestions that people went on Twitter ecouraging others to go to Tottenham and join in the riot and the looting. If there is any substance for this allegation, it puts a cloud over social networking sites like Twitter. They are a godsend for activists and anarchists to get their view heard, and for wronged wives to out their husbands, and 100 kids can turn up in minutes for an illegal rave. But encouraging Civil disobedience is quite another matter.

Social Networking has only made it easier to organise, but before SN became available, it was still being organised via the Net or via Mobile Phones, so Twitter & the like cannot be held to blame.

It has been reported that the police returned fire after being fired upon, but until this has been confirmed, one can't comment on that.

Broadwater Farm since the early 80's has been a major drug warren & at one point, it was a total No-Go Zone for the police. Matters may have quietened down some since October 1985, but nothing has changed much in that area.
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was watching it all lat night on sky news, looked pretty bad



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Yes, I saw that as well & again this morning on BBC News. Fire crews were still putting out fires on burning buildings.

Ferry Lane where the shooting occured is a major artery through that side of North London with very little shops/built up area until you get to Forest Road.

The easiest targets for arson/looting from Ferry Lane is where it all happened. Seven Sisters/Tottenham High Road which is still a fair distance from Tottenham Hale station, so the arson & looting had to be deliberate.
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The problem that the London Met police have is that, the highest rank of a feet on the ground Police officer is a Chief Superintendent. From the rank of Commander upwards they are political appointments. Politicians want control of the Met as they police the UK capital city. They want senior officers to do as they are told and not argue, and in return most get gongs when they retire.

If the army had been called in early enough it wouldn't have escalated into what it did. The Met says they couldn't have forseen what was to happen. Maybe so, but they should have reacted earlier and more strongly.

The Met should replace everyone above CS rank with Army staff, and make it into a para-military force. Then we will avoid this sort of thing in future.

The Met should replace everyone above CS rank with Army staff, and make it into a para-military force. Then we will avoid this sort of thing in future.

+2
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Second night of riots, time to bring the troops in?

More riots

Well with politicians in the US fighting amongst themselves rather than attempting to help their country recover & with European politicians taking holidays at a much publicised £10,000 per week, which is 2 years gross income for many here, I expect a lot more to oocur, unfortunately.

Our politicians won't increase police numbers, in fact they doing their damndest to reduce their numbers, & they certainly won't allow the army in on a semi-permanent to permanent basis, so I think its time conscription was reintroduced.

I'm pretty sure that many of these idiots would think twice about vandalism if they knew that they'd be sent into the armed forces & possibly have to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan, rather than be sent to prison.


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Hardly "UK Riots". Not even London Riots since it is rioting in Tottenham that spilled over into a few other London areas. I'm sure the London Metropolitan Police can deal with this without suggestions of turning the UK into a para-military force state. There are no riots where I live, nor the rest of 99.99% in the UK.


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We now have a third night of riots. Time for the army to take control.

More unrest
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Clearly the Army should be called in to patrol the streets.

If that happened, then the thugs throwing stuff at the police, who haven's a clue, would think twice about throwing something at troops.

As an aside, they should send in a regiment of Gurkha's with drawn kukris.

The solution .... give the youngsters something to do like 3 years conscript training then deploy for 2 years guarding Helmand.





My father's is just as per this picture
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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

Fires and looting in Birmingham, and now a large fire and several other buildings set on fire in Croydon, South London about 8 miles from me.

Quote from International athlete Paula Radcliffe.

"In less than 1 year we welcome the world to London, and right now the world doesn't want to come"

What are they protesting/rioting about?

Initially about the local shooting of a suspected drug dealer in Tottenham. But it has escalated all over London, and also in other cities. It seems to be now more about uneducated youths protesting that they don't have any future.

I've never seen anything like this in the UK in my life, and I am surprised that PM Cameron only decided tonight to fly home from holiday.

riots

In no way do I condone their activities, but do we actually think the best way we can handle a situation like this is through tough military support and a few sliced throats?


It would seem to me that the best way to handle the unrest is by allowing them a forum to have their voices heard, and perhaps some action from their elected representatives to alleviate their concerns.

What are they protesting/rioting about?

In no way do I condone their activities, but do we actually think the best way we can handle a situation like this is through tough military support and a few sliced throats?


It would seem to me that the best way to handle the unrest is by allowing them a forum to have their voices heard, and perhaps some action from their elected representatives to alleviate their concerns.

Initially about the local shooting of a suspected drug dealer in Tottenham. But it has escalated all over London, and also in other cities. It seems to be now more about uneducated youths protesting that they don't have any future.

I've never seen anything like this in the UK in my life, and I am surprised that PM Cameron only decided tonight to fly home from holiday.

riots