My (different) Take on the London Riots

Discussion in 'General' started by Toosick, Aug 12, 2011.

  1. The government were not to blame for the riots. The looters and vandals actions were in no way politically motivated, nor were they linked to The Duggan murder. Also the majority of rioters were not 'upset' with the government, they just wanted free stuff and some fun. These are the kind of people who don't care about government policy, because many of them ignore it anyway, I don't see why people are so confused about the riots - Some people realized they could get free stuff with lower chances of getting caught, so they took it.
     
  2. #22 Helikaon, Aug 14, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 14, 2011
    Great post.


    But it wasn't just London that was in riot. Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham and Bristol (those are the only ones that I can remember significant 'trouble' taking place). While London is the only place directly connected to the trigger event, the rioting would not have taken place if the people had respect for the police and the government.

    And that to me is the bottom line here. Yeah the vast majority of rioters wanted free iPads, but they would not have started rioting if they didn't think they could get away with it.

    You don't set buildings on fire to get a free pair of Jordans, you don't firebomb a police station to get a new laptop.
     
  3. IMO more riots need to break out. We need to remind the government that we own them, they don't own us. That's the way it was meant to be but eventually it turned around.
     

  4. Madam

    While I agree that it takes something negative to spark the rage of the people, that rage can be carried along on very different themes, and I don't think you can be that simplistic about it. My personal example:

    I was part of the Copenhagen youth house riots in 2009, and while the original theme (govt shutting down a youth house) was what got people, including me, riled up, the riots turned sour very quickly. It went from singing, holding hands and facing down the police to pure looting, gang violence and animosity in no-time, and that had nothing to do with the youth house at all.

    The mob mentality is incredibly powerful - people you can normally reason with lose their minds, especially when the added opportunity of looting comes in, and the feeling of doing something "great" in your life - if you work a boring job or go to highschool or whatever, you live a safe, placid existance, and a riot is a thrill that's hard to resist.

    Then there's the whole human concept of "my team" vs "your team" - this is how we're genetically coded to exist, in small, fiercely loyal societies. When we were on the streets - many of us just chanting and shouting, the police rushed us, and suddenly it was a fight of us vs. them, one of the most intense experiences of my life. We felt like we were being unfairly attacked by an oppressive force, but as they saw it, we were a big mob of mindless destroyers, fucking with the everyday lives of those who live in central Cph.

    I got arrested (grappled with a cop who was trying to arrest my friend), and looking back, the whole thing was silly. Protests can quickly turn volatile when big groups of people are involved, and troublemakers infiltrate and rile up the otherwise peaceful groups.

    Human beings are just animals, like the London riots is demonstrating. Police should not bring weapons to the fight tho, they should just launch joints and lighters into the masses :smoking::D
     
  5. I posted this in another Britain Riot thread, I pretty much agree with him. Love this guy

    [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pAC0YSmK0g&feature=feedu]Britain is a riot - YouTube[/ame]
     
  6. This guy is ridiculous. He generalizes everyone in the riot to be some gang member with nothing to do so they go out and smash some things. Believe it or not there are people rioting with purpose. Just because a few just want a new TV doesn't mean they all are just doing it for new TVs. People are standing up against their government and showing them that they don't need to be governed by the fucking state to survive. People can live and succeed WITHOUT any governing by anyone. Burn down the fucking city and start over for all I fucking care. There needs to be a new order in this world, one that isn't run by some fucking half brain, money hungry mother fucker. People were made to survive with dependency on no one but themselves, so I think it's time we start acting like it.

    "In a society that has abolished all adventure, the only adventure left is to abolish that society."
     

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