Tottenham riots: police let gangs run riot and loot

[SilentDave]

Jeff, Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney have both condemned the violence on twitter and pleaded for it to stop but I doubt it will make much difference.
Mind you no rioting in Manchester yet so you never know!

[Iron]

It probably won't make much difference tbh, but at least they've tried...

IMHO, once the criminal gangs saw the first rioters get such an easy ride, it set off a chain reaction.

I think this week will be a watershed moment in this country, and will change our national psyche as profoundly as 9/11 changed the American outlook...

Jeff

Jeff, Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney have both condemned the violence on twitter and pleaded for it to stop but I doubt it will make much difference.
Mind you no rioting in Manchester yet so you never know!

[andyfuller]

I think this week will be a watershed moment in this country, and will change our national psyche as profoundly as 9/11 changed the American outlook...

1 person shot dead by police, several buildings burnt down, numerous shops damaged and looted, I don't think that will have the same change to national psyche as nearly 3,000 people losing their life at the hands of terrorists.

To put the two things in the same comment is more than a bit ott imo.

[to75ne]

i have been to plenty of west ham games over the years, and when the idiots kick off. the police always go in real hard. i cant understand why im seeing all this tv footage of groups of morons kicking in shops etc, with old bill kitted out in the riot gear, and just standing watching. why are they not going in hard, like they do with football hooligans?

[Iron]

I'm not saying it's comparable in gravity to 9/11. It isn't (although if these riots aren't dealt with properly, things could swiftly get a heck of a lot worse).

But this is the first time in about 25 years that we've had riots in this country, and possibly the first time in living memory that we've had riots that are this widespread and this serious.

So it will shock people and give them serious pause for thought, particularly as it comes at a time when the economy is in such dire straights. It's time Britain woke up and started living in the real world...

Jeff

1 person shot dead by police, several buildings burnt down, numerous shops damaged and looted, I don't think that will have the same change to national psyche as nearly 3,000 people losing their life at the hands of terrorists.

[Iron]

Politics, would be my guess...

We can't have the police damaging relations with the community by going in hard (despite the fact that the non-Guardian reading section of the community probably want them to do exactly that!).

Jeff

i have been to plenty of west ham games over the years, and when the idiots kick off. the police always go in real hard. i cant understand why im seeing all this tv footage of groups of morons kicking in shops etc, with old bill kitted out in the riot gear, and just standing watching. why are they not going in hard, like they do with football hooligans?

[andyfuller]

Shows the kind of people these are:

Video of a person who has been mugged is helped up off the floor after seemingly being beaten hence the blood, then they just help themselves to more of his stuff:

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.ph ... 3636850851

[to75ne]

Politics, would be my guess...

We can't have the police damaging relations with the community by going in hard (despite the fact that the non-Guardian reading section of the community probably want them to do exactly that!).

Jeff

[/quote]

i think its a reasonable assumption that relations between the police and the so called "community" are beyond damage, i would say none existant.

there is no relationship to damage. only thing that is being damaged is the livelihoods of a hella of a lot of people. all those shops and warehouses etc, no longer open for business. how many will recover from this madness.

to stop this, the police need to go in hard.

[superfrank]

I just went to my local off-licence to get a beer (couldn't sleep and watching the latest news) and it had just been robbed (Old Street, EC1).

10 geezers just walked in and took what they wanted.

I flagged down a cop van but they didn't seemed bothered - bigger fish to fry tonight I guess.

[to75ne]

I just went to my local off-licence to get a beer (couldn't sleep and watching the latest news) and it had just been robbed (Old Street, EC1).

10 geezers just walked in and took what they wanted.

I flagged down a cop van but they didn't seemed bothered - bigger fish to fry tonight I guess.

my aunt lives near there, murray grove off the new north road. hope she,s ok.

[andyfuller]

my aunt lives near there, murray grove off the new north road. hope she,s ok.

Heard she was sat at home drinking Superfrank's beers

Hope she is okay in all seriousness though!

[andyfuller]

If there is one person I feel sorry for it is Rico Hizon - he is hardly getting a look on on BBC News on what should be his big day talking about the markets

[andyfuller]

Classic Sky News coverage -

"Looking around the shops have been robbed, lets go and look in Boots, there are drugs all over the floor, like these, the box is empty - oh it is imodium"

[to75ne]

my aunt lives near there, murray grove off the new north road. hope she,s ok.

Heard she was sat at home drinking Superfrank's beers

Hope she is okay in all seriousness though!

lol.

im sure she is andy. i will check at a more civilised hour, just you can get these groundless fears suddenly spring to mind, when you have some connection to a place or event.

[superfrank]

It's actually quiet around here apart from police van's speeding through - I saw 6 shooting down Old Street towards central London (away from Hackney).

I think the robbery was just undesirables passing through taking advantage of stretched police resources.

I still got a few beers