Bad things happening in London

[theone1982]

I hope all of our British friends on this board stay safe. According to the news here in the U.S. things might be starting to calm down.

[robertlouis]

Sounds like some guys from Baltimore are vacationing in the UK this summer.

Ha,, welcome to your future. Too bad you gave your guns away.

Sorry Yvonne - adding guns to the riots would have helped somehow? SMH.

[robertlouis]

As always, the sociological background to the situation is infinitely more complex. Yes, there's an adrenaline-fuelled mob mentality which spreads and unites, but the reasons for being out on the streets in the first place are many, and vary from individual to individual.

It's a mix of the disaffected, disenfranchised, poor and the frankly not very bright on the one hand, and the having fun, let's torch the high street on the other.

Could be we're witnessing unrest in the UK for the first time in which the primary motivation for many is to see what you can get for free - "consumer riots".

And as others here have hinted, it's far more widespread than the mainstream media would suggest. Many towns in the north west have been affected, not just the major conurbations, for example. I learned yesterday that a town, Wellingborough, which is not far away from my home village, had its own night of rioting. No reports anywhere so far.

[PomonaCA]

Don't worry, guys. Soon the good Englishmen will defend their lives and property.

With Sporks and butterknives.

[Dino Velvet]

Stay safe, Robert.

[PomonaCA]

Stay safe, Robert.

Don't worry Dino. He'll be safe. You can tell he's watching the violence on TV because it's always the punks with nothing to lose who sympathize with the idiot thugs. We saw this in Orange County during the LA riots.

[robertlouis]

Don't worry, guys. Soon the good Englishmen will defend their lives and property.

With Sporks and butterknives.

Wrong. In Birmingham and London last night retailers banded together with assorted (non-artillery) weaponry to defend their property. You'll love this, of course, for many the weapon of choice was a cricket bat! Interestingly, they weren't accusing the police of holding back and allowing wanton destruction, rather they sympathised and recognised that the police were simply too thinly spread to be fully effective.

And piss off with your implication that the Brits are hopeless wimps just because we don't carry huge cannons everywhere like you do to compensate for your tiny dicks. Any guy who is useful with his fists is twice the man of any prick who carries a gun. SMH.

[robertlouis]

Stay safe, Robert.

Thanks mate. No problems for me. I live in a rural village with a population of 1500 and an average age of 60+.

Any riot here would be about an increase in the price of Pinot Noir and they'd just parade limply down the High Street tutting mildly....

[russtafa]

Teddy boys and Skins back on the streets

[fab]

I like the water canon with dye. But as we know it here in England a bit of rain will soon dampen the spirits of these wankers. Only prob rain is forecasted for Thursday.