too true, there is only one reason someone would carry a gun in London, so in my opinion, he deserved everything he got! i only hope this has given the government the wake up call that it needs, the hardworking majority of the population has had enough of these thugs who are allowed to hide under the excuses of poor education and living standards. The article from Littlejohn hit the nail on the head - the "softly softly" approach to the black/asian community just isn't working, never has, never will .. a hard line now needs to be towed, these communities need to take responsibility for their youths and sort themselves out! rant over, sorry for the double post earlier .. phone was playing up!
NYC was saved, ultimately, by a "zero tolerance" policy, with arrests for any violation of the law observed by the police, no matter how petty. Over time, this put enough of the offenders behind bars to make a huge difference to the livability of the city. It could work, elsewhere, once this present violence blows over.
v, I think that's what the overwhelming majority of people want to happen, unfortunately the criminal justice system over here isn't set up to support it, plus apparently we don't have enough space in our prisons and the government cannot afford (or just plain doesn't want) to build any more!
Where are most of the rioters from? Just on appearance of the offenders, this could have been Egypt, or some other north African place, it seems.
Some of the inner suburbs of London are like ghettos, primarilly social housing, and predominantly black/asian/eastern european communities - they are not nice places. Turf warfare is rife in these areas. So it seems like the overwhelming police presence on the streets has done the job, parents are handing their kids in to cops, lots of people on the street joining the cleanup operation; this is what it's all about, bit of civic pride coming out nice to see, every cloud has a silver lining as they say!
People getting motivated to take back their community is key: perhaps all this trouble will do the trick for some. This is, first of all, an issue of law and order, security, the provision of which is the core obligation of every society to its members, and without which life can become unbearable. I would do everything possible to restore order, and respect for others. I don't know if the immigrants to the U.K. in the last fifty years have come with an intent to join this society, or not. It seems those who come to the U.S. come, for the most part, with a Desire to integrate, and be fully accepted by the existing society. The openness of U.S. society makes this a real possibility, for most (Blacks in the U.S. might have a different story to tell, even now): I don't know if British society is open enough to allow this degree of integration. ________________________ On a related but different subject, some have expressed concern at the changes wrought by the historically recent introduction of large numbers of non-Europeans to a country that had, until very recently, been populated almost exclusively by those with European ancestry. This is a very different history from that of north America, which had been populated, until the last 500 years, exclusively by those from the Asian continent. Now we can feel what it must have been like for Homo Neanderthalenses, who had occupied south Europe for 300,000 years when Homo Sapiens showed up- and brought competition for scarce resources (jobs?), along with a different appearance and set of behaviors- not to mention the pain the native Americans must have felt to watch their societies fade, and their populations decline, after 12,000 years. This seems, to a degree, to be the history of man. Should those who have a long established culture and tradition in a place take measures to ensure that that is not eroded to the degree that it is lost? I think we should expect that. I read recently that Holland was taking measures to limit access to the pot cafes to those from Belgium and Germany: those from France and Italy seemed to run too wild for the Dutch temperament! _______________________
More and more info about wealthy, young kids that join in on the "fun", is starting to appear. I guess "everyone" that feel like it, see their chance to steal, smash and destroy..? This whole thing is crazy, geez.
Thing is, there's been 2,000 people charged, maybe 500 or so who have gone through the courts so far. The press will single out the anomalies who dont fit the sterotype to make an example and try and demonstrate that the problem is wider than it really is. The one's who do fit the stereotype dont make the press, and they are more skilled at not getting caught in the first place!
Steve: yep, nothing new under the sun. Still interesting to see a millionaires daughter loot tv´s and other electronics...
