London and England riots

[Neal]

What do you all think?

👍

You sir are a genius, where can I sign up for your newsletter?


Tonight I've been for a bike ride round the park a few times and it's all pretty quiet although the police presence is quite obvious. One of the two vans I saw was stopped talking to a small group of kids and there was a car parked at a junction closest to Toxteth. I'm probably imagining it but the atmosphere does still seem tense...I had a twitchy bum moment when something hit me only the shoulder but it turned out to be a nut falling from a tree

 

[axletramp]

Tonight I've been for a bike ride round the park a few times and it's all pretty quiet although the police presence is quite obvious. One of the two vans I saw was stopped talking to a small group of kids and there was a car parked at a junction closest to Toxteth. I'm probably imagining it but the atmosphere does still seem tense...I had a twitchy bum moment when something hit me only the shoulder but it turned out to be a nut falling from a tree

Riding your bike in Toxteth after kerfew, eh?

"Sarg, can I tw@t this one over and over again until it gets filmed on a nicked Blackberry and posted on the internet so that some trolling loon leaps out of his armchair in disgust and maniacally bashes his keyboard with the same comments over and over and over and over again?"

"Fill yer boots son. I might have a go myself later. Hold him down will ya."

 

[VEXD]

Some nut jumped out of a tree onto you, and you didn't think that was cause for alarm?

My god man, what kind of an area do you live in where things like that are the normal day to day sort of thing???!!!!???

👍

 

[Jay.]

Some nut jumped out of a tree onto you, and you didn't think that was cause for alarm?

My god man, what kind of an area do you live in where things like that are the normal day to day sort of thing???!!!!???

👍

You should have seen the squirrel that threw the nut.
I bet he had a baseball bat in hand and a big knife in his belt.

 

[dhandeh]

Was it this one?

 

[Neal]

Riding your bike in Toxteth after kerfew, eh?

Near to rather than in, I'm not that soft and I definitely didn't draw any attention from the rozzers...unless they start looking for red faced old gits struggling up a 1 in 50 incline!

Some nut jumped out of a tree onto you, and you didn't think that was cause for alarm?

My god man, what kind of an area do you live in where things like that are the normal day to day sort of thing???!!!!???

👍

I can't be sure it was a nut, it might have been a Burberry.

 

[Dotini]

A surprising number of the rioters appearing in court have turned out not to be the "unemployed yobs" that people have been focusing on:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/08/11/ukriots.accused/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/aug/11/uk-riots-magistrates-court-list <--Altho this says 75% had no stated occupation

 

[dhandeh]

A surprising number of the rioters appearing in court have turned out not to be the "unemployed yobs" that people have been focusing on:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/08/11/ukriots.accused/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/aug/11/uk-riots-magistrates-court-list <--Altho this says 75% had no stated occupation

To be fair, after this they will be unemployed.

 

[axletramp]

...unless they start looking for red faced old gits struggling up a 1 in 50 incline!

Call it what you like, sounds like cottaging to me...

EDIT: That's it, I promise my next post will be on topic.

 

[ScouserInExile]

From Facebook:
Four years ago TODAY (11th August 2007), a girl and her boyfriend were brutally attacked in a park in Lancashire , simply for the way they looked. She died in hospital.
No one rioted, yet some attitudes changed & people united following the attack. This weekend, 12,000 Rock & Metal fans will remember Sophie at Bloodstock Festival. THIS is how you make a difference .
The Sophie Lancaster Foundation

Also:
Today, little M'tembe will yet again have to walk 5 miles to find food. Serves him right for burning down the KFC, BK and McD's, really.

 

[axletramp]

^ Oof!

 

[dhandeh]

Also, today it's my birthday!

Anyway, im glad these riots have settled down. And hopefully all those that have been affected by idiots can quickly get their lives,property etc back to some sort of normality.
To the idiots, that caused it, hopefully they get locked up and realise what they have done.
And hopefully the Police, know they have backing of the government AND the public and choose to Police however they see fit.

 

[axletramp]

^ What he said. And congratulations to all the glaziers and wheelie bin manufacturers who'll probably get a nice little bonus this christmas.

 

[Sphinx]

And hopefully the Police, know they have backing of the government AND the public and choose to Police however they see fit.

So long as it's within the confines of the law. 👍

 

[dhandeh]

So long as it's within the confines of the law. 👍

Dont.........even go there!

 

[Jay.]

^ What he said. And congratulations to all the glaziers and wheel bin manufacturers who'll probably get a nice little bonus this christmas.

My local area had their bins emptied this morning, then I saw a bunch of lads this afternoon all carting wheelie bins through the street.

 

[axletramp]

My local area had their bins emptied this morning, then I saw a bunch of lads this afternoon all carting wheelie bins through the street.

Can't help but thinking of that old joke - "Where you bin?". "No, where you wheelie bin?".

 

[homeforsummer]

A surprising number of the rioters appearing in court have turned out not to be the "unemployed yobs" that people have been focusing on:

I seem to remember mentioning on more than one occasion that the way this country is run isn't the reason people are rioting. If many of them have jobs it pretty much proves that they're hardly scraping the barrel for a living and they're rioting simply because they're pathetic excuses for human beings.

And that's a problem of the individual, not the politics of the country in which they live.

 

[Moot]

My guess is they haven't got the time or space to deal with anyone. Well not petty criminals at any rate - with them it's far more productive to scare now, record on CCTV and fetch later. Anything more serious (where someone's a harm to the public rather than just property, I'd imagine) and you're dealt with more quickly and seriously.

That does not seem to be the case of what has been happening, people going through the courts and already had their sentence have been caught doing minor things.

Such as the opportunist stealing of a £3.50 packet of bottled water. The boy got 6 months in jail. He had no previous criminal record.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8695988/London-riots-Lidl-water-thief-jailed-for-six-months.html


...................
Statistical data about the prosecutions of the riots.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/aug/11/uk-riots-magistrates-court-list

 

[Abscissa081]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_I5qggUEms&feature=player_embedded

since embedding wont work for me.

 

[VEXD]

That does not seem to be the case of what has been happening, people going through the courts and already had their sentence have been caught doing minor things.

Such as the opportunist stealing of a £3.50 packet of bottled water. The boy got 6 months in jail. He had no previous criminal record.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8695988/London-riots-Lidl-water-thief-jailed-for-six-months.html


...................
Statistical data about the prosecutions of the riots.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/aug/11/uk-riots-magistrates-court-list

Your facts are incorrect and untruly stated.

The actual figures for deaths from hot water bottle related incidents are factually, a lot higher, and therefore should be taken with a greater deal of seriousness.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002QFT29W/?tag=gtplanetuk-20

👍

 

[axletramp]

That does not seem to be the case of what has been happening, people going through the courts and already had their sentence have been caught doing minor things.

Such as the opportunist stealing of a £3.50 packet of bottled water. The boy got 6 months in jail. He had no previous criminal record.

You're absolutely right, this is a pointless conviction and waste of the court's time and tax payers money. I would have thought a good clip round the ear and a stern telling off by a police officer would be far more effective.

What do you think?

 

[Touring Mars]

You're absolutely right, this is a pointless conviction and waste of the court's time and tax payers money. I would have thought a good clip round the ear and a stern telling off by a police officer would be far more effective.

What do you think?

A stern telling off hardly sets the right example to those who already believe that this is all they are going to get for theft. 6 months in jail is harsh, but harsh punishment is definitely warranted for anyone who either took part in or took advantage of the rioting.

 

[axletramp]

^ I agree, just not so sure Moot would, hence my flippant response to his rather random post - see VEXD's response as well. It's OK though, he's ignoring us.

 

[Ardius]

That does not seem to be the case of what has been happening, people going through the courts and already had their sentence have been caught doing minor things.

Such as the opportunist stealing of a £3.50 packet of bottled water. The boy got 6 months in jail. He had no previous criminal record.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8695988/London-riots-Lidl-water-thief-jailed-for-six-months.html


...................
Statistical data about the prosecutions of the riots.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/aug/11/uk-riots-magistrates-court-list

I believe its called "making an example". It doesn't matter how minor the crime - they are attempting to show that you do not join in such riots and get away with it.
This was the wrong week to be caught stealing some bottled water.

 

[axletramp]

I had a thought last night as an interesting aside to all this. Yes, it does happen sometimes, before you start!

We come on here an kick the **** about stuff, giving opinion and counter opinion, agreement and argument. But at the end of they day, this is just a forum of people who came together through a passion for a video game. It's not a political forum or one run via any media groups, just us and our chat and our DS3's (DFGT's, G25's, G27's, etc. ). So who cares what we think? We may have a voice but are we qualified to discuss such socially profound issues such as the disaffected youth of the world and the increasing bleak outlook for future generations? Perhaps, perhaps not.

Well something lit a bulb in my head last night - no drugs honest. A news report on Sky went to one of the estates in London (Ealing I think) where a number of these kids came from (btw, 75% of those arrest so far are 18 years old or below). One of the parents was giving an impassioned view to the reporter. I didn't agree with half of what he was saying - mainly about not getting enough form the state, etc - but he did say one thing that stuck with me. He said that because he and his wife had to both work to pay the bills that they weren't able to spend much time looking after the kids. He then said that the kids were spending too much time on their own in the their rooms being brought up by their Xboxs.

Then suddenly it was all so relevant for a forum like this! I'm guessing I'm at the older end of the spectrum (no pun intended) here and although I've been gaming for 30-odd years now, sometimes for days on end in my teen years, I never felt I was being brought up by my Atari/Spectrum/C64/Sega, etc, etc. (looking at that list it's probably just as well!). But then again I'm from a middle class family from the home counties where social depravation wasn't particularly visible.

Could gaming be partly to blame for the recent troubles when added to other social issues? Does too much gaming isolate kids and teenagers therefore potentially desensitising them to the suffering of others?

Just a thought.

 

[dhandeh]

I had a thought last night as an interesting aside to all this. Yes, it does happen sometimes, before you start!

We come on here an kick the **** about stuff, giving opinion and counter opinion, agreement and argument. But at the end of they day, this is just a forum of people who came together through a passion for a video game. It's not a political forum or one run via any media groups, just us and our chat and our DS3's (DFGT's, G25's, G27's, etc. ). So who cares what we think? We may have a voice but are we qualified to discuss such socially profound issues such as the disaffected youth of the world and the increasing bleak outlook for future generations? Perhaps, perhaps not.

Well something lit a bulb in my head last night - no drugs honest. A news report on Sky went to one of the estates in London (Ealing I think) where a number of these kids came from (btw, 75% of those arrest so far are 18 years old or below). One of the parents was giving an impassioned view to the reporter. I didn't agree with half of what he was saying - mainly about not getting enough form the state, etc - but he did say one thing that stuck with me. He said that because he and his wife had to both work to pay the bills that they weren't able to spend much time looking after the kids. He then said that the kids were spending too much time on their own in the their rooms being brought up by their Xboxs.

Then suddenly it was all so relevant for a forum like this! I'm guessing I'm at the older end of the spectrum (no pun intended) here and although I've been gaming for 30-odd years now, sometimes for days on end in my teen years, I never felt I was being brought up by my Atari/Spectrum/C64/Sega, etc, etc. (looking at that list it's probably just as well!). But then again I'm from a middle class family from the home counties where social depravation wasn't particularly visible.

Could gaming be partly to blame for the recent troubles when added to other social issues? Does too much gaming isolate kids and teenagers therefore potentially desensitising them to the suffering of others?

Just a thought.

Tldr - troll.







Joking

 

[axletramp]

Tldr - troll.

Don't worry, I didn't read it either.

 

[homeforsummer]

Could gaming be partly to blame for the recent troubles when added to other social issues? Does too much gaming isolate kids and teenagers therefore potentially desensitising them to the suffering of others?

No, not in my opinion.

Even if these kids had never played a videogame, they'd just be out on the streets instead causing trouble.

 

[axletramp]

You don't feel that a 14 year old playing Black Ops all day (we all know some parents don't think the age restrictions of games apply to their kids) isn't going to have a detrimental effect or they are failing to learn real social interaction?

Just playing devil's advocate.