(no subject)

[hellison]

Very glad to see friends in London safe today, let's hope it stays that way - last night was unbelievable.
I'm not going to even try to compare it to what happens here because it was totally different in character - here rioters are trying to get at *each other* or the police - there isn't looting or even the arson/property destruction here any more.

Also the police have adopted a controversial new tactic of containing them, letting them get on with it while they take photos then turning on the water cannon. Arrests are then made at their leisure a few weeks later, because apparently arrests at the time can 'antagonise them' and make things worse... I can in a way see logic in this but its still pretty WTF.

It does tho make Teresa May's statement this morning somewhat baffling -
The way we police in Britain is not with water cannon. The way we police in Britain is on the streets and with the communities.

er...


That's from LAST MONTH.

On a brighter note the #riotcleanup on twitter has gathered momentum amazingly quickly and together with endless tweets urging people to check on elderly/disabled neighbours is truly inspirational and hopefully a sign that you won't end up like here, where riots are just a regular part of life that people shrug and get on with.

Comments

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't want to be all 'but what about uuuusss' when what happened in London escalated so badly, but that really just bugged me!!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_unhurt_/]

post-escalation i now feel v. guilty about my reaction to part of a day one news report - "they set fire to a bus". which was "hmm, yes, that'll happen sometimes". belfast: recalibrating normality for your news viewing pleasure?

[hellison.livejournal.com]

I was definitely guilty of that too, it's just so USUAL here (they don't call it 'riot season' for nothing!) that it just seemed a bit par for the course - especially being sparked by the cops shooting someone!

Best thing I ever saw an attempt a burning was the time (manymany years ago) when Internment Day riots were still all the rage and they hijacked a BIN LORRY and tried for quite some time to set it on fire. It eventually did go up with a very... damp boom ;p

[http://users.livejournal.com/_unhurt_/]

that's some determination there! smelly determination...

[hellison.livejournal.com]

It took them over an hour to get it alight, very entertaining to watch (they used to helpfully have the internment bonfire/riot in the park across from our house so we got to watch all the fun from the bedroom windows ;p)