London Rioting

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I would agree if it was predominantly in boroughs where unemployment is high.

These people haven't only JUST started causing trouble either, they've jumped on a bandwagon.

I've said before that most of them wear ASBOs with pride, including a bunch of youths in a small town in Hampshire who went around with an air gun shooting out peoples windows, and this was years ago.

Now take a larger location where there will be more like minded people and the 'in thing' is to incite a riot.

 

It's still nothing substantially new. There have been losers and deadbeats in every society in every part of the world forever. A riot or other civil disturbance is hardly a new 21st century phenomenon. I remember something similar to this happening even in peaceful little New Zealand in the early 1980s when a mob randomly went nuts in Auckland and smashed everything up (on a smaller scale than London but there's an awful lot less people he too).

 

As HB said, there are always some miscreants and nutcases. As for how many of them made up the riots, I'm not sure - it might be most, some or a few, I doubt anyone started doing statistics on the rioters. Naturally, in such situations, the most extreme elements are the most newsworthy.

By the way, my point is not that the people rioting are the only ones with low income, prospects, etc. It is that problems such as these are a big part of what caused the environment from which those riots emerged, and possibly the current incarnation of the "chav" phenomenon (if I understand the term right). 98% of the people who have these issues won't go out there and break stuff, which is why we don't talk about them except when, say, discussing why some nutjob fringe party is doing so well.

 

Two words: Youth unemployment.

Youth unemployment is something that is common with Syria, Egypt and Britain. I read that some of the suburbs that were rioting had a youth unemployment percentage close to 30%. That's bad, that's very bad. I mean if we were talking about individuals, then sure these people are probably "chavs", but they ended up so because they grew up in areas with little prospects in term of work or education. This is first and foremost a social failure if you ask me.

 

They don't want work or education.

 

Ooookay, and you know this how? When you are raised by ignorant people without hope, surrounded by ignorant people without hope it is hard to be anything but an ignorant person without hope and only knowing what you have seen.

Something that hasn't been mention lately is what can only be called the all out media war against the lower classes in the UK for a long time where they have purely been depicted in a such a way as Barmy and others say. It is a lot easier to turn your back on people you despise instead of feel compassion for.

 

It's nothing to do with class. Why are you so obsessed with class? It's a bunch of jobless, worthless low-lifes, which I'm sure countries the world over have. They were after having a tear up with police, running around burning stuff and hopefully getting a free Samsung TV while they're at it. It snow-balled a lot because of the mass-media attention, but the people are still the same kind of people. The kind of kids who would otherwise be stood on a street corner getting pissed on cheap vodka and threatening people who walked past. We're a big country, a few hundred nuisance idiots is hardly representative of... well, anything. Getting a job or an education is not high on the list of priorities for these people - more where the cash for their next weed hit his coming from. These people can be rich, poor, low class, middle class, it really doesn't matter. They're just thick idiots who want to cause trouble.

If you don't have people like this in Sweden, then I want to live there.

 

It's funny how those worthless low-lives always seem to spawn from the same neighborhoods. Coincidence. bad genes, or maybe the environment?

Not that I'm justifying the rioting in any way mind you. It's no excuse, it's just an attempt to explain why these "chavs" exist and why there seems to be so many of them in certain areas. Youth unemployment is very dangerous in that it breeds exactly this sort of people. Unemployed and uneducated youngsters tend to have too much time on their hands and find other pass times like burning cars and looting stores. Having the police round them up is a short-time solution that does not deal with the long-term social problem.

 

Well yeah, of course there are hot beds & bad areas. That's true everywhere as well.

 

They were talking about the riots on WPR recently and many pointed out that the UK has been cutting back on social spending and requiring tuition for publci colleges (something par for typical in the US but formerly, correct me if I'm wrong, unknown there).

The joblessness probably has a big impact.

Though, even if one is poor, one doesn't have to go hurt people.

Note that some social programs that provide housing require people to sign a contract relating to how they will behave.

Of course, like many things, there is probably a mix of reasons why riots are happening.

Some people may feel let down by society and others may just want to stir up trouble.

The current PM may actually use these riots to his political benefit by trying to portray himself as handling them well or being tough.

 

Ive found something which sums up alot of my views on this:

 

Well, also pretty much sums up the reason and background for the riots.

 

That guy should run for office.

 

That video rocks! He sums up my feelings quite well. I know that many want to romanticize these people into working class heroes -- modern day Robin Hoods. But they are only in it for themselves. They have no desire to help others, they only want to help themselves. They need to be slapped down hard, not enabled.

What about the rights of the middle class shopkeepers? Do any of the apologists give a damn about the livelihoods being destroyed by these selfish, violent rioters?

 

I really do not what to write anymore, you guys are something extra. Sitting here baffled by your complete lack of ability to look beyond the very basic and the pure hatred shown.

 

It must be nice to live in a place which doesnt suffer from this kind of vermin, what a wonderful world.

 

No offense, Barmy, but how funny is that coming from "England?" Historically, England has been obsessed with "class." Perhaps my opinion has been jaded about that subject with England since I studied English literature during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. However, almost every writer and poet since then, from Shakespeare to Bronte, Dickins to EM Forster to Eliiot has written about some type of class warfare within English society.

 

Because we moved on from the renaissance and middle ages?

There have been several more murders inluding a family of three being mown down outside their home after a driver mounted the pavement with the intention of hitting them.

Way to rebel against social injustice.