to be utterly sick of protests, marches, rallies, and riots

[NameChangeMay2026]

What happened today in Belfast was dreadful. Of course it was.

When Sarah Everard died, there were marches. But a day before she died, an Indian woman Sarah's age was knifed to death in the street in Leicestershire. It was an "honour" killing, I think.

Where was HER lantern on the doorstep of Downing Street? Where was HER march?

My point is, dreadful things happen every day and I am so sick and tired of news items sparking so much public rowdiness. It used to be that the media could report on current events without starting a riot. I know that we have always had riots, but they were the occasional one. And because they were not common, they helped effect change. They were a desperate measure reserved for when nothing else had helped.

Now, together with marches, rallies, and protests, society is constantly disrupted, and I am so, so sick of it. I live in a major city and I can't go anywhere without checking what march, rally, protest, or riot is happening, especially at the weekends. And they are so common that they don't help effect change anymore.

The riots are terrible. Thousands and thousands of pounds' worth of lost property in fires, injured bystanders, police calld away from other duties to attend them. And there are "professional" rabble-rousers who travel to marches, protests, and riots. It's not because they're passionate about a cause. They're just passionate about causing trouble.

I travel for work to major American cities and it's even worse over there. Another day, another riot/protest/march/rally.

They have become a feature of today's society, and I wish they would just stop.

Edit: I actually stay in more because of them. I don't go out of my hotel as much when staying in America, and I don't go to the city centre where I live as much. It's so bad when regular people are put off from walking around city centres because of all these annoying dickheads.

I think it is worse in America, and I'm tired of feeling scared to go out when there, in case I run into an uncontrolled crowd - where the police have guns, and the protestors might, depending on the state.

The burning buildings in Belfast are a disgrace. It's not the owners' fault that this happened.

You'd need to ask the people of Leicestershire where the march was for the unnamed Indian lady you mention. Did you organise one for her?

It's not the responsibility of the people who had the vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham, London to hold vigils for all other murdered people

It is true that a disproportionate number of black/brown men are sectioned, but the way to address that is to look to understand why before acting.

For example - research to see if it is because of racism - eg if two men, one black and one white, present to mental health services with the same symptoms, are there differences in how they would be treated such that the white man might be cared for in the community, whereas the black man would be seen as a danger and placed in a secure facility.

Or is it that there is a higher level of mental ill health in black and brown communities, so that the higher level of sections reflects higher rates of illness? This would make the sections legitimate. But the reasons why black and brown people are more prone to MH issues (were that the case) should then be investigated, with a view to equalising health outcomes across society.

The answer isn't to blindly introduce a quota to ensure that numbers are the same, stick to that come what may no matter who presents, and then just neglect to keep safe those who are a danger to others and themself.

You mean apart from the police policy documents that they have agreed to review in the last few days?

The chartists and even the suffragettes marched and protested and caused poltical change after writing petitions to number 10 got no-where.

The suffragists asked nicely for around 40 years for women's rights to vote and got nothing the suffragettes used far less peaceful means.

I think modern sensiblies assume those rights that various electoral reforms gave would just have naturally happened - ignoring facts that changes like that with sections of population giving up power and money rarely happen easily or with no pressure.

I've been completed fuck off with Just stop oil and it's various incarnations - protests but still think people should have right to march and portest within limits.

Riots - are unhelpful and are a break down in law and order - they can arsie from protests - but think belfast situation it was a riot instiagted from the off.

I’m not the one making an assertion.

I agree, they will, and then the truth, which is that Reform won't be any better at managing a stagnant economy shot in the foot by Brexit, or organising social and local services, will be revealed- I honestly don't know what they think is going to happen after the 'protest' vote? In our area, even though it is poorer and working class, Reform and Conservatives together did not outstrip the Greens and Labour when the votes were totalled, we elected a Reform councillor (I didn't obviously). I don't see that Reform has a vision other than things are shit and other men are shitter than our men.

I agree with this. While I personally don’t have strong views on the immigration topic (regular and irregular) it is something Britons of all stripes overwhelmingly strong view on and want numbers reduced.

It just seems baffling how the governments over the past decades have continuously ignored this or increased numbers (specifically Blair and Johnson).

But the thing is I don’t see a Reform government being any different and that’s where things become scary.

Protest and riot are not synonyms

I mean based on the data. I mean the disporportionality we see in things such as incarceration, stop and search, deaths in custody, mugshot releases to press and strip search would not exist. Anecdote and feelings don’t trump data.

Remembering of course that several million of those brown and black people are recent immigrants.

You are though

I agree with this. I think the Labour government missed a trick in not going all out for a points-based immigration system. I think their tinkering was utterly invisible and doesn't address the problems of immigration which are real and it's fine to discuss IMO.

Reform isn't tne answer, but I do get the problem. My husband is an immigrant and I am not anti-immigration whatsoever, but it has to be strategic and very well managed and meet the needs of the existing population, and it currently does not. This is going to be worse given the drying up of the job market for current UK residents plus the huge number of NEETS we seem to have.

I did not criticise disproportionately in and of itself. It can simply reflect reality such as mental health rates or reflect different responses to people based on ethnicity (where some automatically receive a harsher response).

But what it is, is a rebuttal against those who claim black and brown people are treated with kid gloves. Clearly they are not. If authorities are avoiding sectioning black and brown people (for example) they would not be sectioned at disproportionate rates.

I don't know enough about the system to answer that. But you'd hope it would be able to screen out someone who was going to try and chop someone's head off and gouge out their eyes...?

About two weeks ago I went out socially in the neighbouring town, it is about 98% white, has a Reform MP and flags on prominent display. Saw two fights outside two different pubs and has to frequently jump out of the way of crowds of balaclava wearing lads powering up and down the streets on their bikes and laughing at the consternation they caused. This was just a Sunday afternoon. We had hoped for a pleasant afternoon having Sunday lunch and a stroll, it felt tense and unpleasant. It's pretty much the same in the city I live in, we go out early so we can get home early, there are sometimes stabbings in town, loads of fights, a male family member was badly beaten up in a random unprovoked attack, turned out the offenders had been on a rampage over several days and attacked at least 4 other strangers. My relative now no longer goes out in the city centre. There just seems to be so much anger out there

Police policy documents that set out to prioritise certain groups over others are not ‘anecdotes’: they are the documents that tell police how to act.

You cannot separate outcomes data you talk about from rate of criminal activity. Though there is no disparity for deaths in custody.

Nope.

How? Not being funny buy he has been here for about 5 years now. How can you design and assessment that suggests that somebody may cut somebody’s head off (or attempt to) in 5 years?

attempted beheading / attempted murder

burning peoples houses down

What was the incendiary flash point for all of it, the root cause

The Black lives matters protests - in Covid when we were meant to be isolating to prevent the spread of Covid and deaths from Covid, put 29 police officers in hospital. Yet politicians still responded with sympathy and the BBC reported it as ‘largely peaceful’.

Bu the data shows that’s not what’s happening. So yes it is “anecdote” over data.

You cannot claim that police are prioritising black and brown and people in the same world where data shows those groups are disproportionately policed.

Okay but if you’ll condemn that you need to condemn the violence seen last night.

You can’t. They know this

Ah, I misunderstood the thrust of your post, sorry.

How many people had their homes set on fire by those protesting extra judicial police killings?