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.

The outcome data does not show they are being policed disproportionately to the levels of crime they commit though. If they were treated equally with regard to criminality then incarceration, stop and search etc could be even higher.

Yes

The op includes protests, marches and rallies

There is something to be aware of. Migrants coming to the UK tend to be younger, and also tend to be male. Young men, regardless of ethnicity, are more likely to commit crimes than older men, children or women. If you compare the same gender and age of migrant men to white British men, then white British men are more likely to commit a crime. As Mark Twain said, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

How come you're allowed to express your anger about setting fire to homes but if anyone else tries to express their anger about the attempted beheading, they're silenced?

Net migration - more British people are leaving, including thousands of newly qualified doctors who couldn’t get jobs in the UK.

Absolutely. I want them gone too. The only ones who still keep defending murderers and abusers are lefties, blind or plain stupid (I won't say 'woke' because I am fed up with the word, too).

You can express anger.

you can’t go and try to kill people

Protesting a right. Rioting is not. Cold rage, plus Musk asking why British people are putting up with stuff (and bear in mind the rhetoric in the US that it isn't safe to walk down any UK street) - people are being played.

I imagine Gilead is an aspirational dream for you, OP?

How many asylum seekers vs British bred men have killed women and raped children?

Considering that women are much more likely to be killed by a partner or someone they know and only 5% are killed by a stranger - then unless your family member is an asylum seeker, your husband is much more likely to kill you.

Also over 90% of all sexual abuse towards children are committed by people they know - your own husband is statistically more likely to rape your child than a stranger who happened to be an asylum seeker.

Beheadings are extremely rare and are classed as decapitation - the majority of which are committed by partners/ex partners to their wives/gfs - so unless you are dating an asylum seeker, it’s way more likely that you’ll be decapitated/beheaded by your husband than a random asylum seeker.

They aren't protestors, they are rioters. Protestors don't put balaclavas on and march down Streets in mobs smashing windows and entering homes and/or attempting to set fire to them. This is nothing to do with protesting.

Is there stats that say recent immigrants are more likely to be sectioned?

It’s also more likely you’ll be run over by a car than murdered. Shall we just stop focussing on murder and instead on road traffic collisions?

So why the heck is there an anti-immigration march in my town this weekend, then?

Because the Right, Reform, the far-right are whipping up outrage based on lies and misinformation.

And because the general public are bombarded with misinformation via social media, believe it all and lose the difference between facts and prejudice.

You yourself have done it: You assumed there had been a march for Sarah Everard - it was a beautiful vigil , albeit with a big attendance. Princess Katherine attended.

And you continued to believe / state that immigration is increasing,

@Jellox ‘The men who saved the man in Belfast were immigrants too, so you cannot imply that it’s immigration that’s the issue.’

Just wondering about this. Do you mean the chappie with the hurley stick who tried to whack the perpetrator off the victim?

His name is reported to be Maitiu Mag Tighearnan. I am just wondering where he had immigrated from with his very Irish name.

If you compare the same gender and age of migrant men to white British men, then white British men are more likely to commit a crime. As Mark Twain said, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

There is no official UK government data that can definitively confirm or disprove this statement. The Ministry of Justice does not routinely track or record criminal offences by specific immigration status, making it impossible to directly compare the offending rates of migrant men and white British men.

I'm happy for people to express their anger at the attempted beheading. That why I said it was also appalling. At what point did I silence you?
I merely pointed out I can think about attempted beheading is appalling and setting fire to people's homes that had nothing to do with the incident is appalling
Expressing anger through mass riot where innocent people are injured, homes burnt down, people could have been killed is not an acceptable reaction
Feel free to peacefully protest, vote for the political parties you agree with, email your MP, talk about it online. But violence against the innocent is disgusting

@Jelloxwho are you talking about?

Who is defending murders or abusers?

Why is that the go-to for people like you.
Do you think it’s a way to silence us or something?

The majority of the men that are rioting and starting fires will have criminal convictions for violence against women and children.

If you support these men, then you are also supporting abusers.

We don’t want violence from men who weren’t born in this country.
And we don’t want violence from men who were born in this country.

Why is that so difficult for you to understand.

I condemn violence regardless of the group. But me condemning it will do little good if the government continues to ignore people’s concerns and favour certain groups.

What was Labour’s big announcement this morning? In the face of public concern over immigration, a youth unemployment crisis and the revelation that scores of vape shops have been granted the right to sponsor skilled worker visas, they have announced that we, the taxpayers, should fund visa costs for businesses to bring in more immigrants.

In the North of Ireland it's the case the rioting seems to be happen mostly in loyalist areas. McGregor isnt Northern Irish though- in the rest of Ireland the anti-migrant sentiments aren't tied to sectarian splits because thats not really a thing. He's just Irish. This led to a confusing moment a few years ago when anti-immigrant protesters from the South of Ireland and anti-immigrant protesters from the North tried meeting up but they had the wrong flags.
McGregor is also a man who violently rapes women but it's cool cos he's white. And for the people saying "but there isn't anything we can do there because he's a citizen" we could put men like that in prison or at least stop public ally celebrating them and showering them with money. Or, in the case of Musk, supporting their political ambitions.

@Walkyrie but many people are just concentrating on certain murders and certain rapes. If all immigration was stopped, if all young males from Sudan and similar countries were deported would all violent crime stop. The fact that a number of these rioters have form for DV, will their partners feel safer?

I'm at the same stage, I'm thoroughly sick of it all. Sick of the murders. Sick of the protests. Sick of this country and its inability to get it's house in order. I'd go so far as to say, we are now ungovernable and it's inching ever closer to complete lawlessness. Neither side is capable of listening to the other, childish insults are bandied around like sweets, and society is utterly divided and broken. All whilst the politicians are sat on their fat pay checks in their nice leafy suburbs, far removed from any of this chaos and muttering meaningless soundbites about ' keeping calm' and maintaining a ' cool head'. We need a general election, king Charles needs to call for a dissolution of parliament and we need radical political change. What that looks like who knows, but THIS is not working and ordinary people are suffering the consequences.

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