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.

I’d rather someone who made a vicious tweet was walking the streets than the Fordingbridge rapists but there you go.

Unless you can show what was said in those breeches of free speech. It's a bit difficult to say if they were right or wrong to arrest.
In Lucy Connollys case she called for the asylum hotels to be set fire to. It was reposted nearly 1000 times and viewed by over 300000 people before being removed
People did try to burn down asylum hotels. She may well have encouraged them. So yer she was inciting violence. The person who committed the attacks in Southport wasn't an immigrant. It was just false claims on x and dodgy media that claimed he was. So she got angry about false information told people to go burn down asylum hotels, calmed down after 2 hours and took the post down after the damage had been done.
Tough shit she should have been prosecuted, she plead guilty. If she thought she did nothing wrong then maybe she should've plead innocent and fought her case
She also served less than a year, the people jn the hotel could've lost their lives

It's not an either or though is it. Rapists should be jailed. So should people who incite violence and hatred.

Agree somewhat. Some of the threads on MN regarding benefits, pensioners, unemployment etc, seem to bear this out because people prefer to punch down, and while they’re doing that the super rich who own most of the wealth in the country, as well as rich employers and greedy landlords ripping off the tax payer via UC are left alone.

There was 2 black sisters murdered in a park over lockdown. Police took selfies with their bodies. No protests for them was there.

And, of course, the rioters would have preferred to be burning his house down, if they were still allowed to.

This is a good point.

There was enormous public outrage over this to the extent the sentences have now been referred under ULS.

And the perpetrators were… white.

So no, it isn’t ’selective outrage based on skin colour’

I expect the rioters in Ireland know an Irish name if they see one.

There are plenty on this and other threads who condone this violence, so thanks for clarifying you’re not one of them.

Police failure to act on any crime is terrible, it was reported they chose not to intervene in riots last night in Belfast, not attending shoplifting or burglary is a common issue in England. It’s grim. But I’m not convinced it’s all to do with fear of being seen as racist so much as a lack of manpower and quality. The coalition govt decimated the police, Theresa May took pride in it. Recruitment is struggling and there are some wholly unsuitable people in the police now.

I can understand why people are angry and upset. I can also understand that some
people experience sudden and severe mental illness. Neither of those things justifies going out and harming someone in any way. The idea that governments are going to overnight refuse all asylum applicants, round up everyone waiting and deport them to… somewhere, is just fantasy as well. It’s going to take time and resource to solve these issues, and none of that time or resource needs to be wasted on clearing up after morons throwing bins or harassing women and children.

But that theory falls down when you’re not even handed. Lucy Connolly gets over three years, three little savages walk free. It’s indefensible.

Oh they do indeed!

Did you protest?

I think both should be achievable.

What would they have been protesting for? By the time it was widely spread across the media there was already a political and police response. Do you think that response was inadequate?

There may be an initial hearing but the actual charge wouldn’t be done in a matter of days.

I have known hundreds of murderers and I can’t think of 1 that hasn’t been held on remand for months, let alone weeks and definitely not days.

I agree. It does sound very conspiracy theorist to admit, but some ' body' is pulling the strings to create major social disharmony. If the government truly wanted to curb migration, they could do it tomorrow. So, why don't they? Remove all visas for low/ medium skilled jobs for starters. Easy. We have over a million young people out of work, they can replace immigrant workers.

What do you need to be convinced by?

The rates of being sectioned under the MHA in the UK disproportinately affect non-white individuals.

This is well documented. Task forces and Government papers such as 'big. black and dangerous' were talking about this as far back as 1993.

And at that point, it was primarily talking about 1st, 2nd or 3rd immgrants.

Theories at the time and now were institutional racism? or that migrating to countries can cause MH problems in immigrants and their children and grandchildren for a multitude of reasons.

Obviously those issues would be multiplied exponentially in someone seeking asylum.

You can't possibly think why migrating to - or seeking asylum in a country could cause MH problems?

I could think of at least 50 reasons off the top of my head.

They can, they’ve halved it in a year. The boats are unstoppable however.

I don’t get involved in matters that don’t concern me. I leave it to the people whose job it is to get justice for victims. It was over lockdown anyway and I live nowhere near London. The families usually say it’s not what they want anyway. I was just making a point that’s all.

I agree with this. And it is unreasonable to expect the government to tackle the problem overnight, but this has been going on for years, to the point where there is now a permanent undercurrent of unrest because people are sick of their concerns being dismissed and of being called ‘racist’ for voicing them. As far as I can see neither time nor resources are being wasted, because they’re simply not being applied in the first place.

It can be done, other countries have stopped them, but it takes different policy to Labour’s.

I CBA to refresh my memory of the appeal but I think most of her claims of faulty legal advice were proven false. From memory she waived legal privilege and it showed she was properly advised? Happy to be corrected though (with facts/sources mind).

ETA Agree there are many examples where her sentence could seem harsh compared to others for seemingly worse offences. That’s criminal justice unfortunately.

Could, but won’t. Because they’ve been told they deserve better jobs.

Age they still burnt white family’s houses down!

It’s always the thugs with balaclavas that come out…too scared to show their faces but happy to play the big man by setting busses on fire 🙄