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.

They are.

Remember the Hunt family? Three women brutally murdered by an ex boyfriend, not a peep out of the “protect women and children” lot

Manhunt as BBC racing commentator's family killed https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0kr1eqqwg2o

ITS WORSE WHEN ITS SOMEBODY WHO HAS ACTIVELY BEEN ALLOWED TO ENTER THE COUNTRY. We’ve discussed why.

About which murder did Nigel Farage say: "I thought it was horrific, but you know what, you’re going to get one bad person in any large group of people".

A clue: He didn't say that about Sikhs.

I wonder where they all find the time to protest.

I'm too busy at work.

But you are not Angry!!!! And therefore you do not care and must be therefore less moral and also incredibly privileged in an Ivory tower.

I distrust anyone telling me to be angry because I used to play poker and generally anyone one trying to make you angry was trying to manipulate you by getting your brain to work less. I distrust Farage anyway because I have memories. But now it's like being very Angry is seen as a good thing. Almost like performative virtue signalling but worse.

I disagree a bit about the pro-Israel/pro-Palestine protests because they were both/have both been overwhelmingly peaceful and people have a right to protest. (People like Konstantin Kisin have filmed themselves inside both protests and found them so). But I do feel as if increasingly the point of protests is for social media afterwards rather than the protest itself? So people getting into confrontations so that they can then post (often edited) versions of the protest online and generate outrage there. Or if there is no actual confrontation to be had find something else to make people angry about like talking to a police man who ignores you and then all the people can call them names in the video comments. Tiresome behaviour.

If you think the NHS is on its knees now, there would be full-scale collapse if there were mass deportations. The NHS is a regular United Nations when it comes to the nationalities of its employees.

Fyi the suffragettes motto was 'deeds not words ' . They found that asking nicely didn't work and used tactics like bombs and arson, chaining themselves to inconvenient locations and hunger strikes.

The cause of the protests, riots and unrest is quite simply male violence. Whether those males are elected world leaders or ‘normal’ men who kill, rape and attack others matters not. It all comes down to the same cause.

I’m in a city it’s not constantly like this. Every time you’re not working you see protests and riots?

The weekly matches about Gaza pissed me off the most. Gaza is 1000 miles away and nothing to do with the UK government. All it did was cause chaos for people trying to get to work and cost the tax payer millions on additional policing costs.

No. It isn’t.

But thanks for exposing that you think VAWAG is worse when it’s not committed by a white British man.

But we are actively contributing to a genocide. It makes sense that people would be angry about that.

The ones taking part in violence are usually the ones who couldn’t give a fuck about anyone and using it as a way to cause trouble. Genuine protesters just do that , protest.

Rather than someone who has "actively" not had warnings about his escalating behaviour and repeated violence taken seriously by the police and authorities?

Because if your objection is that the state "actively" made the decision to admit this person and therefore that a failure of the state that means setting fire people's homes (who are suspected of being foreign) is justified rage, then do you think setting fire to a load of white Scottish men's homes would be justified rage at the repeated failure of the state to prevent the actual beheading of a woman?

Or are some state failures worse than others and if so why?

We are in an extreme situation when people are in danger of being beheaded on the street. You can try to normalise all you like but it is not normal. Rioting is a proportionate response by which people are saying that they will not stand for it

As long as the knuckle draggers burn their own areas, torch houses in their own streets, and destroy the ships they or their families spend money in, nothing will be done but claims for "calm" and "don't speculate" and "know your place". If the protests were in Islington, at the gates of Stormont or at the homes of their elected representatives then the outcome might be different.

Realistically you’re not in that danger though. Fair enough if it was happening up and down the country but it’s not.

You’re at far more danger of these thugs beating you up because they think you look a little too brown for your liking. Or of having your home burned down. Or your car. Or your bus.

People have the right to protest but I am deeply embarrassed by what i see on any news coverage. Government need to get a handle on this situation before it gets out of control.

Haha, all good points, and fascinating about the poker!

I thought people had a right to protest about issues affecting their own societies. What do the Israel/Palestine protests achieve? The UK government has no influence out there. And I wouldn't mind, but the protests are HUGE thanks to the rabble-rousers who organise them on social media. Time was, there would be a few hundred in Parliament Square, there would be some media coverage, and that was that. Job done. But these days, with the professional attendees, everything's just enormous and the sheer size of them causes disruption, to add to all the other disruption. The civil unrest is endless. It would be exciting if the protests were for a clear aim that was feasible to achieve, like when the French went on strike and demonstrated for their state pensions. But what's the point of a pro-Palestine or Pro-Israel protest in the UK? What are they even protesting against? The UK can do nothing! The net result is MORE disruption, for no reason.

And here goes the normalising

I came here to say exactly this. Sarah Everard got a candlelit vigil and police brutality in return. It's not generally women setting fire to property and hurting other people. We are looking at an epidemic of male aggression and violence, fuelled by the media and certain politicians.

But the point is we are actively contributing to the genocide in Gaza. We have RAF planes flying over the Middle East providing intelligence to Israel. We have been supporting it for decades.

Exactly.

Events like this highlight what a dump (sorry to say it) Northern Ireland is (I live here and am from here).

Of course it was horrendous what happened. Of course we have a systemic immigration issue that needs to be solved. But what’s happening here right now is blanket hate and vitriol towards anyone and everyone who looks a bit different to the ill-educated perpetrators who are doing this.

The list of “protest” places circulating around social media yesterday - all the more socially deprived areas where whoever these organisers are KNEW they would get uptake. Kids who feel they have nothing better to do than vent their anger at someone with a different skin colour even though they had nothing to do with what happened on Monday night.

Yes we have a problem - sure! But blanket racism is not the answer it’s disgusting. Some NI people hate fellow white people whose religion mildly differs to theirs - are we shocked they can be racist too? I’m not. It’s entirely predictable to be honest.

Nigel Farage and co couldn’t give two shits about NI - Brexit proved that. But the problem is niche and borders are complicated involving the GFA and call me crazy, but some little shit wearing a black North Face trackie with a balaclava on his head setting fire to a glider isn’t going to solve that quickly.

I have no issues with peaceful protests. I would have serious issues if these were limited for anyone.