How close do you think we are to looting?

[DoubleAction]

DS has a lot of friends in the Army. They're all on standby and being briefed on how to deal with looters.

What do you think? Just a precaution or the powers that be really think they will be needed?

I predict riots.

Not for looting but from boredom.

Beetroot was that the Tottenham riots? I keep thinking about that when things start to feel a bit restless/lawless here (I'm not far from there and remember it well).

As long as they can keep food on the shelves and the locals keep supporting each other like they are (and the people who need help actually manage to reach out), hopefully it won't come to that.

Plus, with food shortages, the people who are most impacted by this is women who have children - they're more likely to break down in tears in supermarket car parks (encountered one the other day, port woman - was working all day, so no food left) than to lob a brick through a window. Mothers don't tend to think 'fuck it if I get arrested' as they have DC to think of. And at least the pubs are closed so there's limited alcohol to fuel any crazy ideas.

This is scaremongering and is hugely irresponsible.

I imagine that when the drug dealers can no longer get drugs delivered from abroad as flights and boats are no longer allowed to the U.K., that their regular, addicted clients will start to do whatever they can to get money to pay the highly inflated prices for the limited amount of coke/heroin/whatever-drugs-don’t grow-here-illegally that others still have.

That’s when the robbing will start.

And people who are used to drugs will have horrendous withdrawal. So my advice to users is wean yourself off that shit now or you will suffer. A lot. And there won’t be any hospital help for you as they will be too busy.

No reports of looting in China, Spain, Italy or anywhere else.

So this thread is scaremongering at best.

Desperate people, e.g. with starving children

Let’s be real. All supermarkets are PACKED TO BURSTING with food. All of them. Even now.

You may not get what you want because the more popular, usual and convenient products are going quick. But there’s lots there.

Nowhere near ‘starving’ territory.

Agree scaremongering.

It's threads like this that make me want to leave MN. No need.

Desperate people, e.g. with starving children

Mothers are not going to go out looting because they can't find their toddler's favourite cereal.

Self employed people aren't getting support, I'm sure plenty are struggling or going to be struggling with money

That a different thing to Pp suggesting food would run out and so looting in 2 weeks though

What bollocks.
There hasn't been looting in other countries which are ahead of us.
While there are selfish people not taking this seriously enough, overall people are just worried and trying to look after their families. Not smash and grab tracksuits.

*Imagine the police calling in the army for reinforcement and the soldiers standing around scratching their heads and saying 'nah, sorry mate - we've had no training on that so I can't really help you there'.(

Most soldiers, at least in the British Army, aren't trained in policing. Deploying the Army for security is far from ideal.

As far as looting goes, I'm not sure it's more likely now than at any other time. Large scale civil disorder usually seems to arise from a small spark, a single incident that angers a community, rather than directly from general hardships.

So something like a teenager committing a burglary gets shot by a soldier, that's the sort of event that sparks riots. Deploying the Army in a policing role could easily backfire.

Self employed people aren't getting support, I'm sure plenty are struggling or going to be struggling with money

I can't picture disgruntled accountants and graphic designers being the typical demographic for looting any more than mothers of young children would be.

There are plenty of community support groups springing up - one of our local restaurants has closed and is offering to cook meals for people who can't get food and NHS workers, etc. I know these are only little pockets but it's happening everywhere and it all adds up so that people feel less isolated. And people who feel like they're part of society and supported by their neighbours are less likely to commit crime .

It might happen as laid off workers run out of money for essentials. I think they will be truly desperate people though as face recognition on the cctv cameras mean you will be identified and have to explain yourself in court afterwards (if you do loot).
The government setting up free food distribution centres for everyone who has lost their job would help prevent this.

It'll happen on Tuesday. And the next day all the prisoners in the UK are being released. And the desperate Mothers shoplifting rice crispies wont be arrested because all the Police are working from home.

Oh, and my cousins Mum is a cleaner in a hospital and shes been told she has to be a Dr in ICU as of Monday.

And my DS best mate who works in Wilko knows loads of army men and they have all been told to shoot everyone commiting burglary or trying to buy more than 2 packs of gluten free penne so be WARNED.

This is defo going to happen.

The British only seem to riot and loot during hot weather, I've noticed. So not anytime soon.

Anyone remember 6-11 August 2011?

The British only seem to riot and loot during hot weather, I've noticed. So not anytime soon

Ha! If we're still in lock down come summer, we may have a problem.

* The British only seem to riot and loot during hot weather, I've noticed. So not anytime soon.*

My brother served in Iraq and Afghanistan
He said always much quieter when weather was particularly extreme

OMFG Lynette how crass.

The riots were on response to a man's death at the hands of the police, which they then lied about the circumstances of, and then totally mishandled the anger in the community.

Do you think the police only shoot people in the summer as well?

Whatever people think of the mark duggan case, that post is utterly, mindlessly offensive.

I don't think I've ever said this before on MN but seriously fuck off.

The police could have de escalated the situation by handling it properly.

But no it was just a bit hot blame the weather.

That's genuinely nasty.

Does the weather make the police lie about the circumstances of them shooting people?

They shot jean Charles de menezes in July and then lied about the circs.

Maybe expand on your point if you have one beyond making a cheap point over something that had a root cause of really poor behaviour on the part of the met.

They shot jean Charles de menezes in July and then lied about the circs

Yes and we all know why. Separate issue entirely.

Extreme hot weather might not make the trigger for protest/civil unrest occur, but it's not that crazy an idea that the external environment can affect people's reactions to events, as individuals and/or collectively.

We all know why?

Pray tell. .

That's not what Lynette said though longines.

She made a crass point about disturbance triggered by the police behaviour over a man they shot.

I don't know if it was a deliberately inflammatory statement or not. There was a lot of very unpleasant online commentary at the time around that situation and what the police did.