Tottenham rioting

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has anyone heard? seems to be all over Twitter but not on other media
apparently police cars burning

LemonDifficult, when these 'angry young men' wake up tomorrow and go down the street in their looted gear, the police will be watching. When they take the box for the flat screen tv downstairs hopefully someone will report it to the police. Tomorrow their mothers will have to travel to get a pint of milk and put money on their oyster card because the local shop has been trashed and the owner may be thinking hard as to whether to bother anymore. It is just criminality. If these people had a beef with the police they should have taken it to them. Why destroy the area you live in? What if there is no money to replace all the things that have been destroyed, won't that make the area even harder to live in?

NothingOldcanstay excellent point. I also think that rural deprivation is far worse. No transport, no free museums, absolutely nothing in fact. Yet it doesn't lead to riots.

PhilipJFry- You can't make out anything from that at all, I don't think.

What a bloody mess

I wasn't talking about looting shops...and admitting to it at interview..

But be honest...

The sort of people who are going to be employable won't show the 'attitude' and the aggression that the people throwing bricks at cars and burning down shops do.

The state can't provide everything.

I'll reserve judgement until I see/hear better...

And do you know what?

Maybe the parents/Grand parents should be held to account .

We're a few generations into this crap now.

phillipjfry. There's a problem with the time lines. The rioting started about 5.30pm but this video was shot during full darkness (so probably after say 9.30pm at this time of year).

So whatever is going on in that clip, it isn't any part of the cause of the outbreak.

There are separate press reports of eyewitnesses saying that a (female) stone thrower in the crowd may have been the reason for the first police response.

There are plenty of adults and young people like your Bristol woman who want to make Tottenham better. But these people need money and motives - they are all just getting by.

As I said before, the good worthwhile projects don't get funded enough.

With regard to schools - no, we don't blame the schools, we blame the inequality in schools. The needs of a school in Tottenham are much higher than those in the West of the borough. Recently the funding formula was change, with fierce anger from the Muswell Hill schools, but this is too little too late. The PTAs in Muswell Hill make around £20,000 a year. The PTAs in Tottenham are lucky to make £2000. Why might that be? Because their parents value education more or because their parents actually have some spare change after they've done their weekly shop? The schools in Muswell Hill mostly have a very privileged intake.

Does anyone really believe that when a Tottenham woman has her baby she wants that baby to grow up and be a gangster? This is precisely the attitude that has triggered this riot in Tottenham. These people are seeking attention, because they have been neglected for years. The 'on yer bike' mentality that some of these posters have is laughable. These kids have nothing to lose - try finding them something to lose. Do you really think the underprivileged of Tottenham want to become jobless wasters, dying young? It is a lifestyle choice?

For the most part, the rioters will not have been politically motivated. They will have been caught up in the action and egged on by it. The were unconcerned about the police (apart from a general 'fuck da police' t-shirt sloganry) and unconcerned about the area. Loads of the rioters won't be from Tottenham, they'll have swung in for the action.

What I'm saying is, sometimes it's just a crowd tipping point that moves from calm into chaos. Once that's happened, the ensuing reaction is not always proportionate with the issues at stake.

"try finding them something to lose" self respect, life?

^The schools in Muswell Hill will have students and parents who value education, who believe in self reliance and have aspirations.
All of which cost nothing.^

Ergo schools in Tottenham have students and parents who don't value education, don't believe in self reliance and don't have aspirations.

Your argument reeks.

These people are seeking attention, because they have been neglected for years.

Who by? Their parents maybe? They seem to have failed to bring them up with any respect for anyone or anything, judging by their behaviour.

singforsupper - I actually DO think it's a lifestyle choice for some of the young men.

Why work hard at school and get a decent job to buy nice things when you can just steal them off others? Why pay tax when you can deal drugs and earn huge amounts of tax free cash?

alouise it is very difficult to maintain self respect when everyone around you shows you none.

Nancy, you don't earn a lot for dealing drugs apparently. The supermarkets pay better in general. And the training and benefits come without risk of incarceration.

Bullet Heil bloody Hitler.

'Why work hard at school and get a decent job to buy nice things when you can just steal them off others? Why pay tax when you can deal drugs and earn huge amounts of tax free cash?'

I was always hugely impressed by how many of the children I taught went on to choose the first option, despite crime, dealing and theft being all around them and demonstrably more profitable than being, for example, a teacher.

Agree with Alouise. What a bloody mess. The building at the top, the old Co-op building that had Allied Carpets in it - that was recently converted to housing association flats. Wonder how many people have been made homeless as a result of it being burnt out. It's a mercy nobody was killed.
I hope it stays quiet tonight. My sister lives near there...

Nancy many many people from these areas DO work hard and get good jobs. But many of them can't. Are we prepared to help those kids or do we just want to blame them and cast them out of our perfect world?

That was in reference to AlouiseG's post of 19:20:42 btw.