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Enfield riots?

916 replies

Empusa · 07/08/2011 18:21

Just seen on Twitter and in a few articles like this, that there are meant to be plans for a riot in Enfield tonight and riot police are in the town centre?

Used to live there, and got family there (luckily a fair distance from the centre), but fucking hell! What the hell is going on?

OP posts:
CHBitchy · 09/08/2011 02:44

:( debrs4

LemonDifficult · 09/08/2011 02:47

debrs that's awful. Poor guy.

CHBitchy · 09/08/2011 02:53

Lemon - judging but guardian live feed a lot of them have gone home to rest. Some have been injured and they are moving between areas. I guess they are repeating news stuff as it allows people just turning over to catch up with what is going on.

BBC seem to have changed their mind about manchester having been hit by rioters.

HalleLouja · 09/08/2011 04:47

Oh my life its like something from a horror movie. I was brought up in London and always wanted to move back but not so sure now. Although herts is not safe hopefully our village will be ok. All ny family are in enfield though.....

sakura · 09/08/2011 05:04

Let's play let's pretend, just like the politicians and papers are.

Let's pretend this was totally unexpected.

Let's pretend it is RANDOM.

Let's pretend that the group comitting violence is not economically and socially marginalized and disenfranchised.

Let's pretend this has nothing to do with the U.K being one of the most unequal societies in the world in terms of income.

Let's pretend the government has not been implementing policies designed to shaft the poorest

Let's pretend taxpayers money has not gone on upholding the lifestyle of powerful people who should have been sacked and thrown in jail (bankers' bonuses, anyone?)

Let's pretend a political analysis of the gross inequalities in society is unecessary

Let's pretend this is "just kids wanting to play supermarket sweep" as one paper reported.

Let's pretend that some people just like looting and vandalizing, and others don't.

According to the media and politicians, some people just like causing chaos and other people don'T.

WEIRD.

RANDOM

[rolls eyes]

ScatCatShoo · 09/08/2011 05:35

Sakura, what a fantastic post. I've shared that on my FB (with due credit to you and Mumsnet), hope you don't mind.

annieversaire · 09/08/2011 05:42

'Let's pretend that some people just like looting and vandalizing, and others don't.

According to the media and politicians, some people just like causing chaos and other people don'T. '

How is that weird and random or am I really missing something?

sakura · 09/08/2011 05:47

hi ScatCat, no I'm flattered

sakura · 09/08/2011 05:49

This is serious political unrest. It must be named for what it is.

The newspapers and politicans who are PRETENDING it is random are taking the risk of sparking even more violence, by their own stupidity

sakura · 09/08/2011 06:21

And I don't think I'm the only one who's noticed that every single one of the policeman I've seen so far in these online vids is male and white

Blueberties · 09/08/2011 06:27

This is not political unrest at all. You are fantasising.

This is simply crime. It's really rather disgusting that you attempt to justify it with a political gloss.

This is crime. If you came face to face with a laughing crowd of hooded people pushing shopping trollies full of stolen stuff, carrying tellies and bags of booze, you'd be hard pushed to describe it as politically motivated.

This is crime carried out by people who feel entitled to do whatever they want. One looter screamed out last night "I'm getting my taxes back". She has a job. She's nothing but a thief.

Sakura and others: you should be ashamed of yourselves trying to justify this. Go and explain that to the shopkeepers, the house owners, the people standing outside their homes with pots and pans to defend their property and families, terrified that these evil tossers will come their way.

My lip curls - you are blinded by bias.

noddyholder · 09/08/2011 06:28

I absolutely do not agree. That is what these violent thugs want us all to believe for when they are haled to court to be charged. The young teens running away laughing with tbs and trainers are well dressed and fed looking lobotomy in a country that provides education and health free at point of service. They are already brandishing the best phones and shoes etc and are just rallying each other via the Internet to grab what their mates have got. There is definitely a divisors there always has been but even at the bottom in the UK no one is walking until they collapse for water or dying becuase they can,t see a doctor. To call them disenfranchised is letting them off the hook

Blueberties · 09/08/2011 06:28

Random? You know why it's spreading to places like Ealing and Clapham?

There's more and better stuff to steal. Get a grip.

noddyholder · 09/08/2011 06:29

Excuse typing I pad. This all comes from the values instilled when young. Or lack of tbh

catwithflowers · 09/08/2011 06:39

So sorry Deb Sad.

annieversaire · 09/08/2011 06:51

What I mean is some people DO seem to be enjoying all this, and a lot of us would never, ever countenance taking part in it.

So those statements are true as far as I can see. Sorry but are you trying to suggest that these people have been driven into reluctant violence by their social position?

I don't think so. There are thousands and millions of folk in the same or worse situations financially and socially and they are victims of this, not perpetrators. The corner shop owner standing by his shop door trying to protect it. The people living by the shops that are burning.

they are not part of this yet their lives are just as bad.

FFS

noddyholder · 09/08/2011 06:54

So sorry debs. It is somworrying. My ds is 17 and I fear this will spread to where we are. He is off Barcelona with friends for 6 days to,or row and the worry I had about his firstbholiday has dissipated as I think he will be safervthere!

freybean · 09/08/2011 07:05

we should get the army in and shoot the fuckers

i heard reports last night that they tried to riot by the childrens hospital in birmingham

noddyholder · 09/08/2011 07:10

If these people are not dealt with quickly and severely what message are they getting? That they can take to the streets and take what they want while the rest of us live in fear that they will riot and burn our cities if we tackle them. Decent people trapped in their houses, business owners ruined after years of hard work sand at a time when they are probably just hanging on. There needs to be a re establishment of order fast. They should put a curfew on these people and anyone on the streets after that face the music.

freybean · 09/08/2011 07:15

reports of a 26 year old man with gun shots to the head

teejwood · 09/08/2011 07:32

Sakura your post does NOT reflect what happened in my neighbourhood yesterday, thanks very much -apart from the organisation, yes the idiots were all telling each other where to go and what to do via BBM, FB & Twitter.

If we do not expect people to take responsibility for their CRIMINAL ACTIONS then this is what we get. As I said before, if it was economic they would be taking food. THEY WEREN'T.

fastweb · 09/08/2011 07:34

Let's pretend this has nothing to do with the U.K being one of the most unequal societies in the world in terms of income.

On paper perhaps, but is is far from one of the most unequal societies in the world in reality.

Have you been to places like Thailand recently ? Where huge numbers of people live in shanty towns made of plywood on the end of a stinking sewer water infested klong, or under the pillars of the overpasses, while the visible and numerous elite play eenie meenie miny mo with their fleet of luxury cars and their hot and cold running servants.

How about a quick easyjet flight to Italy, where there is no welfare state as you know it in the Uk and when you lose your job you might, if exceedingly lucky, get some small kind of gov. support for a single year, if you were one of the lucky few who had a permenent contract, but that is about it, and it is not in any way comparable to the benefits you'd get in the UK.

Kids live at home with their parents until their mid to late 20s, because it takes that long to get a paid job with a salary you can live on, rather than an internship. Yet the politicians, even the far left ones, enjoy their summers on a yacht and set their kids up with "do little, get paid lots" jobs for life". Where the whole system is based on not what you know, but who you know, so a huge swaths of the young are out of the loop from the word go.

I'd rather be unemployed and disenfranchised in the UK than anywhere else in the world.

And I'm glad that support system exists because I got hit hard by Maggie's recession as teenager and have never forgotten being cold, hungry and frequently homeless.

But please do not bleat about Britain being on of the most unequal societies in the world, you can make anything look like anything on paper, but if you actually go have a look at the world you are unlikely to want to be at the bottom end of the playing field in the vast majority of other places on the planet.

This is about something rather than nothing, but the genie is out of the bottle and there is no putting it back in.

This is about unrealistic expectations. This is about a sense of entitlement. This is about a wholesale lack of disciple and principles being instilled in a propotion of a generation.

And the tragedy is that the people at the wrong end of the playing field who are guilty of none of the above, who have already been the most adversely affected by the arson and looting and the terrorizing, are the primary fall guys now in the fireing line. Because if you don't think this won't cause a Daily Mail flavoured backlash as long as you try to dress it up as something it isn't, you too are guilty of unrealistic expectations.

With your help in linking the people who need and deserve the most help with this mob, the phenomenon can very easily be re-framed as the straw that broke the camels back and the truly in need will see a slash and burn campaign towards benefits and services as enough of the electorate decides that since it achieves nothing but trouble, might as well save the cash that provides the safety net and put it towards rebuilding and more police instead.

noddyholder · 09/08/2011 07:35

I blame shows like big brother and thenx factor. The overwhelming message sent out that youmdon,t need to work for anything and you can start atbthe top not the bottom! The lack of ambition for anything other than stuff and these programmes show that you can go from nothing to luxury in seconds. This is not real life but these thugs are not even thinking furthervthan the next phone

MissBetsyTrotwood · 09/08/2011 07:39

On our way home yesterday I saw groups of young men heading into the centre of Hackney from where we live. They were laughing, joking, shouting, some were drinking and smoking joints and were clearly really ready for something.

That's not something we see here often, at least not in the day when you're out with your kids.

They were up for a fight and some pure criminal behaviour. Twitter was full of it last night. Messages like 'Come on, lets get paid in Hackney' were all over it. Nothing of the political protest there. Just a lot of people intent on getting a bit more for themselves and smashing stuff up.

This is organised yet mindless. It's greed and aggression motivating these people, not political belief. Some, a very few, have genuine grievances. They are not the ones looting shops where my friends work and devastating the streets and property of people I know.

downtothesea · 09/08/2011 07:39

Is it time for we the public - the 'community' to get out on the streets with the police - we have to help them surely? This is an attack on the fabric of society. Anyone willing?