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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:
OTheHugeManatee · 09/08/2011 09:25

Katherine Birbalsingh was right. She got fired by the education establishment for saying it, but she was right. Kids aren't expected to take responsibility, just to take what they can get. Result? London in flames.

noddyholder · 09/08/2011 09:28

I was just saying to dp last night that a particularly violent 18+ video game that came out several years ago looked like the news footage from last night. There was a shop in town where you could see bit of it before buying in a 'back room' area! I saw it and it was burnt out cars people wearing masks fires etc. Wish i could remember the name! This is seen as entertainment and people are hardened to it

redlac6 · 09/08/2011 09:31

Grand Theft Auto

Xenia · 09/08/2011 09:32

I don't think films have any impact on this but it's certainly not political and teenagers choosing to engage in criminal behaviour.

We need more boarding up of shops and heavier policing and more people uploading to youtube the footage so that people can be identified and prosecuted.

festi · 09/08/2011 09:33

grand theft auto

festi · 09/08/2011 09:33

call of duty

noddyholder · 09/08/2011 09:37

I think the films/games do. They see it as nothing to watch hours and hours of looting and burning in LA or wherever and laugh at anyone who is shocked because it just doesn't 'touch' them. It is normalised he same as an expensive glitzy lifestyle is seen as something they have a right to!

working9while5 · 09/08/2011 09:37

People here are taking a very narrow view of politics. Of course it's political. Something can be mindless, criminal and political. There is a history of riots in Tottenham spreading, as this one seems to be doing, across the poorest parts of London, to Birmingham, Liverpool and Chapeltown in Leeds. This is not about violent gaming etc, come off it. The economy is in crisis and there are zombie threads going on that reflect deep anxiety even in the pretty cosy middle classes, cuts left right and centre, rising unemployment, a sense the government is out to get everyone and protect its own which is widespread and lo and behold, there's a riot. Someone said up thread that they doubted that any of the rioters would even know who their MP was... well, exactly. It's not motivated by lofty political ideology, no, but that is only one kind of politics. It takes a lot for looting to happen, it's a break down of law and order. Many of these rioters may be criminal thugs, but that's only part of the story that's relevant - there are criminal thugs all over the world but it takes something to trigger them to bring that out into the open, normally their criminal activities are covert and they evade detection and capture. This is about burning up the world, not just getting your hands on a telly. Most of these kids will be caught and many will be sent down, it's so easy to dismiss. It can be condemned and seen as inexcusable, of course.. but let's not be ridiculous and pretend it is any great surprise that riots occur when times are tough.

Birdland · 09/08/2011 09:39

This is about people who have nothing-nothing to do, little in terms of prospects or opportunities, no connection to 'big society' and who have nothing to lose.

If thats not a political issue then I don't know what is

jammydoger · 09/08/2011 09:41

I would be shocked if many (or any) of those involved either had a job or voted at the last election.

Surely they wouldn't anyway, we have high youth unemployment?! Confused

I'm not condoning what is happening on my doorstep. What i find shocking is how a large majority of posters are distancing themselves from this. Shock This is not politically motivated no. But it says a lot about the society we currently live in!

Last night I saw a large number of young teens on the streets... these are not thugs or criminals? These are children FFS!

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 09/08/2011 09:49

having been harassed by young teens who threw stones at my windows and then, when I dared to tell them not to, came into my stair and threw stones at ME, I would disagree that they cannot be thugs.

TeamDamon · 09/08/2011 09:50

What does it say about the society we live in? That we have a lot of greedy, mindless people who don't care who they hurt in their pursuit of material goods.

We can't keep making excuses. The looters involved are responsible for their own behaviour.

TeamDamon · 09/08/2011 09:51

Why can't children be thugs? The two are not mutually exclusive Hmm

Kladdkaka · 09/08/2011 09:52

Anyone remember this footage from last year (pre-election).

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 09/08/2011 09:52

one of the worst young thugs from the area we lived in 5 years ago went to prison at 18 for trying to stab someone.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 09/08/2011 09:52

yes, he was a thug at 13

working9while5 · 09/08/2011 09:56

I don't think anyone said that they're not thugs, just that you can be a thug and it can reflect politics too.

This has happened, in exactly this way, in 1981 and 1985 and you think it doesn't reflect what happens in society?

Why not just pin your colours to the mast and say that it's just the black kids, innit? Thieving lazy thugs, take take take, should be lined up and shot the lot of 'em.

The reaction to the riots on MN shows clearly how deeply divided our society is and just highlights this isn't going to be over yet. This is when riots happen, when society just disavows the people at the bottom of the ladder as though they had nothing to do with the rest of us while blithering on about how they themselves are so poor because they can't afford an Ipad or a second car.

You can absolutely see these rioters as criminals and as thugs because they are currently operating far outside the boundaries of any decent society, yes.. but what brought that about is not that they are lazy thieving pricks. It is not innate, it is constructed. Believing that it's all them and not all of us in it together is a recipe for racial hatred, just there.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 09/08/2011 09:57

someone said young teens are not thugs, they are children

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 09/08/2011 09:59

and i don't give a toss if they are black or white..the thugs that terrorised us were white..am in Scotland, not a large black population here, I don't know why you are making this into a racial issue.

jammydoger · 09/08/2011 10:02

No lets not make excuses but lets also not write off our young people. Labelling a child a thug at 13/14/15 doesn't benefit the child regardless of their actions.

"It takes a community to raise a child" and as such should all be responsible for whatever happens in our communities!

fivecandles · 09/08/2011 10:04

'That we have a lot of greedy, mindless people who don't care who they hurt in their pursuit of material goods.'

Quite. But MPs and bankers get away with it; if you're young, powerless and penniless you don't.

chubsasaurus · 09/08/2011 10:04

Noone said it was a race issue. But this is so typical and police will be scared to react out of fear of the race card of accusations of brutality.

working9while5 · 09/08/2011 10:05

Absolutely fivecandles.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 09/08/2011 10:05

yes, am actually surprised at someone playing the race card as I hadn't thought about the colour of the rioters, all my experience with "thugs" is with white kids.