North London Riots

[Dazz]

Some of you may know that I live in North London, vey close to where everything is on fire and riots are occurring. Not my exact area, but we can hear tonnes of sirens...

Several areas me and Charlie hang out are completely down. Will let you know how the area I'm in exactly hold up.
Anyone else effected?

Loads of looting, tonnes of buildings on fire, bus, vans, cars on fire... It's getting pretty nuts.
We will be fine though. No stress.

[Woppet*]

Riots? I swear to god i watched the news today and i haven't seen anything about this. Gonna check BBC now. What's it over?

[Dazz]

BBC isn't reporting anything. Sky news is just reitterating what's happened during the day...

We're litterally just sitting on no information except Twitter, which is useless. Guardian reporters on Twitter are covering it, if you are interested.

Prime Minister hasn't said anything yet either, but there really are flames going on everywhere.

[Rakia]

So.. don't know why there are riots then?
Hope it doesn't reach you, man.

[tigerlily]

Riots are to do with police shooting a man who had supposedly shot at the police.

[Woppet*]

I read a thing about it on the BBC website.
Seems strange for Broadwater Farm, considering since 2005 it's been considered one of the safest places to live in London.

[DioShiba]

I heard about this over in America.
I hope everyone is alright, this kind of caught me by surprise since I thought London doesn't usually get things like this.

---

Riots are to do with police shooting a man who had supposedly shot at the police.

I might be stating the obvious but isn't it harder to get a gun as a civilian over in the UK? I might be wrong but I know over there they've got tougher laws in regards to guns.

[GrooveMan.exe]

Yeah, that's right. Guns are both harder to get and incredibly illegal over here.
The thing is, no one's entirely sure of the circumstances of the shooting 2/3 days ago. The Met is notorious for spinning and covering up fuckups - and if the local police shot the guy if he wasn't firing or threatening them with a gun, then that's a gigantic fuckup.

Tottenham (the area that had the initial riot) is a fairly poor community coupled with youths that have less of a 'future' with regards to the local council not doing much about education and employment, and shutting down 8 of the 13 (IIRC) local youth centres. This leaves a lot of angry and bored kids with a grudge against the establishment.

Last night they held a protest in the area of the shooting. The police were there and it was non-violent, until something made them spark off. One of the reports was that a girl who was asking the police questions was hit when she got too close. Either way, it was the straw that broke the camel's back, and people became angry and scared. And when people get angry and scared they panic and riot.

Thing is, it got entirely out of control. Petrol bombs and garbage bins were set alight and thrown at the police and surrounding areas. A Bus caught fire (people were still in it, but escaped), along with 2 police cars, and 3 commercial stores (A Carpetright, a JD Sports and an Aldi, if you give a shit).

Then there was a continuation of the riots - all within a similar area of North-East London around Tottenham. I remember reports from Enfield, Wood Green, Edmonton, Brixton, and my local area of Walthamstow being hit by rioters.

By that point I started following info of Walthamstow on twitter since I needed to check the extent of the damage and if my friends were okay. Unlike Tottenham and a few of the other new riot locations, thankfully nothing was set on fire. The local police were a bit quicker in coming to aid, and the local MP did her bit in surveying the damage, and warning people on Twitter to stay indoors. However, the majority of the high street has been smashed up. It's a place where I spent a big chunk of my childhood growing up, it's a bit distressing to see it so damaged.

[tigerlily]

I heard about this over in America.
I hope everyone is alright, this kind of caught me by surprise since I thought London doesn't usually get things like this.

---

I was brought up around terrorism and bombs and riots in London. They don't even have bins in the underground stations. And that's not since the 7/7 bombings. I know that's not the same as riots but I'm just saying that London's not always as safe as people assume.

[GaryCXJk]

Riots are to do with police shooting a man who had supposedly shot at the police.

So wait, supposedly? And if that man actually did shoot the police, since when do we stand up for the rights of criminals?

In any way, rioting does not solve anything, it only makes you look like a tool.

[Chutzpar]

Ladies and Gentlemen, GaryCXJk; cutting right to the heart of the matter with his incisive and well-reasoned commentary.
I mean who even cares about potential police brutality and unnecessary force if they're criminals! And protestors are silly! Guilty until proven innocent, right?

---

Sorry, it's insensitive of me to go off on one when some of you dudes are actually being affected
but I can't stand this fuckstain.

Stay safe, Londonites.

[Dazz]

Well to be fair, he would be right if that was all of the details - the details really are that there was a peaceful protest 2 days ago about the incident, where a young woman was asking questions on the situation. It came to light from The Guardian that the bullet found that was suspected to have been fired at the police was in fact a police issued bullet.
The young woman who was asking questions allegedly got too close to an officer and was knocked away, which is fair enough, that is what police do - but apparently it was seen more as them attacking her physically for her questions.

As such, a tonne of teenagers and yobs took to the streets to get some free shit, because everyone else was. Nobody that was out there really knows what they were rioting for, they were just pissed off because of all the shit that's going on as of late. If there is a riot and you are angry, for whatever reason, you will likely join in for your own cause.

But yeah, assuming that he was a criminal with the evidence provided is a bit harsh. His family spoke out against the rioting, and he seemed to be a genuinely nice guy.

[Chutzpar]

Even if the guy was definitely a criminal, the police aren't there to act as judge, jury and executioner.

Even knocking someone away for just asking questions seems like bullshit to me. Given The Met's track record with unnecessary violence I'm pretty disinclined to believe their version of events. But ultimately it comes to a their-word-against-ours thing, and both sides are gonna be biased as hell, so I guess that's all beside the point.

You're pretty much spot-on about riot mentality though. It means that peaceful protesters (or even rioters who actually have a cause) are all lumped in together with assholes who are just looking for a fight :/

[Dazz]

Police have apparently gone down to Palmers Green, Southgate and Barnet to tell them to close up show and leave ASAP, as apparently arrangements for 4pm riots have gone into place.
Not sure how much of that is true, but based on the Twitter responces from those working there, it seems to be pretty legit.



So yeah, that's how far we are from Palmers Green.

All the shops are apparently now closed.

[Rosencrantz]

That really sucks, dazz

I hope nothing big happens at that one