Riot in the UK

[Gringhost]

So I just finished watching the Michael Caine film Harry Brown and as soon as I got online and checked the news, I read about this:

Riot Hits North London

I kinda went WTF mate?!

 

[Sovereign]

ah, europe.

 

[Gringhost]

ah, europe.

I was surprised it wasn’t over a soccer game.

Yes, I said soccer.

:CStern Sue me.

 

[Xedan Blokk]

Officers in riot gear and on horseback pushed up against the demonstrators.

I'm not really up-to-date with European culture, but.. Does anyone else find it strange that they responded on horseback? Don't get me wrong; it's feckin' sweet, if perhaps slightly inefficient. But then again.. I wouldn't want to go up against a guy on a horse. So maybe it isn't that strange. Dunno.

Well, that's the highlight of my evening.

:CScool

 

[Michael Scott]

horseback?
horses are huge, I live right across the street in Williamsburg where they have the horses for show, they are huge and are pure muscle. They can trample you to death.

 

[Lavi]

I'm not really up-to-date with European culture, but.. Does anyone else find it strange that they responded on horseback?

I don't find it weird at all, considering police officers have used bicycles in some places.

 

[Gringhost]

I don't find it weird at all, considering police officers have used bicycles in some places.

 

[Gex]

Well what you gonna do, glad I don't live there.. Yorkshire is strangely mighty peaceful.. even with its track record for racial violence here.

 

[Matt]

That area is a ****ing shit hole.

 

[Travis]

Horseback officers are used in some situations even in American cities, though primarily large ones. Horses are used by country officers, especially game wardens, when the terrain is too rough for anything else.

Harry Brown was an awesome movie. It was saddening and disturbing to see it and is definitely not for the faint of heart, but it was an awesome movie. Throughout the end, I kept hoping the police would just open fire on the riot and wipe them all out, but alas, it was not to be.

On subject, I really wish that there had been more background into the situation that sparked this riot. The article mentioned that he was killed in "an apparent gunfight" which indicates to me that he was armed and shooting at police. In that case, I have absolutely no sympathy for the guy who was killed as I believe anyone who shoots at police forfeits their right to life. And, if he was armed or threatening others when he was killed, then all the rioters are complete idiots for rioting.

Even if he was just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, there is NEVER an excuse to riot and cause mass destruction and looting. I have no sympathy for such rioters who are beaten down or tazed or maced or otherwise injured in such events. I have sympathy for those caught up in it that weren't participating and the police, but not the rioters just causing destruction.

 

[Xyrael]

So I just finished watching the Michael Caine film Harry Brown and as soon as I got online and checked the news, I read about this:

Riot Hits North London

I kinda went WTF mate?!

Old news. Oakland, California, has had at least 2 riots over this issue in the past year.

 

[Matt]

Old news. Oakland, California, has had at least 2 riots over this issue in the past year.

It's not old news is it?

Considering it happened last night.

 

[Xyrael]

I'm saying the idea of a riot over a police shooting is old news for a Californian. We hear about things like this all the time, we have a glorious history of black people looting their own neighborhoods because a police officer in another city shot someone. Although, ours is ordinarily race related (this year we had a police officer "mistakenly" shoot a black guy who was cuffed and not resisting, as well as the death of another person who was shooting). This news post doesn't seem to say anything about why it started.

 

[Matt]

I'm saying the idea of a riot over a police shooting is old news for a Californian. We hear about things like this all the time, we have a glorious history of black people looting their own neighborhoods because a police officer in another city shot someone. Although, ours is ordinarily race related. This news post doesn't seem to say anything about why it started.

The police shot someone.

 

[Xyrael]

Aren't police officers in the UK s'posed to be without guns? (This is a question spawned from the fact that I don't work in law enforcement and have never been to England, so have only heard rumors. There's the whole stereotype of British officers carrying nothing but a billy club)

 

[Gex]

They have guns, for numerous situations. It is assumption that police don't use guns in the UK because the general officers, the ones on the beat don't. But in large cities, and for some location, guns are generally equipped by officers (take a look at security, it isn't uncommon for police here to have weapon when guarding something vital to security, they are equipped with SMG's I believe.) nevertheless if the individual had a weapon as well (Which is generally the only other reason police would have guns) then that would explain it, or rather they assumed he had a gun.

Besides consider the Norway incident recently, and Britain's two gun shootings last year, it isn't really unexpected that the police are.. more alert to gun crime, especially in that area with it's notorious track record.

 

[Empress]

Aye, the police pretty much have to carry anymore because, while still banned people still get a hold of firearms, or other weapons " though we give the yanks crap for shootings we make up for it with stabbings, and the Irish so....."

as for the mounted horses...I've seen the Police in the US use them all over. When I lived in Albuquerque the Mounted units were all over downtown, old town, the fair grounds, and used at any major event. Same here in Spokane, and I've seen them all over down town San Fransisco and San Diego, and up in Minneapolis/St. Paul

 

[Horizon]

The police shot someone.

:O

 

[Gringhost]

Old news. Oakland, California, has had at least 2 riots over this issue in the past year.

No one cares about California.


:CScool

Besides, I find that watching a movie that ends with a huge riot in London, then getting online and reading that there’s a huge riot in London is pretty strange.

 

[Travis]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-relatives-dead-man

This article provides a little more detail. There are conflicting reports, but some say the guy had shot at police (bullet in a police radio), a non-police issue gun was found at the scene, and that he knew he was being followed by police. The guy who was killed also had a criminal record.

While it definitely seems that the police mishandled the aftermath, a lot of the community are simply guessing and throwing out accusations they have absolutely no proof of. It is stuff like that, as well as race baiting, that caused the riots and is just a complete shame. Why people always have to assume the police are evil and are at fault as though they just go around looking for people to kill is beyond me.