Mark Duggan Shooting

[Allegro]

Anybody got a live cam for anything happening in London? I looked all over and couldn't find anything.

Is this helpful? On edit: oops, videos aren't live cam. Sorry.

Londoners Riot for a Third Day (Videos presented at truthdig)

[82_28]

One may not think it at first, but it appears this "prophecy" by Morrissey has come to fruition:

Here is London, giddy of London
Is it home of the free -
Or what ?

Can you squeeze me
Into an empty page of your diary
And psychologically save me
I've got faith in you
I sense the power
Within the fingers
Within an hour the power
Could totally destroy me
(Or, it could save my life)

Oh, here is London
"Home of the brash, outrageous and free"
You are repressed
But you're remarkably dressed
Is it Real ?
And you're always busy

Really busy
Busy, busy
Oh, hairdresser on fire
All around Sloane Square
And you're just so busy
Busy, busy
Busy scissors
Oh, hairdresser on fire
(Only the other day)

Was a client, over-cautious
He made you nervous
And when he said
"I'm gonna sue you"
Oh, I really felt for you ...mmm...

So can you squeeze me
Into an empty page of your diary;
And supernaturally change me ?
Change me, change
Oh, here in London
"Home of the brash, outrageous and free"
You are repressed
But you're remarkably dressed
Is it Real ?
And you're always busy

Really busy
Busy clippers
Oh, hairdresser on fire
All around Sloane Square

And you're just too busy
To see me
Busy clippers
Oh, hairdresser on fire

I've never viewed that song as political or even satirical. Shows you what I know. I always thought it was an ode to London and a flitty hairdresser Moz liked.

Alas, The Moz has always been a few steps ahead of me.

That said, I really don't know what to think of this. London is one of my most favorite places in the world. Very, very little is being spoke of it here. You wouldn't even know it was happening, honestly.

[tazmic]

"Electric Ballroom in Camden has just been smashed up"

Of all the places in Camden to target...

interactive google map

edit: just heard first suggestions of the military to be brought in on BBC.

[Gnomad]

Via Slashdot:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/08/ ... wn-Rioters

"Protests against a police shooting in the poor London neighborhood of Tottenham escalated into rioting and looting this past weekend. Initial reports have it that the activity was coordinated not by Twitter or Facebook but by the relatively old-tech method of BlackBerry messaging. Now the official Twitter account of RIM's UK division has announced that it is 'engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can,' which presumably means that it's handing over messages sent by rioters. Is BlackBerry being a responsible part of British society, or is it overstepping its bounds?"

http://twitter.com/#!/UK_BlackBerry/sta ... 6640787456
http://www.itworld.com/mobile-wireless/ ... ted-looted

[semper occultus]

my initial impression from reading the reports is this seems to be marked by aquisitive organised looting of retail premises ( "deregulated shopping" as I saw it described ) targeted at high street shops & shopping centres... thus seeing trouble spreading to affluent outer-suburbs like Ealing although I'd guess those involved would have come in from Acton

I'd contrast that to the protest-based rioting or civil disobedience as seen in Athens eg a politically motivated confrontation with the organs of state & by proxy the political establishment....the tactics seem more at avoiding confrontation with police by immediately melting away & seeking out unprotected shops etc to be turned over....& also with the 80's riots which I well remember...although none of the current generation of rioters would ofcourse ( as young as 8 by some reports )

there will be inevitable baying for the introduction of the full panopoly of paramilitary policing like water-cannon which are not currently sanctioned for use outside N.Ireland as the police give every appearance of having lost control of the situation

[justdrew]

One may not think it at first, but it appears this "prophecy" by Morrissey has come to fruition:

nice, but I was thinking more:

[semper occultus]

seems like an excellent analysis :

London riots are not the work of organised gangs

These riots do not fit the mentality of gangs. Blaming it on them only distances ourselves from the problems of our young people

Gavin Knight
guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 9 August 2011 12.16 BST

Following the London riots, the media have been quick to say the looting was the work of an organised gang of thugs, even a network of gangs working together. The truth is more complex. Mark Duggan was a member of the Star gang. Made up of less than 10 members, it had a notorious reputation for being armed, dealing Class A drugs and intent on making money. It was affiliated to larger, older gangs in the area known as the Tottenham Man Dem or the Farm Boys, with around 30 members each from different generations.

Given the cut-off nature of Broadwater Farm Estate, the gang members there are close-knit. They do not attack members of their own community. They all grew up together and remain in touch with previous generations. They also protect the estate like a fortress against rivals like Edmonton in the north, the Wood Green "Mob" to the west.

In Tottenham, as in other parts of inner cities in the UK, one of the key trends is the lowering of the age group involved in gang activity. Younger and younger kids are becoming involved. It is likely that young kids from outside the area, alerted by BlackBerry instant messages, arrived to loot the shops. One eyewitness from the community told me how he was driving in the area with his family and could see young kids he recognised but they were "so angry and emotional" he decided not to engage with them. "They saw the burning car and it gave them an adrenaline rush. They were spurred on by a chance to put one over on the police, maybe for the only time in their lives."

Some kids who looted Foot Locker later boasted about the boxes of trainers they had in their house. They do not fit the profile of organised senior gang members. A source close to the gang community, with a background in armed robbery, told me: "If senior gang members were involved, they would not be interested in just trainers and TVs. They'd take out the bank, the safes and tills from H&M and Foot Locker. They would break into the bookies."

A network of gangs at work is also unlikely, as rivals gang members entering Tottenham territory risk reprisals. "If they saw someone who had done something to their family, they would not hold back just because a riot was going on," my source told me. "The kids who turned up have nothing in common with each other except that they were throwing stones at the police. Young people looking for excitement."

The cutting of youth services in the area is not an excuse to go out and loot shops. However, the younger teenagers drawn into gang activity and petty crime or looting do so in deprived areas of the inner city. Without jobs, any social or educational aspiration, the youth services were a means to distract them. Youth offenders who try to turn their back on a life on the streets are constantly hampered by prospective employers doing CRB checks. An offence can dog them for years. It is only the London mayor's scheme that seeks to employ young people regardless of their previous offending. These young people do not feel part of a society. "When the city is on fire the prime minister and mayor don't even come back from holiday," my source told me. "It just shows they don't care about us."

Before the cuts squeezed youth services, there was evidence of hope provided by social enterprise and youth-based initiatives. In deprived areas with deteriorating high-density social housing, troubled young men no longer needed to eek out a sense of identity in violent life on the streets. Violence happens in deprived areas where domestic violence, family breakdown and addiction issues are also rife. Younger boys are intimidated by teenagers and men to join gangs. The media stereotypes groups of urban teenagers as feckless thugs. This judgment and distancing only exacerbates the problem. Media attempts to blame the Tottenham riots on a network of organised thugs is the latest way to distance ourselves from the problems of this community and our young people who desperately need a voice.

[MacCruiskeen]

Practically everything I've read or heard or seen about this has been deeply depressing. However anyone wants to characterise these riots, they were not a revolution nor even the beginning of one. An expression of deep alienation and frustration, certainly, but entirely without a clue or a worthwhile target. Instead it seems to have been mainly local tenants, local kids, and tiny local businesses that suffered. You can't Fight the Power by terrorising & wrecking & swaggering through working-class neighbourhoods, because that's precisely what the Power itself does.



And yes, of course the detestable neoliberal governments of Thatcher, Blair, Brown and Cameron bear a huge amount of responsibility for this. If you spend decades eroding access to education and meaningful decently-paid work while cultivating the idea that greed is good & war is noble & Social Darwinism = social justice, then you'll eventually reap what you sowed: a generation of what the right-wing media like to call "feral" or "mindless" youths out to grab whatever they can. (The one thing that made me laugh in all this was the description of looting as "deregulated shopping". What the rioters are doing to those charity shops & footwear stores & apartment blocks is precisely what the banksters & corporations are doing to the world.)

PS I speak as someone who fully supported the trashing of Tory Party HQ by student protesters last November, and who objected vehemently when the media sanctimoniously condemned it as "violence".

[MacCruiskeen]

"There is no such thing as society." - Margaret Thatcher.

[wintler2]

Nice map Tazmic, ta. i'd love to see an animation over time as i think it'd inform the epidemic/contagion theory on violence. But interestingly, its all violence against property (cos nobody has died in this since Mark Duggan, correct?), setting aside rock throwing and melee's against police (who primarily represent and defend Property). *just heard about first death as writing this.

..the tactics seem more at avoiding confrontation with police by immediately melting away & seeking out unprotected shops etc to be turned over....

'Melting away' is good strategy when facing a stronger but slower opponent, and the Brit cops 'kettling' tricks would have to be familiar to many by now. Its interesting that most of the rioters don't seem interested in protesting/appealing to govt for anything, they're just doin' it for themselves (yay Thatcher!). That makes them smarter than many.

.. there will be inevitable baying for the introduction of the full panopoly of paramilitary policing like water-cannon which are not currently sanctioned for use outside N.Ireland as the police give every appearance of having lost control of the situation

Yep, police powers and funding 'benefit' from public disorder.

But top-end property prices just took a dive , where will the rich run to next. Dubai? Broke. Saudi Arabia? Bloodbath looming. US? I have a sickly feeling more will come to Aus.

-

Sympathy to anyone directly affected, am sure its no joke IRL. But sit tight, just like in the last episode of Shameless, the squaddies will come to restore Lawn'order.

[Jeff]

This is very good:

Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Panic on the streets of London.

I’m huddled in the front room with some shell-shocked friends, watching my city burn. The BBC is interchanging footage of blazing cars and running street battles in Hackney, of police horses lining up in Lewisham, of roiling infernos that were once shops and houses in Croydon and in Peckham. Last night, Enfield, Walthamstow, Brixton and Wood Green were looted; there have been hundreds of arrests and dozens of serious injuries, and it will be a miracle if nobody dies tonight. This is the third consecutive night of rioting in London, and the disorder has now spread to Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham. Politicians and police officers who only hours ago were making stony-faced statements about criminality are now simply begging the young people of Britain’s inner cities to go home. Britain is a tinderbox, and on Friday, somebody lit a match. How the hell did this happen? And what are we going to do now?

...

Tonight in London, social order and the rule of law have broken down entirely. The city has been brought to a standstill; it is not safe to go out onto the streets, and where I am in Holloway, the violence is coming closer. As I write, the looting and arson attacks have spread to at least fifty different areas across the UK, including dozens in London, and communities are now turning on each other, with the Guardian reporting on rival gangs forming battle lines. It has become clear to the disenfranchised young people of Britain, who feel that they have no stake in society and nothing to lose, that they can do what they like tonight, and the police are utterly unable to stop them. That is what riots are all about.

Riots are about power, and they are about catharsis. They are not about poor parenting, or youth services being cut, or any of the other snap explanations that media pundits have been trotting out: structural inequalities, as a friend of mine remarked today, are not solved by a few pool tables. People riot because it makes them feel powerful, even if only for a night. People riot because they have spent their whole lives being told that they are good for nothing, and they realise that together they can do anything – literally, anything at all. People to whom respect has never been shown riot because they feel they have little reason to show respect themselves, and it spreads like fire on a warm summer night. And now people have lost their homes, and the country is tearing itself apart.

No one expected this. The so-called leaders who have taken three solid days to return from their foreign holidays to a country in flames did not anticipate this. The people running Britain had absolutely no clue how desperate things had become. They thought that after thirty years of soaring inequality, in the middle of a recession, they could take away the last little things that gave people hope, the benefits, the jobs, the possibility of higher education, the support structures, and nothing would happen. They were wrong. And now my city is burning, and it will continue to burn until we stop the blanket condemnations and blind conjecture and try to understand just what has brought viral civil unrest to Britain. Let me give you a hint: it ain’t Twitter.

...

http://pennyred.blogspot.com/2011/08/pa ... html?spref

[semper occultus]

oh fuck...just got this e-mail ( 2:30 pm here ) from our HR Dept....

We have been informed that rioting is expected in Uxbridge at 4pm today, with people meeting at the Grapes on Uxbridge Road and moving into Uxbridge. Shops and offices in the Uxbridge area are being closed.

Anyone who lives in Uxbridge or the Uxbridge Road area (or has children or dependants in the area who need collecting or looking after) are advised to leave work in case the roads are blocked.

All employees are advised to avoid travelling through Uxbridge later today and should find an alternative route home this evening.

All employees should take their laptop home tonight in case they need to work from home tomorrow.

[crikkett]

I'm noticing some key things about what's happening. Widely distributed spontaneous riots. Stretches the police over a wide area. Virtually guarantees limited effectiveness. Multiple distributed attacks seems a bit sophisticated for a bunch of 'disaffected youth'. I'm also seeing, very submerged, the right wing meme emerging, as evidenced by the letter Occultis noticed.

And the technology aspect. "...They're using Blackberrys to plan and co-ordinate.." How many times have I heard that today. Blackberry's being the only encrypted phones that I know of.

For instance:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/0 ... er-looting

Weird.

I once watched seagulls tapping the ground to bring the worms to the surface, expecting rain...

There were riots in London last spring, and police were kettling students, who took to using google maps to pass info via smartphone.

I think this new strategy is within college students' capabilities. First-person video games notwithstanding, I learned that England's kings led armies as teenagers

I'm surprised the police haven't jammed cellphone signals...but I haven't caught up with this thread yet.

[Jeff]

Some satire, that may as well be true, from Wikileaks Twitter:

BREAKING NEWS: Libya recognizes UK rioters as official government of the UK

Cameron's authorized rubber bullets for tonight, apparently.

[Searcher08]

00:38 9/8/2011: Camden Town, London
As looters and rioters smashed up shops, looted and fought with police in Camden Town, Philippa Morgan-Walker, 25 and her husband, Jonny Walker, 31, made tea for the police who were protecting their street. Some of the officers had been on duty for more than 30 hours.