http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14436499

Started up again for the night just now. Nothing to do with anything anymore, just thugs looting, burning and looking to hurt people/police. Looting and rioting where im working right now. Trying to leave, but Facebook, BBM and twitter saying looting and stuff planned right where I live. Ill be outside my porch with a smile and a baseball bat all night.

Any other Londoners, hope youre all good.

Seems to me that a young man that didn't deserve to die died. And the community seems to be a little pissed that other neighborhoods are getting Olympic development dollars. The riots are the modern day "Do the Right Thing"

More importantly, be safe and Godspeed

The Rodney King riots had little to do with his beating or race after a while... just all the **** boiling over

They said it was for the black man
They said it was for the Mexican and not for the white man
But if you look at the streets it wasn't about Rodney King
It's this ****ed up situation and these ****ed up police

It's about coming up and staying on top
And screamin' "187" on a mother****in' cop

I won't claim to know more about this than you--your'e living it--but from a distance it appears similar. I don't think it has anything to do with Duggan anymore. The stuff I've read makes me believe that people getting shafted wanted their presence felt, and now it's probably degenerated into mindlessness. It probably devolved from

grief --> anger --> protest --> angrier --> riot --> anarchy

Live updates

SupremeCommander wrote:

firefly wrote:The guy had a gun for crissakes

I didn't know that... that changes my tune a bit. I knew their was a firefight but saw nothing linking him to the shooting

To be fair not all the details are out yet but this is what I've heard from sources and I believe this to be common knowledge.

What about the British Army units? Do they have something like our National Guard which can deploy men to keep the peace? Instill a curfew?

firefly wrote:Sorry but there is no message to what these people are doing. It's plain and simple opportunistic violence, robbery, arson and anarchy. Kids are on the street doing it for fun. Just fun. Noone is saying there's a disenfranchised point to any of this. It's kids with cellphones, twitter and FB thinking they are now in charge.

Lord Of The Flies.

Not trying to argue with you but this is what I was reading. Of course I have no firsthand knowledge, even the news agencies here don't seem to be covering it very well:

ChrisC wrote:Have just finished watching BBC Newsnight. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight (They have not yet upgraded the site so wait til tomorrow). Try this instead: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

By all accounts it is getting worse as I write with fires and youths running wild all over the place, not just in London.

None of this should come as a surprise. if you play the economy only for a very small group in a nation, sooner or later the disenfranchised young start to believe that there is nothing for them to look forward to. What have they to look forward to if there is little or no prospect of their being able to emulate what they see every day on screen? Particularly a steady job and the chance of a home and a family.

Again, watch ANY young person today and they live in another world, constantly sending or receiving text messages on their phones and when not, listening to their iPod. In my youth, we had many in our local communities that had made a great success of themselves and were clearly visible in each and EVERY community. Today, our High Streets are all the same and all those "Shopkeepers" have been assimilated into a "Tesco" or a "Boots". Yes some are franchises; but by far the majority can see no clear, well defined future for themselves nor for anyone surrounding them.

We need a comprehensive program of new business creation right down at the grass roots to inspire them to get up and try to make something of themselves. We need to rebuild our communities; create an economy that gives everyone, all every level, the chance to better themselves.

But who wants to listen?