Hope you all get home safely tonight.

Glad you are ok.

I think it is all just an excuse for mindless idiots to be violent and go looting.

You guys take care...this is messed up. Sad to see this all in the news. And yes Babur, the clash does seem apt. The smiths and some naxalite too, actually...

looks like a shortage of Sony stuff in the near future.

I hope to God there was no one in there and the People in the Hotel got away OK.

 

It is mad.

Also hope all are OK and safe. 

It's wrong, mindless and unforgivable but does beg the question - why is there currently so much deep-rooted simmering resentment and anger in our society??

The Poll Tax riots etc were isolated kids' picnics compared to this lot.

And why are the buildings just left to burn, where are the fire engines and police support?

Tragic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCkNu9OxThc

Unfortunately this is all for fun and financial gain, they are opportunist thieves, and it has nothing to do with any deep rooted resentment. 

Sadly, we will probably see a rise of the right because of the inadequacy of this and previous governments. 

Just read some of the posting on yahoo etc, we are living in very sad times, and we all will suffer in the future.

All true, BB.

But I fear there's more to this than a few 'yoofs' out for a night's "fun and financial gain" - it's a consequence of something very ugly.

The root of this discontent obviously goes back many years; governments must not be allowed to keep ignoring the cult of the 'haves and have nots'.

Hopefully, Cameron and Co will do more than adopt an indignant tone and launch into derrière-covering mode. But DHYB.

As a non-Englishman, I must say I'm quite astonished at these developments. We have seen these things before (Paris, Athens) but this appears to be more viral than in France, which had youth unemployment figures of 50%. I didn't know London youth was so disconnected (then again, we don't get reports about every minor development across the Channel).

Although I fear you may be right, some part of me wishes there would be more behind this than simply opportunism. Even Anonymous' actions, which are basically opportunism with a thin veneer of idealism, are much easier to stomach than this (for me at least) -- I guess because Anonymous doesn't target the grocery shop around the corner.

I watched one of your MPs this morning (May?) on the Breakfast show, and I thought her response was a particularly toothless one. Or maybe she was firmer than that, and I'm not British enough to read between the lines. Basically she wouldn't make any firm statement other than "those thugs will be brought to justice", without explaining how they would do that without evidence (masks anyone?). She kept reiterating that they would need "the community" to help sort this one out, but I fail to see how they can win the community's trust when police response has been so ineffective (or the disorganisation so effective). At least she wasn't advocating curfews.

Anyhow, best of luck to all of you.

Teresa May will have some interesting questions asked in parliament...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/15/theresa-may-cut-police-budget-w...?

I think she may live to regret that comment...

You have a higher estimation of a politician's capacity for regret than I do. It'll get spun by her press people.

She'll be praising the Police and sacking large numbers of them at the same time.

They are more worried about London's  'image' (in advance of the Olympics) than public safety.

Any criticism will just get countered with accusations of trying to make political capital from an emergency.

"TOKYO (NQN)--Sony Corp. said Tuesday its warehouse in northern London caught fire.

The accident was reported to the consumer electronics maker's head office at around 10 a.m [Japan time]. The firm is currently trying to find out what caused the fire and gauge the damage to the warehouse, where content-filled CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs are stored.

A Sony official said the firm has yet to confirm the number of discs stored there or the extent of the damage."

CCTV stills posted on Flickr - by the Metropolitan Police - of suspected looters in Croydon last night (including some filmed entering Richer Sounds)...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/metropolitanpolice/sets/72157627267892973/

Sadly these recent events are no longer about protesting about someone's murder, more using that murder as an excuse for their behaviour. What a tragedy for the family of Michael Duggan, let alone the hundres maybe thousands of people affected subsequently. What is truly staggering are the number of people who are happy to trash their own neighbourhood, their own communities; it's all very very depressing.

Murder? How have you reached that conclusion?

.

I came home through Lewisham last night and groups of youths were running towards the shopping centre, obviously liasing with others on their mobile phones. I then went to a garage to fill up in Forest Hill and the forecourt was full of cars containing hooded youths, mainly black, wearing hoodies and they were filling cans with petrol. The manager was busy shutting early. Needless to say I left as quickly as I could.

I think it is obvious that this is being organised by some central source, the actual perpetrators are too mindless to be able to organise something on this scale.

 I went to Catford this morning, averything seemed normal except that two shops had been damaged, one sells trainers and th e other designer clothes.

There is no excuse for this it is just plain criminality.