They came armed with brooms and the odd wheelbarrow.Not organised by anything other than willpower and social media. No hard hats, no H&S risk assessment, they just came and cleaned up.
Where youths had roamed the streets with bricks and bats just hours earlier, a new army had appeared.
Invoking London’s famous ‘Blitz spirit’, volunteers responded defiantly to the worst violence the city has witnessed in decades by rolling up their sleeves and helping in the clean-up.
State:
A man who bravely remonstrated with a mob of rioters was fighting for his life last night after being beaten up in front of police.I know what the call will be for, as a result of this. Routine arming of the police.
Hopelessly outnumbered, a single police officer watched as the lone man, said to be white and aged in his mid-40s to 50s, was set upon by a large mob of armed black teenagers after he confronted them for setting two industrial bins alight.
Try and find the interview with a thieving p.o.s on the streets somewhere in the BBC Radio Leeds area. It was just after 8am this morning. Compelling in its simplicity. Sociologists take note. eg: "I do it cos I can get away wiv it man" - there's more.
ReplyDeleteBBC Radio Leeds, breakfast show (usually loaded onto the iPlayer sometime on the day of the programme)
Its odd that, given the demographics of illegal gun ownership in the UK, there haven't been any shots fired at the police so far. You can discount the man shot in Croydon, that seems to have business-as-usual Gangsta stuff. Also, how do all these turf/postcode wars and neo-tribalism function in the context of mass looting? Are all these territorialities suspended for the duration? Or do the Peckham Boys handle the smash'n'grabz in Peckham, whilst studiously respeckin' da Waltham Jungle Bunniz first dibs on the Carphone Warehouse in THIER neck of the woods? Surely there's a research opportunity there somewhere?
ReplyDelete"Not organised by anything other than willpower and social media."
ReplyDeleteIs this DC's "Big Society" at work?
;)
"No hard hats, no H&S risk assessment, they just came and cleaned up" ...
ReplyDeleteChrist on a crutch .. with all those Plod around, its a miracle they weren't all nicked .. I mean, to openly flout H&S .. and in broad daylight too ..
Still, I suppose they can always be picked-up later, from CCTV footage .. when a few cells finally become vacant ..
"Is this DC's "Big Society" at work?"
ReplyDeleteI would seriously doubt if anything Cameron says will have any effect whatsoever on anything. Instead, I think this is ordinary people just simply fed up to the back teeth with the feral underclass always getting their own way.
Privately, I have a good ideas who constitutes this horrible bunch of shits, and I have an idea what can be done about them.
Sadly various laws (possibly well intentioned but utterly repressive) forbid me stating who they are and what should be done to them. Oh, and how quickly it should be done.
But I am sure a lot of others have similar, though quite possibly illegal, views.
"after being beaten up in front of police."
ReplyDeleteIf one single good thing has come out of these riots then it seems to be that no one still believes the myth about the police protecting us.
The Group Armed With Green Brooms made that painfully clear to Boris even.
If the police officer had been armed, confronted the mob and shot a couple the rest most probably would have backed off. Indeed there is an argument that because we, the people, have been disarmed by various governments that thieving, violent scumbags have no fear. the Bill of Rights says we can bear arms. If this freedom was restored then these nasty luittle thugs might think twice about assaulting anyone.
ReplyDeleteBack in the 50's, in the days before the Thames Valley Farce, a Berks Police Officer was on his 'beat' one evening. Oh btw 'beat' was this thing the coppers used to do...involved walking around the neighbourhood. I know , I know, it does seem an alien concept, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteAnyways this Copper on his beat came across a gang of thugs, maybe Teddy Boys, who were attacking a lone man.
Remember back in those days the copper had NO radio to call for back up' just a whistle. He had no 'asp' just a wooden stick...if he had even bothered to put it in its special pocket and not left it at the Police House as he normally did. He had no 'stab vest' and no pepper spray.
He made sure his tunic was sitting straight and his helmet was securely fastened under his chin and then he stepped forward and told the louts to desist and arrested them.
They, the thugs, beat him to a pulp.
They crippled him.He was in hospital for weeks after and had to take early retirement. He got almost no pension, not much in the way of commendation and his family would have starved if it hadn't been the local masonic lodge.
Yet no one described him as a 'hero', he was just doing his job. He himself said "No British Police Man takes a step back".
I'm not naive enough to think that there was a 'Golden Age' of policing, or of anything much else for that matter, but that copper would be turning in his untimely grave (no doubt hastened by that beating) at the state of today's Farce who are feel they need stab vests just to talk to us on the street.
"They came armed with brooms and the odd wheelbarrow...."
ReplyDeleteStirringly patriotic...I feel myself being spirited back to the Battle of Britain, JuliaM.
So I speculate how the Luftwaffe might have been deployed, had we been obliging enough to reveal to Berlin, all the positions of our anti aircraft guns.
I cannot say for certain how Goering would have responded to the cunning plan of transferring all defences to the capital, coupled with a taunt "now bomb London if you dare".
Placed in such a position, many would have been tempted to bomb Manchester and Birmingham, instead.
Thus we should count ourselves fortunate that my hypotheses were never tested during the Blitz. At that particular time, the raving lunatic element was absent from the Cabinet.
So far as routine arming of the police is concerned, it would be wise to make some preparations. A foot hospital in every Town, perhaps?
As Chalcedon says, the routine arming of the public would be more to the point- after all members of the public are pretty well always there first.
ReplyDeleteRe PJH- yes, though DC just coined the phrase, the concept is ancient
The 'single police officer' sums up the attitude of the PC PCs now. They want the power to detain, the power to arrest, the power to question and interrogate, the power even to strike at us with weapons if we are a threat to public safety. But when we grant them that power, they also have one single responsiblity to discharge in return - to protect the public when it is threatened by violence and lawlessness by putting themselves in harm's way if necessary.
ReplyDeleteThat's what we call a 'social contract'. They have broken their part of that contract, so I am currently asking myself why we should continue to keep ours.
DSD
What would routine arming of the police achieve? Would they be prepared to shoot rioters? I can imagine the reaction of the Guardian reading classes and the Lee Jaspers (spit) of this world when the first black hoodie gets gunned down running out of Curry's carrying his loot. The Police wouldn't use firearms in these situations, they'd be sh!t scared of the consequences, an attitude I can wholeheartedly understand. A PC who made a firearms mistake would be hung out to dry.
ReplyDeleteThe solution to these issues lies in the schools, and the reintroduction of corporal punishment. That would solve the problem inside 5 years.
or some anon vigilante on the rooftops sniping scum as they leave a store arms full of trainers. I'm suprised it hasn't happened yet.
ReplyDelete"Try and find the interview with a thieving p.o.s on the streets somewhere in the BBC Radio Leeds area."
ReplyDeleteOh, that just summed up these 'disadvantaged youth'. It should be on a continuous loop at 'Guardian' HQ, until they realise the generation they created is nothing to be proud of..
"Its odd that, given the demographics of illegal gun ownership in the UK, there haven't been any shots fired at the police so far."
Someone on Gadget's thread reported bullet holes in a police carrier, but I've not seen that officially reported.
"Christ on a crutch .. with all those Plod around, its a miracle they weren't all nicked..."
Well, the council did poke their oar in...
"Indeed there is an argument that because we, the people, have been disarmed by various governments that thieving, violent scumbags have no fear."
Spot on!
"Yet no one described him as a 'hero', he was just doing his job. He himself said "No British Police Man takes a step back".
ReplyDeleteI'm not naive enough to think that there was a 'Golden Age' of policing, or of anything much else for that matter, but that copper would be turning in his untimely grave (no doubt hastened by that beating) at the state of today's Farce who are feel they need stab vests just to talk to us on the street."
Of course, you also need to remember that, if caught, his attackers would have seen lengthy jail sentences...
"They have broken their part of that contract, so I am currently asking myself why we should continue to keep ours."
Very true.
"..some anon vigilante on the rooftops sniping scum as they leave a store arms full of trainers."
I'd volunteer, but I'm a lousy shot on a moving target...
I'm not Julia, learning to hit a target from the age of 10, taught by British Forces, knowing that if you can see it and point at it then you can hit it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what public reaction to video posted on the interweb of a chav bieng executed as they ran out of a store arms full of stolen trainers? One shot, from far away, with no one taking responsibility.
Unfortunately having been falsely accused of rape I've little appetite for being charged with murder.
ReplyDeleteI suppose a shot to the knee might attract less negative feedback
ReplyDeletefor someone who is anti capital punishment this is strong stuff but could be rationalised in terms of using a reasonable force?!?
ReplyDelete"Of course, you also need to remember that, if caught, his attackers would have seen lengthy jail sentences..."
ReplyDeleteActually they beat him so bad that, had they been over 21, then they might even have hanged. I'm pretty sure that attempted murder of a policeman was a capital crime.