London is burning

Why is it that it mainly seems to be young men involved in these riots, looting and wanton destruction? Are young females not equally affected by the social issues affecting the young men, are middle age men/women not equally affected (in fact I'd argue they are worse of when it comes to future opportunities) yet it seems as though it's only the young that are causing the trouble, maybe because they expect everything to be given to them on a plate instead of working for things. Maybe it's more to do with the gang culture than social issues for a lot of those involved?

I grew up in a single parent family, my mum had no job for the vast majority of my childhood, we lived of subsidies either from the government or from charity, yet we didn't steal, we had no youth clubs, there were no facilities in our area, we had less than a lot of those rioting so why did the same social problems not lead to riots in our area? Mainly because we were taught not to just expect the handouts we received, to work to get out of the situation of needing handouts just to survive.

Those putting the blame solely at the social deprivation in the areas affected are ignoring the many honest hard working people in those very same areas, faced with the very same problems that don't resort to looting and wanton violence. To just simply blame social deprivation is to absolve people of individual responsibility when in reality as a society, in all aspects of life, individual responsibility should be one of the foundations.

 

Exactly.

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gex_ya4-Oo[/youtube]

Despicable *.

 

The media in this country want you to believe that this is apolitical. Just as I'm sure national media in greece reported looting with great vigour while playing down the political message of the people on the streets then the BBC and SKY are obliging in the same way. It suits the leaders of this country to have the majority believe that this is mindless thuggery.

 

im sorry

but your talking pish.

there is no conspiracy

 

So you don't think this is just midless thuggery then as that's exactly how I would describe that and I don't need the leaders of the country to tell me that that is just wrong?

 

Keep it civil, no need for any abuse.

 

I honestly didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read that. Do you seriously believe the arson, criminal damage and looting has a political message tagged somewhere to it? If so you're seriously deluded.

I seriously doubt at least 70% of the people doing the looting and damage even pick up a newspaper or watch a current affairs program. I'd hazard a guess most of them are at remedial stage reading at best, but again that's probably the fault of everyone but them.

Next thing you'll be blaming cuts for all of this......when there have been NO cuts as yet and govt spending last year actually rose...oh and even after the amount which services the debt is deducted, it still rose.

There are far too many people (usually of a left leaning persuasion) who are * bent on looking for some underlying reason to excuse criminal behaviour, when it's glarlingly obvious that this was nothing more than common thuggery by people who seen an opportunity to thieve and get away with it. People who have grown up with little or no respect for anyone or anything. Until the UK addresses the problem of mollycoddling kids and teenagers and handing them everything on a plate, they'll get more and more of this.

Generations of kids, myself included, grew up in far worse conditions but done our level best to drag ourselves out of poverty, through hard work and education and not waiting for it to be given to us. We didn't riot, we worked, simple as that. Those disgusting lowlifes who are not sitting with our people's possessions in their houses should all be made to done bright orange boiler suits and be made to work on cleaning up and repairing the mess they made.

Unfortunately though we'll probably now see more "outreach programs" and more benefits for those poor wee souls to stop them feeling so aggrieved they have to burn shops, cars and businesses to be able to vent their anger.

The UK really is on a very steep downward spiral towards outright anarchy.

 

Credit to the police who, well outnumbered, have been showing pure bottle. I feel sorry for the police because they are not even allowed to give some of these scumbags a good clubbing without the human rights guys shouting about police brutality.

 

100% Agree

 

Quality indeed

 

Good to see decent people out on the streets while the scum of the earth sleep under their rocks.

 

Exactly, many of those decent people helping to clear up the streets are probably from the very same area and are faced with the very same social problems of those that caused the riots, but those people are more interested in helping each other while the rioters are only interested in themselves.

 

They could pay their fair share of taxes for a start.

The riots are the result of the way the police treat people in certain sections of London, simple as that. Sure, there are people taking advantage of the unrest, but that's always going to be the case.

To say that it's all about getting free stuff is to trivialise the situation. There's much more to it than that.

 

Well said.