Breaking news!!

It's all over England now just sheer criminality without justification. Designer shops ,electronic shops getting totally emptied by looters and opportunists.Madness !!! Not the Image England wants to portray to the rest of the world with less than 1 year to the olympics.

Sorry for the lack of editing.
[video=youtube;banXIaPrVLc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=banXIaPrVLc[/video]

Bltizo said:

While I obviously do not condone the riots, the

Anyone have an idea of how far these riots could actually spreaad?

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This started as a result of the London Police doing surveillance on a known criminal, who was also big in the "gangsta" community.

This is in the area that is predominantly Carribean decent minorities and there is a lot of gang related crime in the area.

The police confronted him whereupon he pulled a gun and shot a police officer who was saved by either a watch or other device that was in his clothing that deflected the bullet.

The other police shot and killed the individual which then set off these riots in that community. They have spread.

A lot of out of work, disallusioned people are joining in.

My understanding is that the UK government is planning on massing and sending in 16,000 para-military police in to put a stop to it. We shall see if they do that, and if they are successful.

In the states in 1992, in the now fairly famous LA riots, we had similar circumstances. In that case the police couldn't handle it either and backed off. However, the Korean community was able to defend their own stores in the middle of some of the worst rioting, and the rioting did not spread because when it got to more affluent areas, the Police and the citizens...who were also armed...met the rioters. The result was that the rioters pretty much burned down their own neighborhoods.

Ultimately 4,000 National Guard and also U.S Marines were called in and the rioting was stopped.

Here's a famous pic of the Koreans defending their own shops...from the rooftops:

Jeff Head said:

This started as a result of the London Police doing surveillance on a known criminal, who was also big in the "gangsta" community.

This is in the area that is predominantly Carribean decent minorities and there is a lot of gang related crime in the area.

The police confronted him whereupon he pulled a gun and shot a police officer who was saved by either a watch or other device that was in his clothing that deflected the bullet.

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I've also read that the bullet that was blocked actually belonged to police.

zoom said:

It's all over England now just sheer criminality without justification.

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It isn't "all over England". Trouble remains isolated, but yes it spread outside of London. And you are correct that it is about criminal action. People don't loot shops because some guy was shot in a different part of the country. And protesters normally don't drive cars up to stores so they can load up large TVs and other electronic goods!

It's hard to say whether it will spread further and/or take longer to peak. London is much quieter than last night.

About the initial shooting, the latest news is that apparently the dead man's gun was not fired. The bullet that lodged in an officer's radio came from a police weapon that was fired at the dead man (and went through him). But the weapon recovered was a blank-firing pistol that had been modified to fire live rounds. I suspect that the man was stopped and he pulled out the gun. The officers didn't wait to see what he did with it.

airsuperiority said:

Talk about unrest and police brutality. Ironic the very media outlet which always accuse others of "brutality", is facing one outside their window.

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Yeah, the UK has brutal police because they tried to arrest a guy with a gun and he got shot.

Or are you talking about the fact that the police have not used live rounds, plastic bullets, water cannon or tear gas on the rioting thugs? Oh, and not a single troublemaker has been killed since this all started?

Mr T said:

About the initial shooting...the weapon recovered was a blank-firing pistol that had been modified to fire live rounds. I suspect that the man was stopped and he pulled out the gun. The officers didn't wait to see what he did with it.

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If this is true, I cannot blame the officers. If a known criminal pulled a gun on me and I was armed, I would not wait for them to take the first shot if I could avoid it. If a gun is pulled in anger, you must presume they intend to use it. If you do not...you will very likely become a statistic.

London is swamped with police and is quieter tonight but Manchester,Salford,Liverpool,Bristol and Birmingham are all experiencing significant trouble.There are around 600 in custody and many shops are still even now being looted.I don't think 'all over England ' is overstating it on my part.

Oh silly me , i forgot to mention Leeds

would like to point out... shit like this in China just wont happen... UK need to work on their reaction time in the government and in their police force.

Bltizo said:

Anyone have an idea of how far these riots could actually spreaad?

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Twitter and facebook.

Funny how they are not called the tools of the oppressed now, and there is no other side of the story, for 'balance'.

usaf0314 said:

would like to point out... shit like this in China just wont happen... UK need to work on their reaction time in the government and in their police force.

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Actually it does happen in China. Only it's celebrated by the likes of the BBC as ordinary people fighting oppression, police brutality, corruption etc.

If Twitter or facebook co-operated with Chinese police to find the ring-leaders as they are proudly claiming they are doing with the London riots, why that would be a total betrayal of what Twitter and facebook stands for and is totally anti-freedom and utterly wrong.

Many young people in the UK use BBM (Blackberry messaging) over Facebook and Twitter as i think there is some kind of encryption making it more secure and harder for the police to intercept.