Sunday, August 7, 2011

Shooting in the UK Leads to Riot

From MSNBC.com and the AP:
msnbc.com staff and news service reports

4 comments:

  1. What a shithole.....August 7, 2011 at 11:21 AM

    ...... the once great UK has become..... and all that with such restrictive gun laws, who'd a thunk it..... I wonder why you don't see this level of rioting here?

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  2. Actually, with the widening gap of wealth between 98% of the US, and 2% of the population, it is predicted that we WILL be seeing similar eruptions of violence, including along racial lines, given that minorities, especially blacks, have been affected so very disproportionately by what are primarily right wing policies facilitating that disproportionate wealth distribution. Additionally, as voter suppression legislation - also a uniquely right wing phenomenona - disproportionately deprives black voters who fought so long and hard to be legal voters, I think you will find that a cause for such civil unrest as well. These are all socially and economically destabilizing trends, and they're all misguided right wing ideas. The decline of the middle class, including the black segment of our middle class, is leading us to become a third world nation.

    Here's the documenation backing this up. I'm providing one for each, I could provide more; but better you do your own research.

    Predictions of social unrest, such as rioting:
    http://penigma.blogspot.com/2011/07/think-zbig-hes-old-but-he-still-thinks.html

    Disproportionate economic impact along racial lines:
    http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j33liOA8eKOpppOXbW2WL7PlwU6g?docId=389bfb0ca7cf4124a3cf309ca6a23ad6

    Right wing voter suppression, racial and social inequity:
    http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/djclpp/index.php?action=showitem&id=139

    Depending on how far you read, in that last link, you may note the name Chris Uggen appearing.

    Uggen is an expert on voter fraud; he is also the chair of the sociology department of the U of MN. I've read quite a bit of his work, which addresses things like voter ID laws, and what it will and will not fix, and who it affects disproportionately in denying legal voters the right to vote.

    Btw, Uggen's studies were quoted by Fox News, Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty - who all, clearly, never read them even partially - as substantiating the allegation that felons voted for democrats, and that therefore democrats were 'stealing' elections through voter fraud. What Uggen's work ACTUALLY said was that when former felons vote LEGALLY, AFTER they had their voting rights restored, they tended to vote Democratic more often than Republican. I find Fox News, Bachmann AND Pawlenty to be chronically and consistently dishonest, untruthful, and not factual.

    We're setting up the exact situations that provoke riots after all other avenues of redress of inequality fail.

    But this represents not only those pressures; I posted this here BECAUSE it is significant that events like this are NOT usual in the UK, nor are shootings of any kind as frequent as they are here.

    I don't believe we will ever have any method which eradicates gun violence entirely; but a dramatic reduction is desirable, and attainable.

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  3. What a shithead sez:

    "...... the once great UK has become..... and all that with such restrictive gun laws, who'd a thunk it..... I wonder why you don't see this level of rioting here?

    August 7, 2011 11:21 AM"

    Yeah, just think how much better it would have been if all of them had been armed!

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  4. democommie, that's a good point, one which has been coming up for me a few times lately. The theory that we should arm more of the good guys to offset the increasing number of bad guys with guns, is such a selfish, self-serving bunch of bullshit, that I don't know what to say.

    This comes from the gun lovers who don't give a fuck about the disastrous results of increasing gun availability. They only want to not be inconvenienced.

    ReplyDelete