Monday, August 8, 2011
Update on the UK Riots
More from MSNBC.com:
The sad truth behind London riot
By Martin Fletcher, NBC News correspondent
LONDON -- As political and social protests grip the Middle East, are growing in Europe and a riot exploded in north London this weekend, here's a sad truth, expressed by a Londoner when asked by a television reporter: Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?
"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"
The TV reporter from Britain's ITV had no response. So the young man pressed his advantage. "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere.
The truth is that discontent has been simmering among Britain's urban poor for years, and few have paid attention. Social activists say one out of two children in Tottenham live in poverty. It's one of the poorest areas of Britain. Britain's worst riots in decades took place here in 1985. A policeman was hacked to death. After these riots, the same young man pointed out, "They built us a swimming pool."
Poverty, joblessness cyclePolice and local leaders in Tottenham made real progress in improving community relations in the intervening years and that's true about all of Britain. The best way to prevent crime, the theory goes, is to improve the lot of the people, then they won't need to commit crimes. But caught in a poverty and joblessness cycle, young people in many British urban areas have little hope of a better life.
So when a local 29-year-old father, described by police as a gangster, was shot dead by an officer, the response came quickly.
Mark Duggan was killed Thursday. On Saturday night about 50 relatives and friends protested outside the Tottenham police station.
Local young men, almost all with their heads covered by hoods -- known here as "hoodies" -- took advantage to indulge themselves in a favorite sport: cursing the police. This quickly escalated into a night of hurling rocks, bottles (Jack Daniels, one young man told me -- "we broke into the liquor store, drank the Jack Daniels and threw the bottles at the cops"), burning two patrol cars, torching buildings, smashing shop windows and carting off hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of phones, cameras and clothes.
The looting and rioting had nothing at all to do with the killing of Mark Duggan. That was the spark. The bonfire had been prepared by years of neglect, fueled by the anger of young men with no stake in the system, angry at everybody and quick to exploit fury at the killing of a local man, even if he did allegedly fire at the police officer first.
So now the question people in Tottenham are asking is: Will the government pay attention to the social issues underlying the anger?
And a wider question is: Would anyone care at all if there had not been violence?
The sad truth behind London riot
By Martin Fletcher, NBC News correspondent
LONDON -- As political and social protests grip the Middle East, are growing in Europe and a riot exploded in north London this weekend, here's a sad truth, expressed by a Londoner when asked by a television reporter: Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?
"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"
The TV reporter from Britain's ITV had no response. So the young man pressed his advantage. "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere.
The truth is that discontent has been simmering among Britain's urban poor for years, and few have paid attention. Social activists say one out of two children in Tottenham live in poverty. It's one of the poorest areas of Britain. Britain's worst riots in decades took place here in 1985. A policeman was hacked to death. After these riots, the same young man pointed out, "They built us a swimming pool."
Poverty, joblessness cyclePolice and local leaders in Tottenham made real progress in improving community relations in the intervening years and that's true about all of Britain. The best way to prevent crime, the theory goes, is to improve the lot of the people, then they won't need to commit crimes. But caught in a poverty and joblessness cycle, young people in many British urban areas have little hope of a better life.
So when a local 29-year-old father, described by police as a gangster, was shot dead by an officer, the response came quickly.
Mark Duggan was killed Thursday. On Saturday night about 50 relatives and friends protested outside the Tottenham police station.
Local young men, almost all with their heads covered by hoods -- known here as "hoodies" -- took advantage to indulge themselves in a favorite sport: cursing the police. This quickly escalated into a night of hurling rocks, bottles (Jack Daniels, one young man told me -- "we broke into the liquor store, drank the Jack Daniels and threw the bottles at the cops"), burning two patrol cars, torching buildings, smashing shop windows and carting off hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of phones, cameras and clothes.
The looting and rioting had nothing at all to do with the killing of Mark Duggan. That was the spark. The bonfire had been prepared by years of neglect, fueled by the anger of young men with no stake in the system, angry at everybody and quick to exploit fury at the killing of a local man, even if he did allegedly fire at the police officer first.
So now the question people in Tottenham are asking is: Will the government pay attention to the social issues underlying the anger?
And a wider question is: Would anyone care at all if there had not been violence?
Bumbling Crook Shot with his Own Gun
This is my favorite kind of DGU. When the unarmed good guy takes the gun off the bad guy and shoots him with it, I tend to be sympathetic. Of course, the fact that the shooter had been unarmed doesn't necessarily mean the shooting was necessary and clean, but at least we know he wasn't a gun-totin' vigilante-type just itching for trouble.A robber who was shot in the chest with his own gun when he held up a woman at a Regions Bank ATM Friday was identified as Almedin Muratovic.
Police say the shooting occurred at 9:10 p.m. Friday at Regions Bank, 8250 MLK North, when Cristina Hopkins stopped to use the walk-up teller machine while her boyfriend, Anthony Hall, and 5-year-old child waited in the car.
Police say that Hopkins was approached by Muratovic, who had a .22-caliber handgun and demanded that she give him money.
Hall, 28, left the vehicle and confronted the suspect, police said. The two struggled over the gun, which discharged wounding Muratovic in the upper body.
This time it seemed clean and good. I especially like the part about sticking around to be interviewed by the police. In spite of Robert Farago's advice, that's what legitimate people do when they get involved in something like this.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
America's Secret Wars
What's your opinion? Do you think they've gone a bit far in pre-emptively protecting the U.S. with these black operations?Somewhere on this planet an American commando is carrying out a mission. Now, say that 70 times and you're done... for the day. Without the knowledge of the American public, a secret force within the U.S. military is undertaking operations in a majority of the world's countries. This new Pentagon power elite is waging a global war whose size and scope has never been revealed, until now.
After a U.S. Navy SEAL put a bullet in Osama bin Laden's chest and another in his head, one of the most secretive black-ops units in the American military suddenly found its mission in the public spotlight. It was atypical. While it's well known that U.S. Special Operations forces are deployed in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, and it's increasingly apparent that such units operate in murkier conflict zones like Yemen and Somalia, the full extent of their worldwide war has remained deeply in the shadows.
Please leave a comment.
Murder - Suicide 13-Year-Old Shot by Mom
Margaret Jensvold shot and killed her son, Ben Barnhard, and then turned the gun on herself, according police.
The story explains that the boy suffered from obesity, that the estranged dad had been accused of domestic violence but protection had been denied by the court.
In the end, it was the mom who and the gun and the insanity to use it in this way.
What do you think? Please leave a comment.
Shot in the Back Running Away
The Daily Times reports on the events which took place in Chester PA
I suppose everyone who reads this will be calling in to report the information that cops aren't supposed to be shooting fleeing suspects in the back. It doesn't matter if the runner is armed or not.
In order to get away with murder, what we're often told is the guy was going for his gun, while running away. Sometimes, he even turns a little and points the gun over his shoulder. But, really , it doesn't matter what bullshit story the cops come up with, they usually support each other in these cases and indeed get away with murder.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Police said Simms, of the 500 block of Rose Street, was carrying a gun when he attempted to flee from officers during a pedestrian stop Friday night on East 23rd Street near Crosby Street. He was shot in the back by an officer at 7:53 p.m. and died in the CCMC emergency room at 8:10 p.m.
Police said “a weapon was recovered at the scene and submitted into evidence.”
Simms’ death is being investigated by the Delaware County Special Prosecutor’s Office. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Robert T Lythgoe Jr. at 610-891-4243 or Detective Thomas H. Worrilow at 610-891-4244.
I suppose everyone who reads this will be calling in to report the information that cops aren't supposed to be shooting fleeing suspects in the back. It doesn't matter if the runner is armed or not.
In order to get away with murder, what we're often told is the guy was going for his gun, while running away. Sometimes, he even turns a little and points the gun over his shoulder. But, really , it doesn't matter what bullshit story the cops come up with, they usually support each other in these cases and indeed get away with murder.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
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