Riot-hit Reeves furniture store in Croydon resumes trading

The South London furniture store which suffered a devastating fire and was the image of the UK riots has reopened. Of course, the main store burned to the ground, but there was a smaller shop across the road where business has resumed.

Mr Reeves said: "The staff have been brilliant and the local community with their support and well wishes have really spurred us on.

Recalling the impact of the fire on the smaller store he said: "The whole front was scarred up, the windows were all broken... everything was sort of heat damaged.

"But we've all rallied around and cleaned up.

"We actually had the doors open a couple of days after the fire because we had just decided that there's an awful lot of interest and people will want to come down and have a look and we might as well open the doors and see if people want to buy things.

But customers could not get in as the area was cordoned off, he added.

The landmark store was burnt down on 8 August

Describing trading from a compact store he said: "We brought stock out of warehouses and really we just tried to make the best bits of the two shops into one shop because it is a considerably smaller area, but it does give us the opportunity to at least keep trading while we try to find out what's happening with the old site.

"Its just a brilliant spirit and they (customers) have just encompassed the whole thing by coming in and buying."

Someone has been charged with causing the store fire.

See:
Riot-hit Reeves furniture store in Croydon resumes trading

A better response for Tom...

Who asked:

"Tom, simple join the British Army and do two tours of Norn Iron."

OK, that's a start. So, is there a British Army manual that I could read? Or did you get special training for that duty?

I'm really very curious, because I would like to have a set of skills that I -- a somewhat out-of-shape but not necessarily overweight -- man could call upon that are not lethal. Signing up for a tour in the US Army is also off limits because of my age.

I was a bit flippant in my first response, but my original advice was not too far off.

As a civilian, your best bet is to:

• Try to stay out of that sort of area in the first place
• Be aware of your surroundings
• If you see an angry crowd coming down the street--go the other way!

While it may sound cowardly, it this is a more prudent course of action. First off, as a civilian you probably won't have the basic kit for dealing with riots, let alone the more specialist gear.

Basic kit would be

• Nomex coveralls, with hood as well as reinforced knee and elbow pads
• Riot helmet

You might be able to make due with motorcycle kit, but it's probably not flame resistant as is Nomex.

More specialised gear would be the perspex shield, baton, CS grenades, specialised transport (e.g snatch land rover), etcetera.

In the US, you could buy CS spray, but I am not sure of the legality of carrying it in your area. And you need a huge bottle of the stuff for crowd control.

But the military and the police have another advantage over civilians in crowd control--numbers.

I am assuming that you would be one, maybe two, at most a handful of people--not best to try to take on a large crowd without the gear in such circumstances. Snatch squads aren't that large,but they are well trained and well equipped.

And while Dan Snow caught and sat on a looter who ran past him carrying armfuls of shoes, he is a big strapping lad--a former member of the Balliol College rowing team (the rowing fraternity is pretty tall with Dan coming in at 6"5'), you are not.

Part of my reasons for writing a more in depth answer comes from having watched The Panorama episode on the August Riots. Far more frightening to me than the crowds was the burning. Seeing the fires in Tottenham where a family lost their home and Croyden where a 150-year-old furniture store burned down was particularly disturbing to me.

I will admit to PTSD from being in a petrol fire. The first thing that comes into your mind is that a tablespoon's worth of petrol fume has the equivalent explosive power to 4 sticks of dynamite. The second is "where the fuck is the fire extinguisher?" I did put out the flames, but unless you want to pack around a halon fire extinguisher you won't be prepared for such an eventuality.

Sorry, Jim.

Although some communities did stand watch to protect their property such as the Sikhs in Southall. People in Enfield, Hackney and Eltham also patrolled their areas with the police warning against vigilantism.

As for firearms.

It is alleged that a shooting was what caused the riots in the first place.

Also a gun isn't that useful in putting out a raging fire: the way a fire extinguisher would be.

Tariq Jahan's appeal for peace is what is supposed to have stopped the riots.

Draw your own conclusion.

I would also add that CCTV is proving to be quite an effective tool in catching the people responsible for these acts.

My area was fairly peaceful compared to where White Rabbit lives. The rioters broke into Hugo Boss and the Bureau de Change next to the tube station and the betting shop a bit further away.

We Brits tend to be fairly unflappable in the face of adversity though.


Although, one of my parent's friends opined the rioters should be made to do national service...

See also:
BBC News England Riots
Father of victim appeals for calm
England riots: Before-and-after images of the devastation

Another American Opinion on the UK Riots

This time from the Economist Newspaper (Yes, the Economist calls itself a newspaper). And I'm going to be lazy and copy it in full:

A visiting American's perspective on London's riots: The right to compare arms

Aug 15th 2011, 9:26 by G.I. | LONDON

TO AN American visiting London, one of the more striking aspects of last week’s riots was how few people died. Not including the police shooting death that touched off the original disturbance, five deaths have been attributed to the riots and looting. By contrast, 53 people died in the rioting that followed the acquittal of police officers in the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1992.

At least part, if not most, of the difference is down to the fact that Americans are armed to the teeth: the criminals, the cops and the shopkeepers all have guns, whereas Britain has one of the lowest rates of gun ownership in the world. The result is a low homicide rate: just 2 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2002, compared with 5.62 in America. Murders in Britain are much less likely to be committed with a gun. Its firearm murder rate, at 0.02 per 100,000, is a fraction of America’s, at 3.25. Three of the riots’ victims were run down by a car while guarding a petrol station and one died of injuries after being beaten. The fifth was a looter who is believed to have been shot by another looter.

Source: United Nations

Britons are not more law-abiding than Americans. Their rates of car theft, robbery and burglary are all higher, some substantially. But strict gun-control laws and borders that are more impervious to smuggling than, say, America's border with Canada, mean that guns are less likely to be used in crimes. That may also cut down on firefights: British police generally do not carry guns, in part because they worry less about being shot at. (Mark Duggan, the man whose death set off the original riots, was shot by a member of a special police firearms unit. Mr Duggan is believed to have had a gun but not to have fired it.)

It’s possible, as Ben Jacobs of the Boston Globe speculates, that Britain’s low level of gun homicide and high level of property crime are connected: criminals may be more likely to steal, rob or loot if they don’t fear being shot by a vigilante shopkeeper. Still, the data do seem to suggest that if you’re going to be caught up in a riot, it is better to be in London than in Los Angeles.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Mr Duggan was carrying a gun; in fact one was found nearby, not on his person. This has been corrected.

Could a Tottenham happen In the United States? And, if so where?

America’s 14 Most Ready to Riot Cities

By Chaz Valenza, OpedNews, August 11, 2011

Here’s a list of 14 large American cities that may be ready to erupt. They have been identified by sorting common social, economic and demographic data including: unemployment, education, income, crime, housing and homelessness.

Other data was also included that might indicate probable “flash points” igniting unrest. These include: cities with especially high rates of reported police misconduct, high disparity between rich and poor, city budget deficits threatening social services, high incidence of hate crime, and large differences in home values between neighborhoods.

One such statistic is a “Wealth Disparity Index” calculated as a “Gini” co-efficient. The index measures the inequality of the local wealth distribution. In this case, the closer the index number is to 1 the greater the disparity between the haves and have nots.

Should the American economy take another dive into “official recession” makes little difference if our cities and states become dysfunctional with a recovery that does not include jobs and a safety net to catch those victimized by an economic system based on fraud.

Why should the victims of economic tyranny turn to anger and action? It has been said that Americans are too self-absorbed to challenge the status quo. Even under the intolerable stress and life threatening situation of Hurricane Katrina cooler heads prevailed. For the most part, we are a patient people.

But at some point the fuse will be lit if economic relief is not forthcoming. The rationale may be factious as it was in Newark, NJ in 1967, when a rumor of police injustice sparked riots that lasted six days and nights. But when polite protests fail, as they did in London, action speaks louder than words.

As a young man said to an NBC news reporter in Tottenham: “You wouldn’t be talking to me now if we didn’t riot, would you?”

1. Detroit, MI:

The poster child for what has gone wrong with American capitalism. One way the city aims to increase revenue is to work with the state to identify businesses that have not been paying the city income tax, an initiative with the potential to generate $49.5 million over the next five years. Well, every little bit helps.

• Unemployment 21.6%
• Income per capita: $14,213
• Poverty: 36.4% of residents below the poverty line
• 56% of residents spend over 35% of their income on housing
• Percentage of single-parent households: 67.1%
• Homeless: 1,627/100,000 residents
• 3rd highest U.S. city crime score: 356.44
• High school graduation rate, public school district: 37.5%
• Deficit through FY2011: 710,000,000; per capita: $780
• 9th U.S. large city for police misconduct per capita
• 88,200 high net worth individuals

2. Miami, FL:

Here is a moderate example of economic schizophrenia at work. Commuters increase Miami’s population 37.3% every work day, then leave the business district a ghost town every evening. Foreclosure paper work clogs a Miami courthouse with no end in sight. The city faces a $50 million budget deficit for 2012.

• Unemployment 13.7%
• Homeless: 1,191/100,000 residents
• 54.8% of residents spend over 35% of their income on housing
• Children living in poverty: 43.8
• Increase in food stamp (SNAP) use from 2007: 45%
• Percentage of single-parent households: 44.4%
• Residents with no health care insurance: 35%
• Housing value disparity: 136% (std. dev. / median)
• Wealth Inequity Index: 0.494 (Miami Metro)
• Share of aggregate income going to top 5 percent of households: 24.9%
• 18th U.S. city for police misconduct per capita

3. Cleveland, OH

According to The Plain Dealer: “People on the streets of Cleveland… say they are impatient with bullish economists and bickering politicians who don’t seem to realize how little the economy has improved. They waved away questions about higher debt ceilings… because many of them wanted to vent about how much the economy stinks.”

• Poverty: 35.0% of residents below the poverty line
• Children living in poverty: 43.8%
• Income per capita: $15,583
• Percentage of single-parent households: 58.6%
• Increase in food stamp use from 2007: 25%
• Unemployment 10.7%
• Residents with no health care insurance: 18.2%
• 7th highest U.S. city crime score: 260.60

4. Memphis, TN:

“Not so long ago, Memphis, a city where a majority of the residents are black, was a symbol of a South where racial history no longer tightly constrained the choices of a rising black working and middle class. Now this city epitomizes something more grim: How rising unemployment and growing foreclosures in the recession have combined to destroy black wealth and income and erase two decades of slow progress.” Source: News One for Black America.

• Children living in poverty: 38.5%
• Unemployment: 10.9%
• Increase in food stamps (SNAP) use from 2007: 23%
• Percent of residents receiving SNAP assistance: 25%
• Percentage of single-parent households: 50.0 %
• Residents with no health care insurance: 18.9%
• 12th Highest U.S. City Crime Score: 256.32
• Housing value disparity: 152% (std. dev. / median)
• Hate crimes per 100,000 population: 5.17

5. New Orleans, LA: (Tie)

Between 2000 and 2009, New Orleans lost more than a quarter of its residents. This decline was largely attributable to Hurricane Katrina. According to Delta Dispatches, New Orleans has rebounded in a big way since 2005. But the facts say it has a long way to go. Will the Big Easy keep its cool?

• Number 1 in homeless: 2,582/100,000 residents
• Number 1 U.S. city for police misconduct per capita
• Percentage of single-parent households: 55.0%.
• Increase in food stamps (SNAP) use from 2007: 54%
• Unemployment 9.7%
• Residents with no health care insurance: 24.2%
• 55.0% of residents spend over 35% of their income on housing
• Housing value disparity: 157% (std. dev. / median).

5. Buffalo, NY: (Tie)

Number one in hate crimes reported and ranking in the top 20 for misconduct of police officers in forces of less than 1,000, Buffalo is skating on thin ice. It has fared better than many with a relatively low unemployment rate, but poverty and disparity are taking a toll. SNAP (the new name for food stamps) recipients have increased over 20%.

• Ranked 1st in hate crimes in large U.S. cities: 11.47 per 100,000 population
• Poverty: 28.8% of residents below the poverty line
• Children in poverty: 41.6%
• Increase in food stamps (SNAP) use from 2007: 22%
• 49.2% of residents spend over 35% of their income on housing
• Housing value disparity: 112% (std. dev. / median).
• Percentage of single-parent households: 56.3%.
• 18th U.S. city for police misconduct per capita – forces under 1,000 officers
• Unemployment 8.1%

6. Milwaukee, WI:

A June 2011 study from the John K. Maclver Institute, a Wisconsin-based think tank that promotes free markets, individual freedom, personal responsibility, and limited government, showed Milwaukee slid 28 spots in a national ranking of economic strength. With a school district high school graduation rate of only 31.5%, the city’s government may want to be less than limited in addressing the community’s educational needs. Other Wisconsin business notables are complaining they don’t have enough qualified applicants to fill job openings.

• Percentage of single-parent households: 52.2%.
• High school graduation rate, public school district: 31.0%
• 45.4% of residents spend over 35% of their income on housing
• Hate crimes per 100,000 population: 2.64
• Unemployment 10.4%
• Increase in food stamps (SNAP) use from 2007: 33%
• Children living in poverty: 41.3%
• Per capita income: $18,290
• 20th U.S. city for police misconduct per capita

7. St. Louis, MO:

Another schizophrenic urban gas guzzling disaster where the work day affluent commuters boost the city’s population by 34.5% and then leave for their suburban oasis each night. As reported in the St. Louis Beacon: Historian Colin Gordon takes the long view when it comes to understanding how St. Louis has fared during the nation’s recent economic downturn — and his perspective isn’t pretty. “We’re now in a situation in a lot of settings — most starkly Detroit but also in cities like St. Louis — where land values in the central city have fallen off the abyss. There are properties you can’t give away,” he said. “But by the same token, some of the incentives for building out in a cornfield have been restrained both by the lack of credit and by the undermining of environmental costs. In some respects, when gas prices spiked a couple of years ago, that was at least a temporary wakeup call for the kind of sprawl that areas like this have experienced over the course of their history.”

• Top national crime score for U.S. cities: 381.62
• Housing value disparity: 124% (std. dev. / median)
• Percentage of single-parent households: 57.9%
• Percent of residents receiving SNAP assistance: 36%
• Increase in food stamps (SNAP) use from 2007: 36%
• Unemployment 12.6%

8. Baltimore, MD:

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has admitted her latest proposal to balance the city’s budget by eliminating marine, helicopter, and mounted units from the police force; cutting 900 city jobs; closing 29 recreation centers; decreasing hours at 311 call centers; and end the Fourth of July firework display, is “unacceptable” and “goes too far.” But, Baltimore has other festering problems as well. What’s wrong with this picture? Baltimore’s unemployment is relatively low. Oh, I forgot. Working class jobs don’t pay very well.

• Housing value disparity: 120% (std. dev. / median)
• Percentage of single-parent households: 59.2%
• High school graduation rate, public school district: 41.5%
• Percent of residents receiving SNAP assistance: 24%
• Residents with no health care insurance: 15.2%
• City budget deficit through FY2011: $121,000,000 per capita: $190
• 15th U.S. city for police misconduct per capita
• Unemployment 7.9%

9. Atlanta, GA:

The population of Atlanta increases by 62% every workday due to commuter influx. Lot’s of homeless, an amazingly high per capita income of $36,912, and a Mecca to young southern professionals. Atlanta is a shining example of disparity and inequity on steroids. Hey, good buddy, how many hours were you parked on I-75 today?

• House value disparity: 218% (std. dev. / median)
• Percentage of single-parent households: 60.4%
• Homeless: 1,263/100,000 residents
• 3rd U.S. city for police misconduct per capita
• Increase in food stamps (SNAP) use from 2007: 34%
• Children in poverty: 48.1%
• Residents with no health care insurance: 20.5%
• Poverty: 27.8% of residents below the poverty line
• Unemployment 9.9%

10. Cincinnati, OH:

“The explosion of violence in Cincinnati–the largest urban disturbance in the US since the 1992 Los Angeles riots–revealed the deep social tensions in every American city… The April riots underscored the most basic fact of life in America: the enormous social gulf that has opened up between the wealthy elite and the vast majority of the population.” Jerry White, writing for the World Socialist Website about the roots of the riots that erupted in Cincinnati, Ohio in April of 2001, following the police killing of an unarmed black teenager, not a rumor, fact.

• Percentage of single-parent households: 55.9%
• 17th U.S. city for police misconduct per capita
• Unemployment 9.9%
• Increase in food stamps (SNAP) use from 2007: 41.0%
• Children in poverty: 40.9%

11. Long Beach, CA:

“These past two years, we have been waging a war of attrition, with each ensuing year requiring additional cuts to service levels. We cannot afford to continue on this path. We must find a way to reach structural balance and further invest in our infrastructure. This year presented the most challenging fiscal and budgetary environment in my time as Mayor but has, in recent days, also provided the single most significant step to our long-term fiscal health in the form of a tentative agreement with the Police Officers’ Association that cuts pension costs and, if it were to be mirrored by our other employee groups, eliminates structural deficits by the end of FY 13 based off current projections.” From the Mayor’s Budget Recommendations, Fiscal Year 2012. Bob Foster, Mayor of Long Beach, CA.

• Wealth Inequity Index: 0.479. (Los Angeles Metro)
• Share of aggregate income going to top 5 percent of households: 23.2 percent
• 45.9% of residents spend over 35% of their income on housing
• Unemployment 11.0%
• Increase in food stamps (SNAP) use from 2007: 25.0%
• Children in poverty: 45.2%
• Residents with no health care insurance: 18.3%

12. Newark, NJ:

To close the city’s budget gap, Mayor Cory Booker is proposing a 7% tax increase in order to maintain the city’s current level of service. The mayor’s proposed increase will also reduce the city’s current budget deficit of $58 million. The tax increase will raise $18 million in additional funds. Governor Chris Christy is also attempting to close a New Jersey State budget gap of just $10.5 billion dollars.

• Percentage of single-parent households: 56.9%
• Wealth Inequity Index: 0.504 (New York Metro including North New Jersey)
• Share of aggregate income going to top 5 percent of households: 24.9 percent
• 13th U.S. city for police misconduct per capita
• Increase in food stamps (SNAP) use from 2007: 18.0%
• Per capita income: $17,396
• Residents with no health care insurance: 28.5%
• Unemployment 9.6%

13. Philadelphia, PA

A Flash mob struck Center City Philadelphia Friday night, July 29, 2011 leaving two people injured and several others robbed. Police have arrested four people in connection with the crime. Mayor Nutter has decided in impose a curfew of 9:00 PM on those under the age of 18. Businesses can also register their security cameras with the police department. Don’t panic. This isn’t the real angry hopeless commoners with torches and pitch forks, just a bunch of kids.

• Children in poverty: 35.7%
• Percentage of single-parent households: 50.1%
• 46.8% of residents spend over 35% of their income on housing
• Percent of residents receiving SNAP assistance: 26%
• Unemployment 10.2%
• Over 104,000 high net worth individuals

Chaz Valenza is writer and small business owner in New Jersey. He earned his MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. His current feature film project is “Single Point Failure” an insider’s account of how the Reagan Administration caused the greatest tragedy of the space age based on Richard C. Cook’s book “Challenger Revealed.” He is a former Director of Public Information for Planned Parenthood of NYC. His website is: www.WordsWillNever.com

Source: OpED News

A Different Take on the UK Riots

From comedy central:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sh*tzkrieg - Anarchy in the U.K.
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

If this doesn't play for you, you may be able to watch it at:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/ (Tuesday, August 9, 2011 episode)

England's Riots from the BBC

Here are a few videos from BBC News. Notice in the first that there is quite a lot of burning property. Can your gun put out the fire if your house is burning?

Additionally, one witness says there were 300 people out rioting. How many could you kill before you ran out of ammunition and the rioters started wailing on you?

UK riots: How the night of violence unfolded

Two girls who were drinking wine from a looted store are boasting about their idiotic antics.

London rioters 'Showing the rich we do what we want'

Even without guns, the Sikhs protect their temple. Gatka, the Sikh martial art, is a vital part of their culture. Not to mention they are carrying cricket and baseball bats, BBC's Sangita Myska asked about why they were protecting their property and whether it could be considered vigilantism?

Southall Sikhs stand against London rioters

Dan Snow beat up a rioter, again, without a gun. Dan and Peter can truly kick arse in more than one way (sorry, Neil and Tony, but their show blew Two Men in A Trench out of the Water)!

Of course, there is the danger that you can get hurt as Three men were killed as they protected property in a second night of violence in Birmingham.

Of course, this comment:

"I think the word 'underclass' comes up quite a lot because it has a lot of resonance obviously with an American audience where there is similar income inequality."

Pretty much sums it up.

Oh, By the Way, "American readers might be surprised to learn http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifthat most members of the force charged with ending the rioting remain unarmed."

Of course, David Cameron backs the move for police to use water cannon and rubber bullets. While he talks about parts of our society that are sick, I disagree with how he proposes to address that sickness.

Manchester Police have been studying CCTV images, and warned looters "we are coming for you from today". They had already caught 100 rioters at the time that this broadcast was made.