London Calling

[notyoueither]

They were terrorist children?

[Dinner]

That seems more "normal" to me than Obama considering himself black. In all of Latin America mulatos and mestizos considered themselves different from blacks and amerindians. There are some articles on the internet of African-Americans who go on vacations to Brazil and think brazilians hate their blackness because part black multiracial people don't consider themselves black.

Yes, the US is entirely different from just about every where else. Here they had the "one drop rule" which means if you had a black ancestor 10 generations ago and everyone has been white ever since then you were considered to be black. It's a racist phobia about "contamination" but a historically real one.

[MikeH]

That is actually an interesting question worthy of closer examination.

Not really.

[Dinner]

Why?

[MikeH]

Yeah, because shooting arsonists and looters committing grand theft, home invasion, and business invasion (all violent felonies) is exactly the same as shooting unarmed peaceful protesters. So what happens when the arsonists set a fire which spreads and some little old lady in a wheel chair dies because she can't get out of her apartment in time? Or when someone has a heart attack but the ambulance can't get there because the rioters/looters are setting fires in the street? We're talking a serious threat to public safety and order which needs to get stamped out before more innocents get harmed.

The police are allowed to shoot someone where there is a clear threat to life. Which is going to get talked about a lot in the enquiry into the shooting that started this incident.

So far the fires have been mostly shops, very little property arson that I'm aware of and certainly very little loss of life, which is really good.

[MikeH]

Why?

You wouldn't be able to tell if there was a riot in Cardiff, it'd be indistinguishable from a normal day.

Serious answer:

Plenty of English cities with no riots. Why no rioting in Leeds, Bradford, Leicester, Newcastle, Stoke etc.? (which is maybe a more interesting question...)

Police in Scotland have been on high alert, and in Cardiff shops were closing early and there was increased police presence in anticipation there might be trouble.

http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk/2011/08/09/some-cardiff-shops-close-early-following-london-riots/

It's just MOBIUS and his normal comments about Cardiff. I hope Cardiff doesn't see any trouble, even if it means he can continue with his misleading smugness.

[Cort Haus]

I dunno, go to sleep in England, then wake up and the gun totin' Merkins have turned it into yet another gun thread.

:yawn:

[MOBIUS]

You wouldn't be able to tell if there was a riot in Cardiff, it'd be indistinguishable from a normal day.

Yeah, mostly caused by all the English Stag and Hen parties that come here on the weekends...

Actually, you'll have to scratch Leicester off that list, not to mention the fact that it also kicked off in new places like Manchester, loads of places in the Midlands and even Gloucester yesterday!

It still remains exclusively an English disease, no matter what you say. What you're citing is purely being prudent, the whole article itself states that there's been absolutely indication whatsoever of there being a danger of anything kicking off here - business as usual. So much so that we're sending our police to help out in London.

I love the pic in the article with the subliminal incitement to torch the shop in capital letters at the top!



Some of the user comments are funny though, like this one:

No need for us to riot in Cardiff. Welsh people wouldn't f*** up places in Wales because of something that happened in England

Kinda sums it up, really...

Seriously though, something seems to be rotten in the heart of England, like there's a giant triangle of thuggishness in the centre of the country!

EDIT: Apparently overall crime was down in Cardiff last night: http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23cardiffcalm

[MOBIUS]

The REAL reason there were no riots in London:

Welsh Police in London last night

[MikeH]

Is that headline implying the only people who riot in Wales are the Welsh Police?

Yeah. I missed Leicester, didn't get a mention on the news this morning. I nearly came and edited that when I saw but didn't. The others are more significant I think. The point is, it's some British cities, not others.

The idea it's English rather than Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish seems a bit ludicrous.

[MikeH]

Also:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonline/cardiff-news/2011/08/10/police-treat-overnight-disturbances-in-cardiff-as-isolated-incidents-91466-29209248/

It's not like nothing at all was happening in Cardiff, just the same kind of stuff as in Reading. Doesn't take much to escalate things from isolated incidents... I mean Gloucester they only arrested 9 people but that is being treated as rioting armageddon.

[dannubis]

I'm sure some aristocrat quibbled as cleverly as you do a few years before the revolution. I hope you don't have any children, they may curse your generation for the Europe of the late 21st century they will inherit.

Yes, too many racist ****ers from ****holes east of the Elbe - Danube.

[MikeH]

I hope my children look back in horror and shock at the racism and homophobia of the late 20th and early 21st century and can't believe things like gay couples couldn't marry within my lifetime.

[dannubis]

[onodera]

Yes, too many racist ****ers from ****holes east of the Elbe - Danube.

Tell me you actually know where Slovenia is and this was a subtle joke.