What the hell were you thinking, you morons!
It has been the most surreal 24 hours here in London. One minute we were watching BBC news feed of things starting to kick off in Hackney, next moment there were helicopters overhead and riot police lining the end of our road. It was terrifying how quickly everything slipped into a total chaos last night. The police seemed to be absolutely helpless, stretched far too thin and unable to do anything to stop violence from spreading.
You know the things are dire when your area has a pub looted, McDonald’s windows smashed in and 2 cars set on fire in the middle of the road, and everybody thinks you got off lightly. It didn’t even make the news coverage this morning. Absolutely crazy.
It was so heartbreaking to see areas of London going up in flames one by one. This is my city. I’ve lived here for ten years and have grown to love the place so much. To see it being vandalised by it’s own people is unbearably sad.
It’s the sheer stupidity of the mob on the streets last night that I don’t understand. I can understand the protests, being dissatisfied, and anger bleeding into violence. It leads nowhere and solves nothing but I get it. When the student protesters were throwing things at government buildings during the march against fees, I thought they were foolish, but I could see where they’re coming from. You are trying to make politicians listen, and you think your voice is not being heard so you throw a brick at the party headquarters. Doesn’t solve anything, but it makes you feel better. That I get.
What happened last night were people destroying their own neighbourhoods. What kind of an idiot do you have to be to vandalise your own home??? If you live in a poor area where things are bad enough as it is, how can you think that setting fire to your local corner shop is going to improve anything? Not to mention the fact that there are people who live above that shop and who have lost their home because of you. I’m willing to bet any money that when those idiots got home from their little night out on the town smashing and burning things, they found at least one person that they knew personally who lost their home/business because of the riots.
But this is London. People here pride themselves on being unflappable and even though many Londoners were shaken and bewildered this morning, it is going to take a lot more than a crowd of cowardly thugs to destroy their spirit. “Keep Calm and Clean Up” read one of the homemade posters in one of the street clear up groups that were organised through Twitter last night. This is what we do, we pick it up and carry on.
You know the things are dire when your area has a pub looted, McDonald’s windows smashed in and 2 cars set on fire in the middle of the road, and everybody thinks you got off lightly. It didn’t even make the news coverage this morning. Absolutely crazy.
It was so heartbreaking to see areas of London going up in flames one by one. This is my city. I’ve lived here for ten years and have grown to love the place so much. To see it being vandalised by it’s own people is unbearably sad.
It’s the sheer stupidity of the mob on the streets last night that I don’t understand. I can understand the protests, being dissatisfied, and anger bleeding into violence. It leads nowhere and solves nothing but I get it. When the student protesters were throwing things at government buildings during the march against fees, I thought they were foolish, but I could see where they’re coming from. You are trying to make politicians listen, and you think your voice is not being heard so you throw a brick at the party headquarters. Doesn’t solve anything, but it makes you feel better. That I get.
What happened last night were people destroying their own neighbourhoods. What kind of an idiot do you have to be to vandalise your own home??? If you live in a poor area where things are bad enough as it is, how can you think that setting fire to your local corner shop is going to improve anything? Not to mention the fact that there are people who live above that shop and who have lost their home because of you. I’m willing to bet any money that when those idiots got home from their little night out on the town smashing and burning things, they found at least one person that they knew personally who lost their home/business because of the riots.
But this is London. People here pride themselves on being unflappable and even though many Londoners were shaken and bewildered this morning, it is going to take a lot more than a crowd of cowardly thugs to destroy their spirit. “Keep Calm and Clean Up” read one of the homemade posters in one of the street clear up groups that were organised through Twitter last night. This is what we do, we pick it up and carry on.