London calling

[Cain]

These London riots are fairly impressive.

Tottenham, Lewisham, Hackney, Brixton and Putney are all on fire right now.  200+ arrests.  Theresa May reduced to blubbering about "criminality".  Barricades going up, buses and police cars being set on fire.

Maybe if the police didn't go around shooting people for completely random reasons all the time, and everyone had jobs, people would be less inclined to riot?  Just a thought.

[Doktor Howl]

These London riots are fairly impressive.

Tottenham, Lewisham, Hackney, Brixton and Putney are all on fire right now.  200+ arrests.  Theresa May reduced to blubbering about "criminality".  Barricades going up, buses and police cars being set on fire.

Maybe if the police didn't go around shooting people for completely random reasons all the time, and everyone had jobs, people would be less inclined to riot?  Just a thought.

Don't be silly.  The shooting was just "an excuse to commit crimes", according to one of your head peelers.

[Cain]

Probably one of them that is on the payroll of News of the World.

Hey...maybe if so many coppers weren't investigating other coppers for being as bent as hell, they'd have the manpower to police effectively!

[Cain]

Croydon now, too.  Furniture store set on fire, looking fairly intense, as fires go.  Edit: reports of violence from Birmingham now, as well.

Edit 2: Clapham also.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

How did the english manage to avoid the backbone-ectomy that's been done here in the US?

[Cain]

A lot of this seems like opportunism - because police had to be drawn in from other parts of London to deal with Tottenham, people took advantage to start looting.  Now they're drawing in police from outside of London and - surprise! - disturbances are happening elsewhere.  It's whack-a-mole, with barricades and burnt down shops.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Free teevees. Hope crushed.

[Cain]

Well, it's an element.  Apparently there is a lot of frustration concerning lack of jobs boiling over, as well.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

It won't end well. But it beats drinking yourself into cirrhosis and saying "It's just the way it is." That's what I see people doing here.

[Da6s]

and the 2012 olympic backlash has started:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/08/london-violence-olympics-security-_n_921392.html

LONDON -- Less than a year before London hosts the 2012 Games, scenes of rioting and looting a few miles from the main Olympic site have raised concerns about security and policing for the event.

Images of buildings and vehicles in flames broadcast around the world are also poor publicity for the capital as it prepares to stage the games for a third time.

The unrest, which started Saturday night in the Tottenham area of north London after a police shooting, spread closer to the Olympic complex Monday when scattered violence broke out in the Hackney area of east London.

Hackney is one of five boroughs encompassing the Olympic Park, a square mile site that will be the centerpiece of the games, which start on July 27, 2012.

[Doktor Howl]

Fucking Olympics.  What a colossal waste of time & resources.

[Da6s]

Fucking Olympics.  What a colossal waste of time & resources.

From a strictly tourism standpoint, the games bring in a shitton of  money.

From a housing/rental standpoint, prices are driven up stupidly fucking high for the year+ before the games occur.

Wouldn't call it a colossal waste of resources, but it is a half decade long pain in the ass for the hosting city.

Vancouver/Canada in general in 2010:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110228005482/en/Visa-Data-Shows-10-Percent-Increase-Canada

According to the 2011 Tourism Outlook: Canada report, spending by international travelers on their Visa cards within Canada during 2010 increased 10 percent from 2009, with the largest increase from U.S. travelers, who spent $3.5 billion within the country. In fact, spending by travelers from the U.S. represented 55 percent of all spending on Visa cards by international travelers in Canada during 2010.

Travelers from the United Kingdom ($359 million), France ($316 million), China ($229 million) and Australia ($167 million) were the next highest spenders within Canada during 2010, while the biggest year-over-year increases in spending came from travelers from India (65%), Brazil (50%), Russia (41%), Sweden (27%) and China (26%).

[Telarus]

The Impact of the Summer Olympics on its Host City: The Costs Outweigh the Tangible Benefits [April, 2009]
http://digitalcommons.bryant.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=honors_history&sei-redir=1

ABSTRACT
In the eyes of a host city, the reason to host the Summer Olympic Games has evolved from
shining glory on athletic feats to receiving the perceived benefits from the opportunity. In the
current times, there are a record number of Olympic events generating a demand for the
construction of a larger amount of Games facilities than ever before. However, nations still
vie for the winning bid to host the Olympics in one of their cities. This paper seeks to show
that the costs of hosting the Games outweigh its tangible benefits. In detail, it will look at the
financial, political, and social costs and benefits of hosting the Olympics and examine how
they impact the host city. Then the perceived benefits of hosting the London Olympics will be
examined. Specifically, this paper will show that the costs of hosting the London Olympics
outweigh its tangible benefits, especially in times where the world is in a global recession.

CONCLUSION
After this intense literary review, the overall conclusion is that there are many setbacks to
hosting the Olympics and it seems clear that the actual costs of hosting the Olympics far
outweigh its perceived tangible benefits. Although, it is difficult to trace whether the
Olympics have actually been intangibly beneficial, the opportunity costs of hosting the
Olympics often fail to be accounted for. Furthermore, the other opportunities (ex. Social
programs, healthcare, etc.) would potentially have offered the same or better intangible
benefits as well as tangible ones (financial, social, and/or political).
With an understanding of this conclusion, one would question why the cities continue to host
the Olympics. Arriving at an answer to the question is rather simple; the benefiters of the
Olympics are doing an excellent job covering up the fallacies in the perceived benefits of
hosting the Olympics. As alluded to multiple times already, the parties who bid to host the
Olympics are receiving the majority of the benefits, but not absorbing the brunt of the costs.
These parties, who are generally skilled politicians and businessmen, "sugar coat" the costs to
the taxpaying community, who in turn allow the hosting of the Olympics to continue. Until
the taxpayers and local citizens rise up and take action, cities will continue to host the Games.

The Olympics provide community benefits like local volunteerism, youth education
programs, and funding for community developments and cultural programs. However, if this
were the sole reason that the Olympics were produced, then the government could avoid
hosting the Olympics and rather provide these benefits while spending a great deal less in
taxpayer funds.

[Da6s]

back to topic:



Holy fuck.


Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14446548


Edit: added source.

[Don Coyote]

What the hell?

See this is what happens if you don't let your people have guns. They burn down buildings.