London calling

[Disco Pickle]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/08/11/ukriots.accused/index.html?iref=obinsite

London (CNN) -- Before they started appearing in court, most people assumed London's rioters and looters were unemployed youths with no hope and no future.

So there was much surprise when details of the accused began to emerge, and they included some from wealthy backgrounds or with good jobs.

Those passing through London's courtrooms on Tuesday and Wednesday -- some courts sat overnight to cope with the numbers -- have included a teaching assistant, a lifeguard, a postman, a chef, a charity worker, a millionaire's daughter and an 11-year-old boy, newspapers reported.

The tabloid Sun newspaper wrote in its opinion page on Thursday of the "sick" society described by Prime Minister David Cameron: "The sickness starts on welfare-addicted estates where feckless parents let children run wild."

But its front-page headline told a different story about the accused: "Lifeguard, postman, hairdresser, teacher, millionaire's daughter, chef and schoolboy, 11."

The Daily Mail reported: "While the trouble has been largely blamed on feral teenagers, many of those paraded before the courts yesterday led apparently respectable lives."

The upmarket Daily Telegraph devoted its page three to the case of Laura Johnson, the 19-year-old daughter of a company director who pleaded not guilty to stealing £5,000 ($8,000) of electrical goods, under the headline: "Girl who has it all is accused of theft."

The newspaper said she lived in a converted farmhouse in the leafy London suburb of Orpington, Kent, with extensive grounds and a tennis court, had studied at one of the best-performing state schools in the country and now attends the University of Exeter.

Reporter Andrew Gilligan wrote in the Daily Telegraph: "Here in court, as David Cameron condemned the 'sickness' in parts of British society, we saw clearly, for the first time, the face of the riot: stripped of its hoods and masks, dressed in white prison T-shirts and handcuffed to burly security guards.

"It was rather different from the one we had been expecting."

He added of the defendants at Highbury Magistrates Court in north London: "Most were teenagers or in their early twenties, but a surprising number were older.

"Most interestingly of all, they were predominantly white, and many had jobs."

Most newspapers highlighted the case of Alexis Bailey, a 31-year-old learning mentor in an elementary school, who pleaded guilty to burglary with intent to steal at an electrical store in Croydon, south of London.

It was reported that Bailey surrendered to police without stealing anything.

The youngest defendant so far -- an 11-year-old boy -- also gained much attention in newspapers.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, from Romford, east of London, admitted stealing a £50 ($80) trash can from a department store, the Guardian reported.

The Daily Mail highlighted the cases of Barry Naine, a 42-year-old charity worker charged with burglary; postman Jeffrey Ebanks, 32, and his student nephew Jamal Ebanks, 18, allegedly caught in a car stuffed with electrical goods near a looted Croydon store.

It also reported that Jason Matthews, a 35-year-old new father arrested in a Tesco supermarket, told police he "was not one of the bad ones" and needed diapers for his baby; and that Christopher Heart, a 23-year-old scaffolder and father of two, shouted "sorry for the inconvenience" and broke down in tears after admitting burglary at a sports shop in east London.

Lifeguard Aaron Mulholland, 30, wept as he appeared in court accused of joining thieves in a cell phone shop, the Daily Mail reported.

The Sun reported that an organic chef, Fitzroy Thomas, 43, and his 47-year-old brother Ronald, denied smashing up a branch of the Nando's chicken restaurant chain.

The Metropolitan Police in London said on its website on Thursday that 401 people have been charged so far.

Greater Manchester Police said five men aged between 46 and 23 had already been jailed for their part in the disorder.

West Midlands Police said 26 people, including a 44-year-old man, had appeared before an overnight court session in relation to the disorder in Birmingham.

[Cain]

Yet the media over here are still interviewing unemployed black youths (literally just saw such an interview on Channel 5).

I suspect the looters were more diverse in background, but those fighting the police were more likely to be the stereotypical view of the rioter.  But that is just a suspicion.

[Doktor Howl]

Yet the media over here are still interviewing unemployed black youths (literally just saw such an interview on Channel 5).

I suspect the looters were more diverse in background, but those fighting the police were more likely to be the stereotypical view of the rioter.  But that is just a suspicion.

It's no accident that the pics that get into the media here tend to show about a 9:1 ratio of Black to White rioters.

[Cain]

Over here, too.  Hell, even I slipped into a bit of stereotyping before, with the unemployed bit (the post before Pickles...which incidentally, I still think is a good idea.  Revenue is more important than anything for the security and wellbeing of the United Kingdom right now...though try explaining that to anyone in government).

I can just tell I'm going to have to put up with more crypto-racist musings from my idiot colleagues this evening.  Thank fuck I'm only in for a few hours, to sort stuff out before my time off.  I nearly ended up doing something hilarious to the staff rep this morning, which means it is time for some leave.

[Disco Pickle]

Yet the media over here are still interviewing unemployed black youths (literally just saw such an interview on Channel 5).

I suspect the looters were more diverse in background, but those fighting the police were more likely to be the stereotypical view of the rioter.  But that is just a suspicion.

It's no accident that the pics that get into the media here tend to show about a 9:1 ratio of Black to White rioters.

Have any examples handy?  The sources I've been reading and pics I've been seeing have not seemed to showcase one skin color over another.   In some of the group shots I've seen, white faces have even been in the majority.  Bias in photos from major news agencies would seem to be an issue that would have legs.

I also read an article highlighting so called "vigilante" groups of Sikhs and Pakistanis organizing to protect their shops and Temples.  Didn't see any of that getting reported with the EDL stuff, which makes me wonder why that would be glossed over.  I'll try and run down the links.

[Disco Pickle]

Commentary from an Indian perspective.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/london-riots-community-leaders-take-security-matter-in-own-hands-set-up-vigilante-patrols/articleshow/9572680.cms

and excellent bloomberg column by Pankaj Mishra

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-12/london-s-rioters-are-thatcher-s-grandchildren-commentary-by-pankaj-mishra.html

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

the bottom one was very good.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Yet the media over here are still interviewing unemployed black youths (literally just saw such an interview on Channel 5).

I suspect the looters were more diverse in background, but those fighting the police were more likely to be the stereotypical view of the rioter.  But that is just a suspicion.

Of course the looters were diverse, it was a perfect license to loot and let somebody else take the blame.

I read someplace that the guys who threw the tea in Boston Harbor dressed up like Indians. It's nothing new.

[Triple Zero]

Have any examples handy?  The sources I've been reading and pics I've been seeing have not seemed to showcase one skin color over another.   In some of the group shots I've seen, white faces have even been in the majority.  Bias in photos from major news agencies would seem to be an issue that would have legs.

Hm, would be interesting collecting all the pics and counting head colours? Then doing a statistical p-test thingy for a confidence level in how likely deviations could have been due to chance.

[Cain]

I also read an article highlighting so called "vigilante" groups of Sikhs and Pakistanis organizing to protect their shops and Temples.  Didn't see any of that getting reported with the EDL stuff, which makes me wonder why that would be glossed over.  I'll try and run down the links.

That doesn't surprise me, to be honest.  Not least because my sister lives in a heavily Tamil part of London, and they organised patrols and so on there.  Also, anyone stupid enough to fuck with Tamils needs to get their heads checked, since a fair few of them are "ex" LTTE.  Unsurprisingly, my sister's neighbourhood has remained remarkably violence free.  It worries me less than the EDL as well, since such communities are not likely to leverage such actions into political gain, to drive a neofascist agenda.

[BadBeast]

Yeah, I'm a lot happier to see Sikhs and Pakistanis out there looking out for their shit, than the idea of the EDL, or (What's left of) the BNP 'patrolling' the streets.

[Cain]

Of course, self-defence communities do point to a dangerous breakdown in state authority.

Which I would be terribly broken up about, if I cared about the state and its authority 

[BadBeast]

I'd rather see a dangerous breakdown in State Authority, than the even more dangerous build up in State Authority we've been seeing over the last ten years.

[Cain]

Unfortunately, power, like energy, cannot be created or destroyed.  Instead, it tends to get redistributed.  I'm still not decided whether neo-feudalism is any better than neo-autocracy, but I will admit it is, at least for our political culture, different.  And sometimes, that is all the change one needs.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Unfortunately, power, like energy, cannot be created or destroyed.  Instead, it tends to get redistributed.  I'm still not decided whether neo-feudalism is any better than neo-autocracy, but I will admit it is, at least for our political culture, different.  And sometimes, that is all the change one needs.

This!