London calling

[Doktor Howl]

You know how little news coverage the riots are getting in the states? New York times made it the front page, but most sources are giving it little more than a nod. You might see "riots continue in london" fly through the ticker at the bottom of the screen, but so far there hasn't been a lot of news about it.

heard Cameron on the radio this morning putting on his Serious Daddy voice. Saying that police justice will be swift for the people that have caused this chaos. And that those of you old enough to go to jail will be punished. 



it really makes you laugh or cry

I've even heard the riots described as "race riots".   

[Cain]

Heh.  Most of the rioters are not white, it is true, and there is an undertone of racism to the police's actions, which sparked off the original protest in Tottenham...but it's a real stretch to call it a "race riot".  We had actual race riots in 2000, so most of us over here know the difference.

[Doktor Howl]

Heh.  Most of the rioters are not white, it is true, and there is an undertone of racism to the police's actions, which sparked off the original protest in Tottenham...but it's a real stretch to call it a "race riot".  We had actual race riots in 2000, so most of us over here know the difference.

Well, you have to remember that a sizeable minority of Americans really miss Lester Maddox, and one Black dude on the TV looting = "racial uprising by Blacks!", even if he's beside 3 White people doing it.

You may recall, back during Katrina, that White people were photographed "finding food", and Blacks "looting".

We are still an extremely racist nation in many ways.

[Cramulus]

the first page of my google results for "London Riots"

1. "How BlackBerry helped spread London riots" - see also: how Doom, Marlyn Manson, and black clothing caused the Columbine slayings

2. a gallery of photos from the riots - boston.com

3. riots continue - yahoo news. this one actually qualifies as news. We even get a little tidbit of the real story: "politicians and police blamed on criminal thugs but residents attributed to local tensions and anger over hardship."

4. a yahoo news page documenting the number of arrests. This one also frames the riots as something which might spoil the London Olympics. Oh no that would be awful! Also refers to the subsequent riots as "copycat criminals". Yeahhhh they probably don't have any legitimate reasons to be angry, they're just all monkey-see monkey-do.

5. A "Your Reaction" page at bbc (not news, commentary)

6. a BBC news page about all the damage the riots have done. Describes them as a product of 'Greed and criminality', and implicates social media networks like twitter.

7. another BBC article, 2 days old, more of the same

8. an article from the guardian

9. a youtube link

10. a wikipedia link


Why aren't the other media outlets covering this? If I search for any contemporary other news topic, the top results are CNN, NY Times, Fox News, CBS news...

[Cain]

Yeah.  To be honest, we're not much better.  As I mentioned before, I have money on when the screeching harpy/satirist's sockpuppet Melanie Phillips will declare this a Muslim uprising, and I'm not even going to look at the Daily Mail or Express for the next few days, as they're almost certainly playing up that angle as well.

[Cramulus]

here's some thoughts from Ioz:

A Riot of My Own

Man, it's too bad that Mark Duggan wasn't Iranian; all the same assholes who are like, "Oh, the rioting, Oh, the looting, Oh, the humanity!" would be making room for another green ribbon between their LiveStrong bracelet and Kabala string. I was in fact just chatting with a liberalische acquaintance the other day, the sort of gal who hates Bush and is sorely disappointed in Obama, and she said, in regard to the ongoing Syrian uphevals, the kids in Greece and Spain, the Israelis, etc. etc., that it was really a shame that Americans no longer protested: too fat, lazy, apolitical, and so on to take to the streets. "Girl wut?" I sez. Americans still take to the streets when injustice is done. They just happen to be black most of the time, and your nice liberal show of solidarity is to lock the doors in your distant enclave lest the niggers come for your TV too. If his name had been El-Rodney Al-King and he'd gotten the beat-down in some market square in East Whutupistan, you'd be poring over headlines about Violent protests in response to brutal crackdowns by state security forces. But, anyway, as for the current sitcheeyayshun: somehow I doubt that we're going to hear too much about the poor youth of London demanding a better life after years of economic stagnation and political neglect.



Honeypie You're Not Safe Here

So you have an entire so-called economy based on theft and expropriation; basically your life must be either precarious true poverty or the illusory security of some or other sort of debt-peonage, which is the foundational theft and expropriation upon which all the profits of finance rest; literally, like, uh, basically, um, half the world is enslaved to the immense extortionist enterprises of state capital--the other half is covered in a three-inch Congo-delta oil slick and is a skein of extraction points. And what really worries you is that some London homebro is stealing some trainers from the Foot Locker? Oh, you worry, how can these people ever expect social change and the advancement of their lot if they don't respect the law. Yo, mah nigs: how can they ever expect it if they do?

[Cramulus]

Why aren't the other media outlets covering this? If I search for any contemporary other news topic, the top results are CNN, NY Times, Fox News, CBS news...

just paging forward to make sure I'm not just seeing BBC because it's a UK current event... Are there any big name news outlets covering this shit?

Page 2: CBS news, LA Times, Fox News. The fox news headline is "Police Officers Hospitalized"

Page 3: reuters, financial times, huffington post

Page 4: NPR, daily mail, MSNBC

Page 5: Al Jazeera


Seriously, why isn't this bigger news? Is everybody waiting to see how it develops before they report on it? Or are they trying to minimize the domino effect?



My roommates and I found ourselves asking "Could this happen here?"

at first we were like "Nah"

but then we were like, "If it could happen in London..."

then we realized how many unemployed people we know who would be overjoyed at the opportunity to break some glass and flip over a car or two.

[Cain]

I think it's also the media are having a hard time finding a narrative for this, yet.

[BabylonHoruv]

You know how little news coverage the riots are getting in the states? New York times made it the front page, but most sources are giving it little more than a nod. You might see "riots continue in london" fly through the ticker at the bottom of the screen, but so far there hasn't been a lot of news about it.

heard Cameron on the radio this morning putting on his Serious Daddy voice. Saying that police justice will be swift for the people that have caused this chaos. And that those of you old enough to go to jail will be punished. 



it really makes you laugh or cry

The police that shot that young man?

[/naivete]

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

its mostly just looting. glad I am going on holiday on Saturday.

[Adios]

Damn. That looks like a lot of pissed off.

[BabylonHoruv]

So what's the likelihood that this will be used as an excuse to become considerably more repressive?

[Doktor Howl]

So what's the likelihood that this will be used as an excuse to become considerably more repressive?

Looking for more wanking material, are you?

[Cain]

We're already the capitalist bizarro twin of East Germany, I don't think we can honestly get more oppressive (or even afford to try).

[Triple Zero]

apparently nobody loots for books:

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/bookshops-avoid-major-damage-london-rioting.html