London calling

[Triple Zero]

what about the whole bit where they want to shut down social networks?

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/08/turn-off-social-media-and-news/

[Scribbly]

I hope they do it.

I want to see the hordes of people who would turn out on the streets to riot in protest when they can't share every thought they have about how awful the riot is, or because they are unable to tend to their facebook farms. 

[Cain]

Oh yes.  Absolutely.

[Bruno]

Yeah.  Over here, a few of the words change (only a very few), but the sentiments are pretty much the same.

I will admit I am somewhat surprised at the level of racism directed towards black people in the UK still.  I kinda expect it towards South Asians and Arabs, but unlike with the USA, and to a degree France, it's not very overt in the UK at all.  I know historically, things were very different, with the National Front, Enoch Powell and the rest ("rivers of blood" oh my!), and there are continuing issues with kids of Jamiacan origins in education...but the level of overtly racist vitriol is kinda shocking to me.  And because I'm not used to hearing it as much, it makes it all the more worrying to realise this has been bubbling along underground for quite a while in the national consciousness.

INORITE! I mean, for fuck's sake, you people turned the Brigadier into a black lady way back in 1987. WTF happened?

On a more serious note, I'm experiencing something similar here. I knew we had bigots, but at least they had the decency to not talk about it in public, but then the Mosque happened, they protested in the streets, and now they have their very own newspaper.

[Triple Zero]

hm, so the social media thing is kind of a red herring in your opinion?

or just some collateral excuse to pull whatever strings tighter?

sounds plausible.

[BadBeast]

"Engines stop running,  but I have no fear, cuz London's burning, and I . . . . . . live by the river!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cstGXonEXoQ

[BadBeast]

I think the racism against blacks has been mostly stirred up by the Daily Mail. Knowing that they can't pin this on the Moslems, or illegal immigrants, they've gone for the next lowest common denominator and are heaping blame on British kids, of West Indian parentage for forcing their "Jamaican Gang culture" into decent, white areas. It's been a long time since such allegations have been levelled at British West Indians in this way, butt I think (hope) people generally discount "popular opinion" as portrayed by the Daily Mail.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TlRVabHMw0&feature=related
(Same song, better footage)

[Chairman Risus]

http://thedailywh.at/2011/08/15/facebook-profiling-of-the-day/ :

Facebook Profiling of the Day: And so it begins?: Mere days after UK PM David Cameron told parliament he was exploring the possibility of banning social network users who appear to be plotting criminal behavior, a 20-year-old man from Colchester in Essex was arrested for allegedly attempting to organize a mass water fight through BlackBerry Messenger and Facebook.

"In the light of recent events, we would have to be careful that [the planned water fight] is not all that it seems," an Essex Police spokesman is quoted as saying.

The unidentified man has been charged with "encouraging or assisting in the commission of an offence" and is scheduled to appear before magistrates next month.

[Triple Zero]

ugh that sounds rather like the bullshit we have over here about "Twitter death threats", which invariably turn out to be highschool kids that crossed the line badmouthing their teachers or classmates.

the police says they have to take this VERY seriously and the kids can get in a lot of trouble.

in response to this, a few people created http://doodsbedreiging.nl/ ("death-threat.nl"), which monitors Twitter, searches and scans for certain key phrases, plus I think some manual checking, and posts them on that site.

the conclusion is that it turns out that there are actually quite some very real and very serious death threats and threats of violence on the (Dutch) Twitter. ones that are proven very real by the sad pathetic criminal youth showing off their cuts and bruises afterwards.

but somehow the police doesn't seem to take the threats very serious if there's, you know, actual possibility of violence involved.

[Cain]

Well Trip, it's like over here, the police will be reluctant to get involved if rioters are actually, you know, committing violence.  They might get hurt!

Never mind practically every non-violent protest of the last decade has involved the police battering the hell out of peaceful protestors and students, or else just "kettling" them somewhere for 10 hours without food or water or access to toilets.

The police, as a rule, like easy targets.  Fulfills their quotas, doesn't carry a huge amount of risk.  Let SO19 and Special Branch handle the tricky jobs (when they're not shooting people for the hell of it, or passing on confidential information to the News of the World), they have the pay and the training for it.

[Triple Zero]

for such we have the ME ("mobile unit"). I discussed with my friends that this must be the most important reason why we're not going to have such kinds of riots here. and I'm not really sure if it's a good reason.

they're like a cross between military, police, thugs and killer robots. except they don't really kill, just maim and flatten. the guys with the facemasks, body armour, big sticks, you know the type. except ours are fucking organized. all wearing an earpiece, they only work in units, they don't have names, their unit has a number. then they make a row, and close in somewhere--this is when most smart people GTFO--and perform a "charge". if it's a protest and idiots think "let's sit down so they can't move us" they'll pick them up and just fucking throw them away, everyone in the way is fair game, a charge is supposed to swipe the streets clean.
oh yeah and there's the horses. big huge fucking strong horses with blinders that are trained to STEP ON PEOPLE.
and they're thugs. big part of their ranks is hooligans that just find they enjoy hitting people so much they might as well join the winning side. if you happen to be on the wrong side of an ME line, you can still get out provided you look innocent enough, but expect to be bashed about as you talked the front guy into letting you through, the one behind him will think you broke their line and you'll be out of there in no time.

I may not describe it perfectly, and I don't know all their techniques, but they're very good and efficient at what they do, usually, when they arrive, whatever's going on is over within 20-30 minutes.

so I guess, as long as these guys are around, affecting change in NL is going to have to go through the more democratic and/or traditional channels

[Cain]

Unless, of course, your rioters adopt our tactics and disperse, rather than concentrate.

That's what fucked up our trained riot police (who only made up a small percentage of those actually dressed in riot uniforms), that they couldn't actually locate the rioters.  Occasionally the police would corner a group and arrest them, but for the most part, you'll notice they're relying on after-riot raids to nab them.  Anytime the police would be on the move, spotters would alert rioters, and they would fade into the crowds (of which there were plenty, surprisingly) and reappear a couple of miles away.

It's not a useful tactic for protesting, where you want to make a big show of marching on X Location, but for violence and looting, it's pretty effective.

[Triple Zero]

Okay, I thought there was also some deal about not being allowed to hit people that get in the way or something?

[Cain]

Really?  I hadn't heard that.

I had heard from a copper down in Tottenham that he had been beating people so hard he broke his truncheon in half, though.  So I suspect it was not an issue.

[Doktor Howl]

As of 8 minutes ago, British police have curfew powers.

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/cb13b736-d1bb-4cd0-9424-00f61f3169eb.aspx

MIEN SIEG!
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