London riots (1 Viewer)

[Scientician 0.8]

6 months for a few bottles of water. Check out the Bullingdon Club too. Dirty, scummy, shitty, hypocritical Tories. I wonder how many of these sentences will be overturned or lessened on appeal.

 

[hugh]

Had a good chat with my lady about this last night.
Of course what sparked it all off in Tottenham was to do with people in deprived areas being robbed of opportunity.

But something new has happened here. The article Steve Albino posted mentions the guy who got "caught up in the moment". This is something very normal for people - especially young people. We can all probably remember getting caught up in some sort of crowd behaviour when we were at school - or, at the very least, remember everyone else in the class getting whipped up in the moment. A classic example is someone being bullied in a class. The bullying behaviour can quickly spread and many people join in.

I'll have to have a look to figure out which one it is but there is a JG Ballard novel (one of the later ones) that describes a kind of riot/rebellion/insurrection in a shopping mall in England. There are so many parallels with what's happened ..... particularly the role of consumerism as opposed to traditional class differences/deprivation and so on.

 

[steve albino]

Yeah, "Kingdom Come". I read it last year and didn't like that book at all but I can see what you mean. Pretty accurate review here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/sep/03/fiction.jgballard
Seems like reason may finally be making a comeback, for a time at least (who am I kidding):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/13/england-riots-coalition-response

Ahh, time to finish some wine and hit the hay...

 

[steve albino]

Strike one up for "decency"...

This is fucking pathetic.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/15/riots-magistrates-sentencing

It's not going to be a good day is it...

 

[Unicron]

Cameron's comments yesterday hardly did much to spark optimism.

 

[steve albino]

And one more for the hang 'em high, decency and moral bunch:

An 11-year-old boy has been given an 18-month youth rehabilitation order for stealing a bin during the recent riots.

The boy from Romford in north-east London is the youngest rioter in the capital to be prosecuted, according to Scotland Yard.

He committed the offence five days after being given a referral order for arson, criminal damage and carrying a pointed instrument in an unrelated incident.

The boy took the bin, worth £50, from Debenhams in Romford on 8 August.

Rioters had smashed the windows of the store, causing £6,000 of damage, when the boy was seen by a police officer reaching in to take a bin from a display.

He was sentenced at Havering magistrates court in Essex on Wednesday after previously admitting burglary.

Passing sentence, district judge John Woollard said: "You seem to think that nobody can stop the way you behave."

The boy was told that his local authority will dictate where he lives for the next six months. He was already under a referral order, imposed at the same court on 3 August, for an incident on 18 July when he cut the seats of a bus with a Stanley knife and tried to light the exposed foam.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/31/youngest-london-rioter-boy-11-sentenced

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

So first he tries to light a fire aboard a bus then smashes a window to exit the bus (all the while carrying a knife) when the driver tries to keep him there?Less than a month later he's caught robbing and the judge imposes what is essentially the probation act with a few hours community service a week,I would hardly call that hanging him high.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

Some 8 year old was hanged for setting fire to two barns.

 

[steve albino]

So first he tries to light a fire aboard a bus then smashes a window to exit the bus (all the while carrying a knife) when the driver tries to keep him there?Less than a month later he's caught robbing and the judge imposes what is essentially the probation act with a few hours community service a week,I would hardly call that hanging him high.

Ok fair point, , I'll rephrase for clarity - one more for the "they're all scumbags", moral decency and down with this sort of thing knee-jerk conservative lot.

But I digress. From having worked in the past with young kids in difficulty the quote from the CEO of Barnados speaks volues to me.

"After the sentencing, children's charity Barnardo's criticised courts for punishing children of this age for "minor offences".

Chief executive Anne Marie Carrie said: "It is both counterproductive and costly to hand out disproportionately punitive sentences for minor offences such as petty theft, particularly to younger children of 10 or 11.

"The evidence shows that after a year, half of boys and girls at this age who are sentenced in court will have reoffended and their experience within the criminal justice system increases the likelihood that they will go on to commit further crimes.

"We are calling on the government to reconsider treatment of the youngest children in trouble within the criminal justice system.

"We would urge them to spend money more wisely on more effective ways to stop youth crime, such as whole family approaches like family intervention projects.

"This is not a soft option – rather it challenges and supports parents and their children to face up to their actions and accept responsibility for them, helping to reduce antisocial behaviour, truancy and school exclusions.""

Eleven years old. I mean, for fuck's sake, if you have even passing knowledge of 11 year olds, how can you expect them to respond positively to institutional sanctions applied in such a context. Over recacting in these instances is just as destructive (individually and socially) as under reacting.

But it will all be fine because the big strong men are coming to school:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/01/michael-gove-physical-force-schools

Michael Gove slackens rules on use of physical force in schools

Education secretary seeks to stem 'erosion of adult authority' by recruiting former male soldiers to the classroom

Ministers are scrapping a requirement for teachers to record instances when they use physical force, as part of a wider move to "restore adult authority" in the wake of the riots in England.

The education secretary, Michael Gove, said that he wanted greater numbers of men teaching, particularly in primary schools, so as to provide children with male authority figures who could display "both strength and sensitivity".

In a speech delivered at Durand academy, in Stockwell, south London, Gove said the regulations on the use of force inhibited teachers' judgment.

He said: "So let me be crystal clear, if any parent now hears a school say, 'sorry, we can't physically touch the students', then that school is wrong. Plain wrong. The rules of the game have changed."

Gove said men considering teaching were deterred by a fear of rules that made contact between adults and children "a legal minefield".

The government was planning to start a programme this autumn encouraging former members of the armed forces to take up teaching, specifically to ensure more male role models, Gove said.


Jesus fucking wept...

 

[David Kronenbourg]

clever interactive thingy about how rumors spread on twitter during the riot
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2011/dec/07/london-riots-twitter

 

[washingcattle]

Tigers on the streets of London.

Llamas on the streets of Birmingham

I wonder to my self is twitter taking the piss again ?


Etc