# No-one pitted the fuckers burning London down yet? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 8, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998 "2011-08-08T21:56:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/221 "2011-08-10T14:21:07Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > If Hitler was in your front yard molesting your yard gnomes you’d feel a bit differently I suspect. I’d be too busy laughing to do anything, I suspect. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/222 "2011-08-10T14:37:58Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > If Hitler was in your front yard molesting your yard gnomes you’d feel a bit differently I suspect. And the winner of the most randomly hilarious post of 2011 is already here! It’s only August, but the bar is set so high now. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/223 "2011-08-10T15:00:13Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > PS **villa** , the LibDems in the last election. After Clegg sold his soul, though, God knows who next time round. At least the Tories are honest about being wankers. ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/224 "2011-08-10T15:43:06Z")
> **[londonrioters.co.uk](http://londonrioters.co.uk/ide%E2%80%8Bntify/)** > > This domain may be for sale! The round up begins … ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/225 "2011-08-10T16:15:03Z")
> [@George\_Kaplin](#): > > The only concrete observation one can make of the riots is that there are a lot of scumbags in this country who need a fucking good kicking. Fuck their deprivation. If these indolent pigs put one tenth of one percent of the effort into policing their own communities as they’re currently putting into thieving, terrorizing, and throwing petrol bombs at police then maybe, just _maybe_, there’d be a bit more potential for upward mobility. But no, they’d rather languish in their shithole council estates in a fog of weed smoke, throwing jewelled fists at anything that looks like an opportunity. They can all get fucked again > > I hope that tonight’s the night the police finally break out the tear gas and rubber bullets. I hope the ringleaders are arrested, convicted, paraded on national television, and are put to work as a chain gang clearing the debris while dressed in humiliating and emasculating outfits, before being dragged off to prison to, once again, get fucked. Interpret that how you will. As a liberal type, I approve of this message. Pile conspiracy charges on top of everything else and make sentences run consecutively and without hope of remission or parole. Laugh off 25 years you vermin. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/226 "2011-08-10T16:19:41Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > And you think that killing thousands of people won’t cause more unrest? In this situation - no. I’m a liberal type with liberal friends but we know this is nothing more than a dangerous, verminous under-class with no redeeming features flexing new-found muscles and empowered by an encrypted communication system that gives them a dangerous mobility. No sympathy at all. Declare martial law and a curfew and gun down any face-masked fucker who sticks his head out the door. The world will be a better place without these savages. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/227 "2011-08-10T16:44:33Z")
> [@SecondJudith](#): > > Well, good for you. I’m glad that so far more sensible and ethical heads have been prevailing among the authorities. Human life is more important than property. No matter the human, no matter the property. Well, Hitler aside, fire is famously non-discrimatory. Arsonists may set out just to destroy property, but the fire doesn’t care what or who it burns. That said, what about the rule of law? Is it more or less important than human life? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/228 "2011-08-10T16:58:35Z")
Well, that depends on which law. We seem to have decided as a society that breaking the speed limit is more important than human life. ---
**Author:** ![mallocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f4b2a3/32.png) [@mallocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mallocks)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/229 "2011-08-10T16:59:49Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > In this situation - no. I’m a liberal type with liberal friends > […] > Declare martial law and a curfew and gun down any face-masked fucker who sticks his head out the door. The world will be a better place without these savages. You don’t see many liberals running on this platform. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/230 "2011-08-10T17:23:11Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > The fact that the government’s victims would be arsonists, looters and murderers, while the rioter’s victims are innocent civilians who are just trying to go about their lives. Even you can’t be so stupid as to be incapable of telling the difference. Be prepared to lose that bet… ---
**Author:** ![jlzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jlzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlzania)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/231 "2011-08-10T17:28:28Z")
> [@](#): > > **Harlem** > > What happens to a dream deferred? > Does it dry up > like a raisin in the sun? > Or fester like a sore— > And then run? > Does it stink like rotten meat? > Or crust and sugar over— > like a syrupy sweet? > Maybe it just sags > like a heavy load. > > - Or does it explode?\* Change 'Harlem to London and Langston Hughes expressed it far better than I could. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/232 "2011-08-10T17:49:32Z")
As someone who is familiar with London and has friends in low places, I can assure everyone that the riots have NO origins in any political thinking, \*\*Pretty Vacants \*\* bizarre idea of a socially conscience, disaffected youth, acting out their frustration at their broken dreams caused by an uncaring repressive regime, and so on and on and on… would be quite comical if it weren’t so far of the mark. The original rioters were London gangbangers and their social group, who make their livings from crime, sometimes petty crime, sometimes serious crime, and who hate the police 24/7 whether or not they have actually ever had any dealings with the police. They have probably never ever seriously sought work, or for that matter want honest work, so they are not exactly heartbroken because they’re not working. Their adult futures could easily have been predicted years earlier (and probably were) from their complete lack of participation in the learning process at school, and their disruptive (and even at school age) criminal actions. They are in short sociopaths, and it is highly unlikely that they will ever be anything else. The people involved in the latter riots, have a hard core who have set them up as a cover for looting, and a large number of thrill seekers who aren’t above a bit of looting themselves. Interestingly, I knew some of the instigators of the London riots, back, I believe in, 83 or 84, who were equally forthcoming, in that they deliberately set the riots up for economic gain, relying on the "sheep "to join in and keep the police occupied , while they went about their “business”. As the saying goes, the more times change the more they stay the same. Of course today its so much easier to organise because theres a ready, willing and able flock of sheep on the social networking sites to hand. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/233 "2011-08-10T18:18:09Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > As someone who is familiar with London and has friends in low places, I can assure everyone that the riots have NO origins in any political thinking, \*\*Pretty Vacants \*\* bizarre idea of a socially conscience, disaffected youth, acting out their frustration at their broken dreams caused by an uncaring repressive regime, and so on and on and on… would be quite comical if it weren’t so far of the mark. …snipped for brevity I think this is a very good summary. This is scum having fun. This is nothing to do with current economic realities, though some commentators who are particularly anti-tory seem to think that this has somehow been created and ignited in the last 15 months. That the last 13 years of cosmetic spending and reduction of social mobility magically never happened. The seeds of the unrest were sown long before May 2010. Of course now, with unpopular cuts looming, it is trivially easy to suggest that as a legitimate trigger. I say balls, this goes deeper and those willing to point fingers at a 15 month-old government are cowards and hypocrites unless they are wiling to critically assess the failure of every government since the 1950’s to address the underlying issues. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/234 "2011-08-10T21:11:43Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Bullshit. What we now see is a bunch of sociopaths burning and pillaging just because they can. That’s it? Thats all you see? Why NOW why not before and throughout all time? I was in LA during the LA riots and the sense of lawlessness was palpable. people were on their roofs with rifles and shotguns. When a segment of society realizes that society has nothing to offer them but a lifetime of poverty and struggle, the benefits of law and order become less apparent to them. When the distribution of societal wealth becomes lopsided enough, the sanctity of property rights becomes less sacred to those without property. Mobs are inherently unruly and unpredictable. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/235 "2011-08-10T21:14:06Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Look at what’s going on outside my window here in Tel Aviv: the largest protests in decades, the government acting like it’s shitting its pants, and zero violence. I don’t know if we’ll see any actual results, but up until know it’s been a highly effective and perfectly civil display of strength. > > The main difference, of course, is that our protests are being led by the middle class, mainly young professionals. Do you see any chance of the London middle class joining \*your \*protests? So Israel has never had an underclass that resorted to violence? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/236 "2011-08-10T21:16:07Z")
> [@Bibliovore](#): > > Defending their most important asset? Honestly? So because they feel their life opportunities are under threat, that gives them the right to set fire to private property and put lives at risk and generally tear the place up? > > Come now, you seem like an intelligent person - are you seriously saying that the rioters were justified in their actions because they felt dissatisfied with their opportunities in life? No but it is a predictable and forseeable reaction. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/237 "2011-08-10T21:19:17Z")
> [@Bibliovore](#): > > Like I said, this isn’t Libya. Apparently it is a lot closer to it than you care to admit. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/238 "2011-08-10T21:21:21Z")
> [@Bibliovore](#): > > Good question. > > I honestly believe that if a government has so oppressed its people so as to make peaceful change impossible, then it makes violent protest inevitable. I paraphrased that from John F. Kennedy and it’s a great quote, but my point is that the UK isn’t like that. We don’t live in a totalitarian regime where dissent is crushed and people live in fear of torture, execution or disappearance. Like I said, this isn’t Libya. dissent doesn’t have to be crushed, its simply has to be trivialized and ignored. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/239 "2011-08-10T21:28:30Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > In this situation - no. I’m a liberal type with liberal friends but we know this is nothing more than a dangerous, verminous under-class with no redeeming features flexing new-found muscles and empowered by an encrypted communication system that gives them a dangerous mobility. > > No sympathy at all. Declare martial law and a curfew and gun down any face-masked fucker who sticks his head out the door. The world will be a better place without these savages. I tend to think that the side that kills thousands of people when it doesn’t have to are the savages. And “kill on sight” is hardly a “liberal” attitude. And you are deluding yourself if you think you can massacre thousands of people without killing a great many innocent bystanders. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998/240 "2011-08-10T21:29:24Z")
> [@Bibliovore](#): > > That was a good quote, and it’s genuinely disturbing to hear that the media basically ignored what sounded like a significant march. But torching building with people in them isn’t the solution. If the government ignores you, change the government. That’s what your vote is for. Democracy doesn’t always work. Tyranny of the majority disenfranchises minorities. Tyranny of the minority disengranchises the poor. If the poor and disaffected youth had historically been voting Tory and can show they disatisfaction at the poll by switching their vote next time aroudn, I could see your point but I don’t see what they can do differently. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-one-pitted-the-fuckers-burning-london-down-yet/591998.md?page=13)