These aren’t the downtrodden. Those that have been caught and convicted for looting are of every race, economic group and profession imaginable (just this morning they were showing a 31 year old who works at a primary school leaving court with his face hidden by a broadsheet in shame).
Yes. There has been rioting in the US in the past and there will be more rioting in the future.
And the whole notion that American’s are too passive to riot, you’re cofusing self-reliance with passivity. I guess you forgot that the US is one of the most warring and violent nations in history, and our past is just filled with riots. My question is, what took them so long?
I think we might see our next riots. . . when/if Obama loses in 2012. . . or when Medicare or other social programs crash. So, probably pretty soon.
Well, that’s because those are oppressed albeit noble victims throwing off their corrupt shackles, while these young’uns are uppity, nihilistic punks trying to rock the gravy boat. It’s completely different !
snerk. Call me cynical, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on anything changing. There’ll be speeches, there will be call to arms, there might be hasty laws and reforms, hell there might even be a budget in the works for them if the angels are looking down.
6 months, hell, 6 weeks later ? Geez, that old thing again ? Who remembers ? Who even cares any more ? They’re not breaking any more windows are they ? Problem solved.
Hey, it worked for the last 6000 years. And when it didn’t work, well, it got turned on its head. Then it worked again !
I don’t see it, but you’se the boss.
Right. But my point is that even in the worst crime-ridden city, no police helicopter has a minigun, or rocket launchers, or anti-vehicle missiles. I’m not even sure if there’s a SWAT 'copter anywhere in the U.S. with a machinegun.
Fat people make poor rioters.
Not Jr. Modding here, but why would you feel the need to be armed when “sharing air” with Argent Towers? Are you afraid he’d “go nuts” and shoot you?
Within the context of the thread’s general discussion, it’s not people like Argent looting shops, burning homes, or attacking people. “Rioting,” in other words.
If you, personally, think that you need to be armed around other armed people, that’s your personal quirk, and nothing necessarily wrong with that. But yeah, it was kind of an insulting fling at Argent, since you called him out by name. I had thought to respond earlier in this vein, but dropped it without posting.
Like I said, not trying to Jr. Mod. Just trying to help you see how your comment may be construed as insulting.
Watch it…The Tooth got called out for making random comments about other posters here.
No, it’s true. I was outraged by what Omar Little said. However, when I tried to vent my rage by throwing a garbage can through a window I got winded and couldn’t complete it. Instead, I just went inside and drowned my anger with a gallon of Coca-Cola and some pizza.
I don’t think the rioting in London is going to encourage people in the U.S. to riot. I’m sure we’ll have a large scale riot at some point in the future though.
I’m basically saying that people are within their rights to use firearms to protect themselves from rioters. That’s it. To some people, apparently that makes me a bad guy.
Here is the famous photo of the armed Koreans on the roof during the LA riots.
Hmmm… blacks do have a much higher obesity rate than whites in America. Perhaps this is part of some evil conspiracy by The Man to make African Americans too fat to riot?
They can have their grievances addressed in legitimate manner via voting, petititon, peaceful assembly, and so on. This sort of rioting simply encourages an equal and opposite reaction.
Whoever starts the violence is guilty of its effects unless the other side massively overreacts.
Why? The US has been socially stable for the last twenty years.
Most of our wars have been directed against external enemies.
You mean just like when there were riots after McCain lost or Gore lost? :rolleyes:
You do realize that voting, petition, and peaceful assembly do not always work, correct?
And I’ve been alive for nearly 50 now, so I am aware, through my own life experience, that all of American history is not the same as those last 20 years.
In actual fact, while US society has been relatively peaceful for those 20 years no, it is has not, in fact, been “stable”. The middle class has been shrinking, for example. There is the whole gay marriage thing, which wasn’t even on the table 20 years ago. American society has been undergoing some significant changes.
American society was pretty quiet during the 50’s, too - then look at what happened in the 1960’s. Of course there can be upheavals again.
In other words, Curtis, go learn some actual history. As has been suggested to you numerous times
That is true of any democratic or constitutional society: you cannot always have your way.
I’m not saying its impossible conditions will change, I just don’t see it in the forseeable future.
For example with homosexual marriage, neither side is trying to supress the other from expressing their opinion and as a result there are no riots, mass campaigns of civil disobedience, and so on but rather both sides use legal means such as elections and the courts.
Bill O’Reilly today compared the LA riots to the UK riots, and he even asked the same quetion you are asking.
A better parallel would be the 1999 WTO protests.
You might want to check your history, too. 
The 50s saw a lot of civil rights unrest in the US. The *Brown *decision was in the mid 1950s.
I do.
And when it happens folks will act surprised and claim it came out of nowhere when, in fact, we’ve had all these little mob attacks already this year - all it takes it just one blowing up to a larger scale.
The hell there isn’t attempted suppression - there are campaigns to forbid even the mention of homosexuality, see recent crap in Tennessee that led to this video. And we only got this far because of such things as the Stonewall riot
Yes, but not nearly on the scale of the 1960’s. The Little Rock Nine didn’t occur until 1957, and even that wasn’t a riot but a threatened riot prevented by the presence of the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army. There was was a lot of violence threatened after Brown v Board of Education but it didn’t actually erupt until years later.
The roots of the unrest of the 1960’s were visible in the 1950’s in retrospect, but at the time a lot of folks thought everything was just fine and dandy.
Not true at all.
http://www.timwise.org/2002/02/riots-of-our-own-the-invisible-whiteness-of-majority-mayhem/
Also, I was in Madison when the (all white) kids rioted at the Mifflin Street Block Party a decade or so ago. These kids were setting massive fires in the street, breaking stuff, and most importantly, attacking the public safety personnel who tried to put the fires out and restore order. The firefighters were just doing their jobs by putting the fires out, but the mobs of drunken white kids attacked them with rocks.
It’s readily apparent that it’s disappeared down the memory hole with the numerous other instances of sports riots and beer riots and just plain old drunk white kid riots that break out here in the US on a regular basis.
The first duty of government is to restrain it’s own actions. They can’t stop crimes taking place, but they can stop themselves going around massacring people, and so they should.
Policing by consensus means that people should want the police to be around, rather than the police taking the role of an oppressive force whose only legitimacy comes from their superior force. Not that they’re doing that.
Thatcher pissed people off, too. But she gave the police a raise so she’d have the loyalty of the thugs who could put down any riots or other acts of disobedience to her tyranny. The current government have decided to piss off the police too by laying them off and cutting their hours.
We’ve learned some things from these here riots. The rioters have had catre blanche for days and how many deaths? Someone shot maybe, a small group run over “defending” their car wash in Birmingham. If some of the people on this thread had their way the streets would be running with blood. The government are talking about new repressive laws. The opposition want people put in prison for being outside after sundown. I’m getting more and more convinced that these rioters are the nicest guys in the country.
They do work when they’re actually used. Young people in the UK vote less than older people. The young have no right to complain about being disenfranchised.