How do we not have a thread about this..

I think it is a disgrace, and don't understand why the water canons and rubber bullets aren't out! (TBH I'd be fine with proper bullets)

Also I love Google maps...

Here is the map of confirmed riots:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=207192798388318292131.0004aa01af6748773e8f7

You'll get interesting results if you then do a search for Currys Digital and overlay the two!

London
Manchester
Liverpool
Birmingham
Bristol
Nottingham
Leicester
Gloucester
Newcastle

From what I read elsewhere the water cannons are all in Northern Ireland and we can't get them over here. Same with invoking martial law, they won't do this unless absolutely necessary as the armed forces are all stretched out in Afghanistan.

What does need to be done is forgetting about race, PC and all that and allowing the police freedom to go out and crack some heads rather than standing around watching London burn and be looted by scum. Some of the videos doing the rounds are sickening.

I think in time if not sorted it will sort itself out, as more and more of the confident troublemakers get arrested, the opportunists will feel less confident, from what i have read today it is not just young men out looting but their parents too.

As for sorting it out, i would agree with rubber bullets or water cannons or just some straight forward medieval action with batons from the 80s.

PS. Edited the OP's title.

Anyone near london fancy grabbing me a 50" TV?

Tried Gumtree?

Just to make me sound incredibly naive...but what are the riots actually about? ATM it just seems like people rioting/looting for the sake of it...usually this stuff happens off of the side of a protest/riot?

The police shot some guy in Tottenham (who I suspect was asking for it) so there was a peaceful protest outside the police station. This escalated and then a load of opportunistic bellends used it as an excuse to start robbing and being f*cking scumbags. Frankly I hope they shoot them too - or hang them, in Trafalgar Square as a nice warning to the rest. Whats making it worse is all the revolutionary Guerra' wannabe's think this is the beginning of something and that people are all turning on 'the system'. I've just tried to explain to one that this will actually push the public closer to government and the police but he thinks I'M the brainwashed idiot... lordy....

Its utterly shocking. I only recent moved away from Clapham Junction which was badly hit last night, its a nice middle class area, one of the last I expected to have problems but its only a short drive from Brixton and *crucially* it has a Currys Digital.

Its pure opportunism, word got round that police werent responding to anything so people with no social conscience took to the streets and looted anything they wanted. Others, presumably for excitement and to prove they cant be controlled committed mindless acts of vandalism and arson or travelled to areas where the police where to get involved in the fights.

The sad fact is the police will never be able to react to large numbers of people committing crime at random in a wide range of areas, society relies on people not having the inclination to commit crime and the facade of safety that a relitively small number of police bring.

My concern is that now these groups have reaslised that when there is an event which draws a large ammount of police resource occuring they are effectively free to break the law unimpeded.

I question if communities should do more, there was a fantastic show in some areas, notably Turkish communities where people took to the streets to defend their areas with a show of force. It worked flawlessly, rioters diverted away from those areas and they were left untouched.

It is rediculous, these protests are not about anything in particular, people are just using it as an excuse to cause trouble, and I agree with everything everyone has posted here.

It is time the police to start cracking some skulls and shooting some bullets, rubber or live I don't care, these people are the dreggs of society and a few hundred less alive will do this country the world of good.

I wonder how long it would take, if things continued, before locals took matters in to their own hands? Whether it'd make things worse if a group of 200 looters that had been organising an "event" on twitter, suddenly found themselves facing a group of 500 people who just want to live their lives without dealing with this trash.

Building on that, I wonder what the scenario would be like if we had gun laws / values like in america, where both the looters and businessmen looting would have slightly easier access to firearms. I'm guessing there'd have been more fatalities, but I wonder if there'd have been overall as much violence?