Unknown Soldier

Are they actually in your neighbourhood now?

Mykonos

I'm on holiday now (I'm only using the internet to check the news on it) but according to reliable sources* they were looting Erdington, my area code last night. What makes it worse is that everywhere else I seem to look people are using it as a chance to lash out at ethnic or age groups, which frankly disgusts me more than the riots themselves.

*People that live by me over Facebook, so decide for yourself whether that's reliable.

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LoathsomePete

To be honest I'm really surprised that the riots are not more race orientated. In 2007 I did notice some animosity where I was living towards ethnic minorities and I thought it was just small village racism like one would find in small communities in the American South, however I noticed it was just as profound in the larger cities like Manchester and London. When I went back over in February for a funeral it was far more profound and expressed vocally. Everyone in my family seemed to have some reason to hate on Paki's, Chinense, etc. as well as those living in poverty. They all had some reasoning behind it, it wasn't just blind hate (although there was no shortage of that) but most of it involved public housing, staying on the dole for decades, having to carry generations of people dependent on government support. I can empathize with that, I mean in America it's pretty much sink or swim, Canada it's more or less the same way, but the UK really does its best to look after those who can't look after themselves, maybe a little too much.

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Unknown Soldier

The animosity to ethnic minorities that you speak of doesn`t really exist here that much, it exists but its a minority and usually most evident in the poorer sections of white society that you have used as an example. The country in urban areas is fairly multi-racial and has been for a number of decades now and most people get on well enough with each other. Back in the 70s and 80s most visible ethnics lived in inner urban areas, but as their economic power grew, a large number moved to some of the more affluent suburbs of the main cities. Its only in the smaller urban and rural areas here where visible ethnics are not really seen. Most coloured people here are pretty well integrated into society if they choose to be, if not then its a different case and a lot of those are involved in these riots.

Your opinion about the race aspect in the UK does surprise me, I`d always been led to believe that Britain was far more tolerant towards ethnic minorities than the USA in every aspect!

Also the UK has the most unique national health system in the world, problem is that its sadly abused.

Mykonos

See, race ain't anything important in these riots. As you've said most people in the UK are tolerant, and those that aren't are rightfully seen as idiots, so there's no reason for an LA-style 'Riot against racism!' protest, and there isn't one anyway. There's plenty of white English people smashing stuff, despite what the Daily Mail might say, and I doubt any of the dickwads currently stealing stuff are doing it to make a point about abuse of ethnic minorities.

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Unknown Soldier

The Daily Mail will always look for the race angle sadly. Most of the people I`ve seen in these riots are a cross reference of society (the bad elements) looking to go on a rampage for a couple of nights, most don`t give a f*uck about the guy that died. I actually saw a band of about 15 youths today in a park who looked like riot material (they may be nothing of the kind but I`m just saying) and they were a real mixed bag of different races as well.

The Monkey

As far as I know the vast majority of the non-white population in Britain lives in London, with some communities in Birmingham. That these riots have spread to places like Manchester, Nottingham and Liverpool would suggest that whites have a large part in is as well.

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Sneer

Events in London seem to have subsided, there's an air of calm within the city but it's still very tense. 16,000 police have lined the streets and it's eerily quiet, trepidation is filling towns at the moment.

Manchester and Birmingham, on the other hand, seem to be in the thick of quite serious riot activity. Maybe the title of this thread should be changed to 'UK riots', it's becoming an increasingly national problem.

I'm praying it doesn't kick off in London again, last night was awful. My thoughts go out to all those experiencing it further north.

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NSW

That actually brought tears to my eyes. Absolutely disgusting.

I hear this rioting is spreading quite far now. I hope all you guys in any affected areas will please be careful and take care.

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