h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Granted, I'm not sophisticated like some of you big city folks, being a hillbilly and all, but how on earth is breaking store windows, looting and setting fires a valid protest against the police? All that does is destroy property belonging to people who had nothing to do with it, wreck neighborhoods, and make the protesters look like thugs and criminals who probably do need to be shot by the police. At least a good billy clubbing would be in order.

ahh its the British way

I agree, Hyp. We once had a political group who protested against the government of THEIR country by throwing burning tyres on a very busy autobahn here. I was then of the opinion they should all be thrown out of my country. They can go and loot their own country if they have a problem with their government.

I note that these things tend to happen in August. It appears to have something to do with the human brain and heat.

Hypatia, I remember the same sort of (very valid) argument being brought up back in the 60s. If you are mad at the rich people, why tear up your own, poor neighbourhood? Like that's going to do any good.

Bel, I completely agree. They should have been kicked out of your country. And Dmitri, I too remember the riots of the 60s. They made absolutely no sense. Sometimes I think it has nothing at all to do with politics and is just an excuse to create havoc. At any rate, the protesters lose whatever argument they are trying to make.

The last time I was in London -- too long ago to suit me -- I remember how impressed I was by a foreign protest set up across from St. James Palace. Handing out literature and taking the time to explain the situation to passers-by. Getting the word out in a polite, peaceful manner.

And it wasn't across from St. James Palace at all. It was near Westminster Palace, sort of in between the Palace and the Abbey. I was thinking about St. James Palace the other day and my brain failed to work this morning.

nuff'in quite like it is there! morning hypatia

What really annoys me about this is that it only reinforces the Daily Fail et al's view that protesters are all thugs doing nothing but causing chaos for chaos' sake.

I see the news programs and sometimes wonder if destructive thugs roll around a country in a bus just looking for a slim excuse to cause mayhem. We get the occasional bout of such stupidity here as well

I remember the riots in Moss Side in the early eighties. People were getting on buses down to Moss Side with all sorts of bats and bits of wood. Most oddly, the bus drivers were letting them on

There were riots around the country that year. Mostly people heading from 'nicer areas' to the riot zones.

We'd lived in Moss Side when I was younger (not far from where Gosho of this parish used to live as it turns out) so we still used to walk every Friday to Eric's (the butcher) and a Cake Shop I can't remember the name of (they used to make the most divine fruit cake, sold by the slab, it was invariably slightly undercooked in the middle ) both of them were hit by the rioters. Thankfully, when the riots ended, they stayed in business for many years. Eric used to sell a rather yummy Cheshire cheese and his bacon was to die for...

"his bacon was to die for..."

That'll be the cholestorol.

Oh come on, Mr D, this was the early eighties, we'd never even heard that word before...

Was at a friend's house this afternoon -- she's a Faux News watcher -- and Fox presented it as though the protesters burned down the Palace.

Hyp, at the heart of these originally peaceful demonstrations are a minority of thugs winding up the crowds and the mass hysteria created just grows. Shops and a carpet store were burned to a shell, and the latter had flats above it. The residents have nothing left but what they stood up in. They were lucky to get out alive.

Apparently a couple of well known 'social' sites have been used to co-ordinate and whip up support which is why it has grown and spread so much. We had something similar here in Birmingham a few years ago, and Dmitri was right, August here is the silly season, and of course all the media hype just accelerates it. The oxygen of publicity needs to be denied them.

Makes me ashamed at the way this country is going. Hyp, We are much of the same age and it seems to me things are going downhill faster than ever before.

Websailor

WebSailor, it isn't just you. Somehow and someway, the number of raw hoodlums has grown per capita. And things like FaceBook and Twitter, etc just help them to co-ordinate their mindless venting of destruction. A bit over a year ago, our peaceful and happy and loving and "friendly" country hosted the G8 and G20 summits in a week-end. And a load of the masked hoodlums of quite a number of countries found the money and way to do their destructive things

Here is a couple of articles I read this morning about the riots.

The first makes a rather depressing point that peaceful protests are ignored by the media.
[Broken URL removed by Moderator]

The second questions just how big of a role social media actually played in them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14442203 (found via a tweet from E. Vibenstein.)

I foresee a big danger...

Authorities decide that Twitter and suchlike chat is to blame for riots.

Somebody in authority decides to do something about that...

Since these new media forms have already been used to great effect against dictatorships, well, you can see where I'm going...

I don't foresee a danger, ... Law folks are pretty tech-savvy. They are capable of tracking and following a lot more mindless jibber-jabber that I ever could

There was a reference earlier today of a person who applied his skills to art and the like for a lot of years. It was his interpretation of a German radio transmission that advised Mr Chruchilll that Mr H was dead. ... ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Gombrich followed by a of an artist, of course)

I don't know... Law Enforcement (and things like DHS) make me very nervous when it comes to technology. Here in the US we're just now finding out to what extent we're being wiretapped without warrants and how much our ISPs and websites are cooperating with authorities regardless of warrants.

For good or ill, we'll also have to deal with face recognition software.
http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/04/7254996-your-face-and-the-web-can-tell-everything-about-you

Yes, I'm paranoid, why aren't you?

"the number of raw hoodlums has grown per capita"

That's not strictly true... crime is actually falling, but the immediate nature of the modern media makes it a lot more visible.