Riots

Roy

So I'm away from London this weekend and I wake up this morning (erm, I mean this lunchtime) to reports of riots in London and pictures of utter devestation that look like a war zone. Is Stroud Green OK? Should I be thinking about rushing back home as quickly as possible? roy

Nick10

Stroud Green is its usual quiet and peaceful Sunday self. Without the news I wouldn't have known anything was happening. Also a surprising lack of sirens or helicopters. At least my side of the SGR.

Roy

Thanks Nick, that's good to know. roy

Roy

Bloody hell, and more riots expected tonight.

miss annie

I'm hoping for torrential downpours, no one riots in the rain.

Roy

[The North London war zone](http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/Gallery_Images/2011/8/7/1312672859672/Tottenham-Riots-007.jpg) [And again](http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/2828392-3x2-700x467.jpg) [And utter devastation](http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/54460000/jpg/_54460434_54460433.jpg) I really can't believe that just a couple of miles form here people were indiscriminately lobbing Molatov cocktails into people's homes. I pity the poor folks who are now homeless. roy

miss annie

As a pal of mine said - it starts off with people demanding justice and ends with them looting flat screen tellys from Currys. And one of the buildings that the yobbos set fire to was the subject of a very long campaign to have it saved from being destroyed by property developers.

Idoru

It's utterly despicable. The people who did this have shown a complete lack of respect for the chap who was shot, for his family and the area he lived in.

slats

I appreciate its very serious, but seeing people looting from Carpet rite made me chuckle

miss annie

CarpetRite and Aldi are trending on Twitter because of the riots. If I was ever to riot (perish the thought), I might choose an area with better quality looting opportunities.

Four Eyes

@miss Annie. I personally don't frequent Tottenham but *suspect* there isn't a Waitrose on the High Road?

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Detritus

Miss Annie if you were to riot you would stop mid way to make a nice Liberty print petrol bomb.

Roy

Looting at Harringay Arena last night, apparently. Isn't that the retail park with Homebase and Big Sainsbury's? roy

djmattyoung

yeah a friend of my lives off Green Lanes near Manor House told me last night that youths with masks had broken into carphone warehouse and sports direct.

Ali

There is no real excuse for this but does anyone think that the fact that Haringey Council has lost £41m from its budget, has cut youth services by 75 per cent and the abolition of the education maintenance allowance has hit hard on the thousands of Haringey young people at college who depended on it. There always seems to riots in recent history when there is a Tory government and by the way where is Boris while London burns?

Roy

Crouch End last night, too, apparently?

djmattyoung

<http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/midnight-looting-at-arena-last-night>;

Roy

Thanks for that, Matt. So Big Sainsbury's will not be open 24/7 any more, according to that.

krappyrubsnif

Are there any boards going up over shop windows in Stroud Green, Crouch End, Islington yet?

Brodiej

@ Ali. No. I'm sure if you asked a masked looter as he pilfered some new Umbro shorts and a golf umbrella from Sports Direct "are you doing this because you feel disallusioned with the government cuts and feel that no-one will invest in your future"....he would probably answer "i couldn't give a f*ck, i'm just nicking stuff from the crappest shop on the entire retail park because its Sunday night and Midsomer murders isn't on the tele". He would probably have been better off nicking a foot long BLT from Subway and having a free snack. If you like causing trouble you will use any excuse to do it. If you're a good person, you don't commit crime. These guys are just a bunch of skanks that don't fancy going down the legal route of life. Yes Boris on is on hols, but he's hardly the person who can react best to this. If anything mayoral involvement will hamper the efforts of the police force. Any calls for him to return are just political....i certainly don't want him back.

Papa

Ali, not sure you can make this political, although nice try. Sadly I bet most of the looters have absolutely no awareness of politics, cuts or the fact that the nation is skint due to a massive credit boom allowed to run unchecked in the UK by a certain Chancellor who preferred to massage his growth figures to try and become PM. They may not even know the Tories are in power. They probably don't know that they may feel increasingly disenfranchised due to London's increasing gap between rich and poor (built up as a Labour government sold its voters down the river and jumped into bed with the City and continued as the poor feel the worst of the recession and the rich get fatter on cheap money). Sadly, they did on the other hand probably hear about people nicking mobile phones and sportswear and think 'I'll have some of that'.

graeme

There is no real excuse for this post except to roll out the same points that I raise on every thread where I can take a dig at a party I don't agree with, while adding nothing to the solution.

As a sweetener, here's s:
<a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=213340815563635727642.0004a9f9e2c9bbcd71034&ll=51.541638,-0.076904&spn=0.170823,0.315857&z=11&source=embed">twitter-driven google maps of the riot</a>

<a href="http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/updated_disturbances_in_islington_and_holloway_1_987193">Angle N1 centre </a>apparently attacked too, and Vue Cinema evacuated. They must have *really* hated 'Horrible Bosses'. (It's dire). <a href="http://www.highgatepeople.co.uk/Panic-streets-North-London-disorder-reported/story-13090538-detail/story.html">And Crouch End Blockbuster?!</a>

Ali

Well Theresa May is coming back to London and she is not responsible for the Met. Your probably right that Boris should stay away as he has the unenviable record of losing two Met Commissionaires on his watch and of course he doesn’t like to be around when things go wrong. It should be interesting to see what this does to the crime figures on the Police crimes maps site and of course it will make it more difficult for Boris to claim he has reduced crime in the elections next May.

Idoru

Why on earth would Boris come back? Poor people don't vote Tory.

miss annie

I'm poor and I love Bojo! Now kicking off on Holloway Rd, be careful out there.

R&J

Rumour or fact re Holloway?

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Roy

@Miss Annie: Trouble on Holloway Road now or last night?

djmattyoung

Broadway Market in Hackney is on lockdown and shops on Mare St have closed early. <http://twitter.com/#!/greenshizzle>;

wisteria53

re donations for families, a bit more info on <http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/burned-out-families-in-tottenham>;