London riots: 'People are fighting back. It's their neighbourhoods at stake'

The Guardian ^ | Wednesday 10 August 2011 | Peter Beaumont, Jasmine Coleman and Sandra Laville

[Socon-Econ]

Frank Rizzo, former Philadelphia police chief and mayor: “A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged.”

[BitWielder1]

I am heartened by accounts of people standing up for themselves.
I am angry at libs who whine things are getting out of control.
It's been out of control for days and NOW they are worried?
It's disturbing that we can not rely on the cops to see the difference
between thugs running down the street and people guarding their property.

[WoofDog123]

in normal times the UK police would have these shopowners and cooks arrested in a second. maybe they still will, self-defense is a serious crime.

[chimera]

Believe it or not, self-defense has happened before, in this country. Back in the ‘60s when there were race riots in Trenton, the co-owners camped out in their store overnight with shotguns. When the looters broke in, they were greeted with shotgun discharges. Killed two of the animals.

[WoofDog123]

if any looters are actually hurt, it is very possible the govt will go out of its way to arrest and charge the defenders.

[SoConPubbie]

The cop hating libertarians here at FR will learn to be more temperate when the thugs come after them.

Ignorance on parade!

And I'm not even a "cop hating libertarian".

You apparently know nothing of Freepers.

They own guns precisely for the reason you posit.

[Little Ray]

Right now, what the UK needs a whole passel of “jack-booted thugs.” I wish we could send ‘em the cops from some of our, ummm, more “excessive” police departments. Say the entire LA police Rampart department and the entire LA anti-gang division...
I bet they’d kick some sense into these rioters in no time flat.

[Little Ray]

I am angry about cops who told them to “do nothing” and that they couldn’t use their utensils outside their shops.

[laotzu]

The cop hating libertarians here at FR will learn..

Damn right!! We don't need, or want their kind around here.
The Republican party has been doing just fine without them.

The Party is too big to fail, and we are sick of being
bailed out by libertartians & Tea partiers.

The best way to win them over is by insult. Damn cop haters!!

[no-to-illegals]

sick of Tea partiers?

Just dang.

[newzjunkey]

That's a great quote and one of the themes on BBC coverage I saw Mon/Tues.

It was amazing to see the academics trying to justify the "feral youth" activities as righteous disaffection.

It was even more amazing to see the handwringing over whether to use water canons on mobs. Water canons? Oh no! The horror!

[laotzu]

sick of Tea partiers?

And libertarians.

Did I really need a sarcasm tag? Just....just dang.

[no-to-illegals]

okay, you had me there for a moment ... more understand of the post now ... my bad ... slinking over to the corner.

[Kratos]

I just want to tell you that your post was excellent! You are well informed and especially knowledgeable in history. You have predicted the future perfectly. Thanks.

[MaryFromMichigan]

Feel free to use mine.
:)

[laotzu]

Sweet! Thanks.

[reformed_dem]

Doesn't surprise me. In the UK, you're also told you should simply flee if your home is invaded.

I was talking to a couple of transplanted Brits. One lives in NY, the other in SF. They are both smokers so both were lamenting the smoking ban and how it was a bad thing, then the subject turned to the gun ban and how it was a good thing, "Because guns kill people". I pointed out how knives, bats, rocks - anything could kill people. They reasoned that with guns, you could stand far away and kill.

The SF one was thinking maybe he needed one because he was putting his earthquake kit together and in the event of the "Big One" would want to protect it. The NY one was all aghast. "Let them have it if they want it!"

[Jack Hydrazine]

’ the police asked us to do nothing’

‘I think I recognize a big part of the problem.’

It gives the cops less job security if the citizens take out the trash instead.

[Joe 6-pack]

"The cop hating libertarians here at FR will learn to be more temperate when the thugs come after them."

When things broke down after Katrina hit New Orleans, the cops were the thugs...

[CodeToad]

“The cop hating libertarians here at FR will learn to be more temperate when the thugs come after them.”

Um, nope. So far the cops have been nearly useless. Our cops wouldn’t be much better. If you are thinking that you’ll just wait for a cop to protect you, well, if the thugs don’t kill you I hope you at least have good medical insurance because they’ll probably beat you to pieces.