Anarchy in England? Surely not.!
Mob Mentality, or downright evil.
During my 20 years of living in The Canary Islands (about 150 miles off the coast of North West Africa), My husband and I occasionally visited Britain, our homeland.
On one particular visit, a few years ago, we found the country so ´´changed´´ that I wrote a hub entitled ´´Who took the ´Great´ out of Great Britain?´
Little did I know , worse was to come.............
In the month of May 2010 we sadly had to return to Britain to live permanently. (or as permanent as anything can be in this ever changing world of ours)
We didn´t move back to anywhere near the place we had grown up ,but to a tiny town (I use the word ´town´loosely) in the North of England with the cute name of Appleby. Often referred to by myself as Toytown
On the weekend of August 6th, this year, sleepy little Appleby was just as it always is ....... well.... sleepy....
Imagine my horror when turning on the t.v. I was faced with what appeared to be London Burning.!!!! The shape of a double decker bus gradually became visible through the flames and smoke, just the empty frame of what used to be a double decker bus.
Noise..... noises of allsorts everywhere....... shouting, glass being smashed, the THUD of objects hitting the riot shields of Policemen, and all the while the background of flames and smoke rising as high as I´ve ever seen.
Tottenham looked like a war zone.!!!
Yes of course we´´ve had riots in Britain before as has the United States but something felt different this time.
Th inevitable looting along with the arson attacks spread to Brixton , another dstrict of London.
By Sunday night the riots had spread out from London to other cities, Birmingham ,Bristol, Manchester, Leeds and continued through Monday and Tuesday nights.....
No one could come up with a sensible exlanation of why this was happening. The lame excuse of it all being caused by one incident on the Thursday (4th) before the weekend, didn´t seem to be legitimate. (apparently a gunman was killed by police. The riots were ostensibly a backlash to this)
Between 80% and 90% of British police still don´t carry guns. (another culture shock when we returned from 20 years of Spanish cops)
The great British policman goes out with a truncheon (Baton) handcuffs and possibly a tazer.......
Yes , of course there is a Special Task Force brought in when ever needed with plenty of firepower, but they are not brought in for something like this. My heart goes out to all the police force and their families.
I am not suggesting that all rioters and looters ought to be shot, but I honestly believe that the ´´Bad Guy´ in Britain now has no fear or respect for the Law or those who have to carry it out.
The youngest of the rioters to be arrested was an eleven year old girl.!!! The mind boggles as to how a ...child of that age could be alone in a city centre late at night in the 1st place.
One of the largest buildings to be burned to the ground was a family business. Reeves furniture store and warehouse 140 years it has been on that corner. 5 generations of the same family had worked there.
My 10 year old grandsons´main concern was that ´some homeless person´ (his words) could have been sleeping amongst the furniture because it would be a good place to hide if you were homeless. Now that homeless person would be dead. (all in his imagination) There were no reports of deaths of that kind, just 3 men mowed down by a speeding car aiming right at them as they tried to protect their little shops, and a young foreign student who had his jaw broken, as thieves stole his bicycle........ as he was dazed sitting on the floor, a few youths came to help him onto his feet. .He was very unsteady on his feet so one of the youth was holding onto him....
Good Samaritan? Nope.! As one youth held him up 2 more took all they could out of his backpack and they all ran off leaving the poor guy with a broken jaw.
These riots have left many people homeless, jobless, and I imagine extremely angry and hurt.
Were they all heartless thugs,? Mindless morons ? And how do we stop it?
There are more questions than answers.............
Long before these particular events of last weeked, one of our fellow hubbers SkiFace wrote a poem simply entitled Rioter,,,, I´d encourage everyone to read it, It is quite short, but very thought provoking.
