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'Riot will always be the best day of my life'

vast minority | 05.12.2011 19:52

"I WAS actually doing it. I felt alive, there's no word to explain it. It was like that first day it happened will always be the best day of my life for ever."

This is just one of the comments from English rioters recorded in a new study by the Guardian and the London School of Economics.

Says the paper: "Hundreds of interviews with people who took part in the disturbances which spread across England in August revealed deep-seated and sometimes visceral antipathy towards police."

The findings cut through all the propaganda about criminals and gangs to reveal the obvious truth about the uprisings - they were directed at the police and everything they represent.

And the authorities will be scared witless to hear that thousands of the rioters are up for doing it all again - soon!

Reports The Guardian: "An overwhelming majority of people interviewed about their involvement in this summer's riots believe they will be repeated and one in three said they would take part in any future disorder, a study by the Guardian and the London School of Economics shows.

"Of the 270 questioned in the Reading the Riots study, 81% said they believed the disturbances that spread across England in August 'would happen again'. Two-thirds predicted there would be more riots before the end of 2014.

"Despite more than 4,000 riot-related arrests, and harsher than average sentences in the courts, many of those interviewed said they did not regret their actions."

Some other comments:

"For the record: yeah, I do hate the fucking police ... I was caught up in the situation. And it was like: let's cause fucking chaos – let's cause a riot."

"I think the looting came about because it was linked to police. We're showing them that, yeah, we're bigger than the police, we are actually bigger than the police. Fair enough, we are breaking the law and everything, but there's more of us than there are of you. So if we want to do this, we can do this. And you won't do anything to stop us."

"I just see bottles flying. I've never seen police so scared before – it was like they had no control whatsoever. Like even the police cars, the police vans, they was just throwing rocks at them."

"It felt good, that police car – it felt really good [she torched it]. Especially when my friend took the radio and started saying all this hullabaloo over the radio and confusing them and all that. It was fair for us to do that."

‘It felt like I was part of a revolution, showing these stupid police that, you know, they’re not invincible’

 http://vastminority.blogspot.com/2011/12/riot-will-always-be-best-day-of-my-life.html

vast minority
- Homepage: http://vastminority.blogspot.com/2011/12/riot-will-always-be-best-day-of-my-life.html

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You rioted burned and looted for no reason though!

05.12.2011 20:08

As a veteran of the Irish troubles I was involved in riots too way back in the 1980s, but we did not just go out and mindlessly burn down buildings or loot shops or attack the police for no reason. The reason we rioted was because our community was under siege from the British army and from loyalist gangs. In our riots we never looted shops, we never went on the attack without being attacked first. Our riots had a clear objective to defend our communities. To stay that the recent riots which swept mainland Britain were similar to our fight back in Northern Ireland is totally laughable.

Veteran of the Irish troubles.

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Transition between child and adult

05.12.2011 20:37

I dont think really shows anything unexpected.
At that age, generally most people like to go on a mayhem against the 'adults'

The thing is - you grow up and realise its stupid.
Heres one for you - how many of the rioters were 35+ years old?

20 years from now, these rioters will not be rioting.
Basically - its an age thing. That is not a valid excuse, its adults flipping back into the child-like state of throwing toys out of the pram.

anon

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@Veteran of the Irish troubles

05.12.2011 21:22

In London entire communties ARE under seige by the biggest gang in London, the MET.

.

some1

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The NI strawman

05.12.2011 23:15

Veteran of the Irish troubles.:
" To stay that the recent riots which swept mainland Britain were similar to our fight back in Northern Ireland is totally laughable."

Only nobody said it, did they?

ACAB

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@Veteran of the Irish troubles

06.12.2011 00:59

Different time, different place, different context. Simple as.

anon

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@Veteran of the Irish troubles

06.12.2011 08:39

You may be Veteran of the Irish troubles whatever that may mean but you are obviously clueless to the current state of affairs if you think that the cops were attacked for no reason. That statement displays a massive level of ignorance or naivety or both!

Aunty Christ

Age unimportant

06.12.2011 08:47

I don't think it was really burning and nicking stuff that makes people feel truly alive, but the rare experience of freedom to take control in a society where we have almost none. Of course a fist experience of that is usually a bursting out of agression, a smashed window, an 'i can't believe i'm able to do this!' moment. Once you taste that though, it's hard to re-confine yourself within state controls. Once your eyes are open to what it's like to live without leaders, you can expereince that'best day of your life' again and again, without burning everything down but in really taking full control and responsability for everything you do in your life. Everything you produce or consume, things you make and destroy. It's scary to be in control of your own life, that's why most people abdicate that responsability to state authorities, it's easier that way. But you'll never feel that amazing happiness that lies in complete autonomy.

anon

MESSAGE TO COPS - MORE THAN 27,000 ESCAPED ARREST

06.12.2011 09:00

There's no question some people did some extremely stupid, and in some cases vicious and evil things, during the riots, and that includes the cops; but the bottom line is that the authorities closed all the youth centres in Tottenham shortly beforehand, and were immediately warned there'd be riots in response, so we have to assume the authorities knew what they were doing and that they did this deliberately. The police then went to the one place where the riots were most extreme in the 1980s - Tottenham, and shot a young black petty criminal, just to MAKE SURE the riots kicked off proper (put it this way, tactically, they weren't going to shoot a local vicar were they). The police claimed Mark Duggan had fired at them, but ballistic tests showed a bullet they claimed he'd fired and which had lodged in a police constable's radio was in fact a POLICE bullet. So, friends and family marched to a police station to demand explanations, and were promptly attacked by the police..... hey presto, riots.

Then the police held back on steaming in for several days, to make sure the riots really took hold, and (without excusing any of the anti-social crimes that took place during the riots) to make sure the communities suffered as much damage as possible. Some pundits said that if the riots had been political, rather than purely criminal opportunism, then the rioters would have attacked police stations and public buildings, while in fact 5 police stations were targetted in Nottingham alone (the BBC said that "More than 90 people have been arrested following a night of riots in Nottingham in which five police stations were attacked. Stations in The Meadows, Bulwell and St Ann's were targeted, while Canning Circus station was set alight after fire bombs were thrown at the building").

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-14472172

I can't find any figures for how many people rioted over all, but The Daily Telegraph says that "data from Scotland Yard also emerged that appeared to show as many as 30,000 people were involved in looting, arson and criminal damage during rioting", just "in London", and if 3,000 people were jailed, that means, nationwide, alot more than 27,000 people got away scot-free, and NEXT time I don't think many people will be stupid enough not to cover their faces.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8713808/Tony-Blair-attacks-muddle-headed-analysis-of-UK-riots.html

So, cops monitoring Indymedia, you KNOW the vast majority of offenders got clean away, the way to stop your people getting hurt next time is NOT to brutalise any more protestors and NOT to kill any more members of the public (even if they are petty criminals)

Physics

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You don't know what oppression means!

06.12.2011 09:54

You say that the metropolitan police are oppressing you, how? By stopping and searching you sometimes? That is what they are paid to do prevent crime! We in Ulster did not hate the police because they were police, we hated them because they were a biased sectarian force made up of 90 per cent loyalists who often colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in the killing of Catholics and were made up of mostly members of loyalist organisation such as the Orange Order.

In Ulster Catholics thousands were detained, beaten and interrogated on suspicion of being involved in nationalist paramilitary groups. The vast majority of those arrested, detained and interrogated were totally innocent of any involvement in paramilitary groups.

The British army was just as bad, they would sometimes impose curfews on nationalist areas sometimes imprisoning Catholics in their homes for days. They would also seal off and search every house in a Catholic area for weapons, which often resulted in many homes suffering extreme damage as floor boards were ripped up and home taken apart in the searches.

Furthermore we never looted any shops when we rioted. We knew that shops were owned by ordinary hard working people and had nothing against them. We also knew that destroying our own areas would only bring more hardship for ourselves so we restricted rioting to stoning and petrol bombing the security forces in oder to drive them out.

Also once we had driven out the security forces we patrolled and policed our own areas stopping anti-social crimes. Many of the punishments meted out to criminals were barbaric and extreme such as punishment beatings and punishment shootings We don't deny that and we are not proud of that but we were men and women of law, order and justice.

Finally we wanted peace, we wanted an end to the troubles we were prepared to negotiate with the other side. We would have got peace in 1974 had the loyalists accepted the new power sharing executive. We would also have got peace in 1986 had the loyalist accepted the Anglo Irish agreement.

Unlike us you rioters in mainland Britain have not put forward any political demands. You have not drawn up a list of grievances. You have looted shops to satisfy personal greed, you have burned out ordinary peoples cars out of sheer spite, you have violently attacked innocent passersby.

Veteran of the Irish troubles

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@Veteran of the Irish troubles

06.12.2011 10:26

Blah blah blah blah, maybe instead of blah blah blah you should get intouch with what is happening now and at present and get out of the past where you seem so stuck and full of your own bollocks......

Get over it

From Britain to Greece No Justice No Peace Fight the Police

06.12.2011 12:56

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C45QKpGFy6w

@

i loved that quote...

06.12.2011 17:06

"it was like call of duty!"

haha, yeah howcomes every rioter i've spoken to claimed they only looted shops of big brands, if that was the case, most of Oxford street should of been looted empty, and not a single family run bussiness touched!

joe blogs

Reply to 27,000 escaped arrest.

06.12.2011 18:47

We have not finished searching for those who took part in the riots and will not do so for many months to come. So if you think you have got away with commiting crime during the riots our message to you is that there is still a strong chance that you will be caught and arrested and put on trial for your crimes over the coming months.

Police spokesperson

reply to police spokesperson

06.12.2011 19:41

We have not finished searching for those who have taken part in police brutality and will not do so for many years to come. So if you think you have got away with violently oppressing your fellow human beings our message to you is that there is still a strong chance that you will be caught and made accountable over the coming years :)

To everyone else: don't be panicked by police scare tactics. Fear is their biggest weapon.

V

in solidarity

06.12.2011 20:35

to all those in the struggle... and a tribute to those killed in the hands of the police.

 http://www.youtube.com/user/RiotinlondonW1

happy days
- Homepage: http://www.youtube.com/user/RiotinlondonW1

Yeah...

06.12.2011 20:52

...it was the best day of your life. For those who suffered because their homes was burnt or their livelihoods destroyed it was the worst. Glad you can look back with fond memories!

Dan Factor

Send in the camels.

06.12.2011 21:45

Destroying homes and livelihoods is our business. Get out of it. We do not want anyone to challenge us on what we do best. Violent crime is the monopoly of our cops. Damage and destruction deserve to be the results of our decisions only. Without a tie you are not entitled to do that. Get your satisfaction from turning against the weak. There is no money in your feelings.

Bankster

Dan Factor

06.12.2011 23:56

Because obviously the person who said that and the persons who burned the homes were the same people? Or maybe all 30, 000+ all burny down homes?

Or maybe they weren't? Maybe you're just a reactionary sod who can't tell the difference?

The major hits were taken by chainstores and the businesses that leech of the poor.

Try reading the Guardian reports and understanding them.



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