Riots in Croydon – I am so so sad I could cry

I had riots in Deptford (2 minutes walk away), New Cross (10 minutes walk away, my local Sainsburys got looted), Lewisham (10 minutes walk away) and Woolwich (about 30 minutes walk away). Literally closing in on my home. I've been following the twitter news and looks like there is a planned riot in Greenwich tonight. Might leave London for a while...

I live in the UK, have lived in London and a few other large Cities. Watching parts of London torn apart, along with what can only be described as "jumping on the bandwagon" in Birmingham makes you wonder where is next. It's sickening. Give the police more power and more guns, we are far too lenient...

Glad you and yours are safe.

I agree! Give them guns and turn the cameras off and i will turn a blind eye to whatever happens!!

Also bring in the ARMY!!! they will sort them out!!

Guns are never the answer, countries with armed police still face these issues.
Besides, it was police with guns that kicked the whole thing off - and FYI there's a lot of evidence that the guy wasn't even shooting at police, he simply had a gun. A crime? Yes. Deserved to die for it? No.

As horrible as the violence is, having armed police shooting at teenagers (no matter how disgraceful their actions are) is never going to be right, and the public uproar from parents and other young people would make the situation far worse.

So while I totally condemn the actions of the rioters, and pray that the madness doesn't spread up here, I would never say the police should have guns...

well said

Yeah it's been pretty horrendous round here - I'm in Sydenham so basically inbetween Clapham, Croydon, Peckham and Lewisham.

I got caught in the chaos on Peckham high street just after they'd set the bus on fire and it was horrendous. Then my boyfriend was cycling home last night (through Croydon, past all the burning cars on London Road) so I went to get him and when we got back there was a gang of approx. 200 facing up to a line of police outside the huge sainsburys savacentre at the end of my road.

This morning I cycled through Peckham and Elephant and Castle and it looks like a war zone - shattered glass and broken bricks eveywhere. Shop after shop that's been looted and the poor shopkeepers picking up the pieces.

And I bet half the rioters don't even know why they're doing it, or what started the whole things off.

Unbelievable.

On the flip side though, I've heard that this morning there are groups of people organising a cleanup on twitter #riotcleanup. Good to see that there is still some community spirit, and I have to say when I was out in it all (when I definitely didn't want to be) there were a lot of good people out there too, looking out for everyone else and making sure the vulnerable people stayed safe.

I feel so sad when i see all this. I live not too far from bristol and it has started there now, why do they feel the need to do such horrible things!

Stay safe everyone who is around these areas and my thoughts are with you all xxx

its really crazy! cant imagine its happening in a civilized country

its really crazy! cant imagine its happening in a civilized country

One of my favourite quotes says something about a civilised country being one where the gap between the richest and the poorest is smallest, and so the UK doesn't really qualify.

I am in no way condoning these people's behaviour, but teenage males are pre-programmed to require excitement. Their brains aren't like ours, or even like their own will be in the future. They are natural thrill-seekers, so they need a pretty good reason not to follow that urge. They need real reasons, ones beyond just a fear of getting caught.

Just heard there's planned riots in Edinburgh and Glasgow...These thugs won't know what's hit them. We don't rely on the police here, we know there's only so much they can do. We'll be there, backing them up and making sure these little ****s don't get away with it here. For every ned that wants to riot so they can steal tvs and laptops, there's about 100 patriotic scots who will fight to protect our city from these scrounging idiots.

I think we've made it pretty clear in the past, I mean come on one of our people headbutted an armed terrorist in the face :L

I'm not gonna sit and wait for an army that's never gonna come, they can fight for their tvs nd mobile phones all they like, we will fight for our country.

I understand where you are coming from - it just seems ironic that a few posts back you condem the Police for their actions over Mark Duggan and the whole gun situation yet actively condone violence should it kick off locally to you. We don't know the full SP about Mark Duggan but he is said to have been carrying a firearm and that to me is one of the most violent weapons a human can have.

You disagree with the Police shooting a man carrying a gun yet are happy to condone mob mentality should rioting affect your area? I don't get it.

Sorry - I don't mean to turn this into a disagreement amongst ourselves - we all want the same thing - PEACE and CALM.

These thugs are not even protesting about Mark Duggan anymore so it's a moot point.

Its our natural reaction to want to "fight" and protect ourselves. I am in a borough untouched at the moment BUT I am angry. Very angry!!!

The difference is the man wasn't acting violently, yes he had a gun which I completely disagree with and I would fully support him being put in prison for it, but he wasn't actually using it. Presumably it was in defense, as reports said he had become paranoid after a friend was stabbed to death. Again, I'm not supporting the fact that he had a gun, but he wasn't going around shooting people with it.

And I'm not supporting "mob mentality", I'm supporting the right to defend your home against these people. I'll defend tiny wet country to the end, and I know most people feel the same. I don't support violence, but I would never stand by and watch them **** up my home, my friends homes, my neighbours...

There's a difference between attack and defense - attack is not okay, defense is necessary.


PS: I know the rioting isn't about Duggan anymore, and probably never was (especially since his family are begging for the rioting to stop), which is actually kinda sad because what happened there still needs to be investigated but has been overshadowed by the riots.

This just shows how cowardly our police force is. When its up against peaceful protesters they go in baton first smashing heads of old people, put them against london gang members and they **** their pants

They also know the elderly are less likely to sue than young thugs...

same up here, when I was younger we used to drink (underage) in little hidden places, not bothering anyone, and they used to actively hunt us down because they knew that we, being decent human beings and all, wouldn't put up much of a fight - but there were huge crews of chavs (the same age) also underage drinking, fighting, beating people up, stealing, vandalising and they did nothing about it because there was a chance they'd actually have to do their jobs

same up here, when I was younger we used to drink (underage) in little hidden places, not bothering anyone, and they used to actively hunt us down because they knew that we, being decent human beings and all, wouldn't put up much of a fight - but there were huge crews of chavs (the same age) also underage drinking, fighting, beating people up, stealing, vandalising and they did nothing about it because there was a chance they'd actually have to do their jobs

OT I know... under age drinking is a crime, therefore you were committing the same crime as the 'chavs'.


I find it appalling that so many of you think so little of our Police force!

I'd like to see you (general you) do their job, with all the restrictions that are in place. Having petrol bombs, fireworks, bricks all thrown at you.

Do you not think that for one second, they'd all like to open fire and stop the looting/violence etc?! However, all of the red tape, and R&Rs they have no choice but to react the way they are reacting.

Violence will never solve violence, it only makes it worse!

You know what we really need though? A torrential downpour. I wonder how many of the looters would be bothered being out on the streets if they thought they would get their trainers dirty or their overly gelled hair wet? My guess is...none. They'll probably just stay indoors eating digestives, sipping tea and watching Jeremy Kyle.

It rained hard round my area last night. Didn't stop them. Free stuff they'll never afford vs getting wet...