London Rioting

I was very shocked a couple of days ago to turn on the news and see a double decker bus on fire. As the news story unfolded I just could not top watching in horror as Tottenham was being set ablaze. I learnt that this was all in protest of a guy that got shot by the police, that is when my heart sank. The fact that these thugs are using this as an excuse to loot and set fire to buildings, cars and bins is just ridiculous. I cant believe that there are so many stupid people out there that are willing to set fire to places that they live!  In an earlier blog of mine I spoke about the student protests and how these people barely even knew what was going on, they just used it as an excuse to latch onto and create damage around them. This is another one of these situations and as someone that would class himself as a Londoner (even though I have not lived here for a huge part of my life) I am sickened and disgusted by these people as young as ten years old and the destruction that they are causing. These news stories always frustrate and confuse me because I can not understand what goes through these peoples heads when they are acting like this. I never thought it was cool so set a car on fire and have never had the urge to (well maybe once when it is an ex that you really hate but I would never have completed the act!) As many people that live in London would be able to do, I could have easily predicted the places that would be unsettled and would be prone to “copycat crimes” in the following days. Hackney and Wood Green would have been my first point of calls as I have lived near and in one of these places for a year. Watching Hackney on the news was so much more upsetting than seeing Tottenham on the news because I have lived it, not the violence but the area, the people and the buildings. To think that these are peoples homes, peoples cars, even peoples lives that these mindless idiots are destroying. If it was in reverse and this was their cars or homes that were being destroyed then they would be the first people to complain. I know that all I am saying is what everybody knows anyway but it never ceases to shock me how some of these people live, how they go about the lives that they live and hold the opinions that they have. I do not think that I have ever met anyone that could commit these acts and to be completely honest I am rather glad that I have not. I guess that it is a good thing that this shocks me because if it did not then I would be even closer to these horrid people. I hope that at some point in their lives that they can look at what they have done and hang their heads in shame, take a look at their lives and try and do something about it. I am actually watching the news as I am typing this and what surprises me even more is that there are grown “normal” (ish) men that are actually taking part in this. They do not look like they belong to any gangs, do not look like its a regular thing for them yet they are joining in! I mean these people should be setting examples. These are the people that the ten year olds are looking up to and learning from. It really makes you doubt people and I am so thankful that I am not one of them. 

my thoughts are with the people that have lost items, had property set fire to, stolen and have been affected by this completely pointless riot. 

Signing out, Thatmfeeling