Looters, Yobs and Nobody's

London is a mess today. Last night when I got back from visiting the parents I came into Hackney, it didn't seem to bad and was no different to usual between the station and our place. Coming home to Sky News though was a different story. A couple of streets away was pretty much warfare. What really gets me is these opportunist kids will probably get away with it.

It's mob mentality and safety in numbers, hundreds of 'rioters' (actually I think the term petty thieves is more adept) were tearing through the streets. Some taunting police coming right up to them and basically showing no care or cause for their actions, and the police didn't even floor, cuff or arrest them, why not? Some of the footage I've seen these kids do not appear armed they are just gobby boys. Why aren't they being arrested and held accountable?! It's sick.

Then today, I didn't put any news on this morning, or switch on my Blackberry, the first I heard of trouble in Ealing was when I was a couple of stops away on the tube. On getting out there was a police corden a lots of people gawking and taking photos. From what I can tell it was mainly upturned bins, I later found there had been a fire near the station. On the way to the office it got worse. A lot of the shops had smashed in windows, it seems anything had been used to smash windows. One of the ones in the Arcadia shopping centre still had the cone lodged in the glass.

On the green however it got worse. The local corner shop was completely burnt down. The lady who runs the shop is lovely, what I didn't even realise is there are 4 flats above that shop - someones house and belongings just wiped out.

At lunchtime we were told local businesses were advised to shut up and go home - so we did. It was an eerie feeling basically evacuating the town. Since I've been home in Hackney there has been a spattering of sirens going all day and there is the ever present police chopper overhead (it was also there all night). Luckily we haven't been affected in the street. I'm hoping we're through the worst of it. It really does need to come to an end, I just hope the government and  the police actually made a real effort to catch these idiots and throw the book at them. It makes you sick to be British.

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