Far be it for me to offer any kind of comment (it'll only unbelieveably knee jerk) or provide insight into the why (disenfranchised youth, of either spectrum of class, Gangsta rap culture (you never hear rap about mental illness or spending your life trapped inside giant mechanical dogs or for that matter Sunn 0)) and wanting it all with little or no work ethic, qualifications or motivation to improve their lot in life.
Instead I'll simply blog my non involvement in the whole scheme of things. For someone who is never out we were actually supremely unlucky to be out on the one night where I should have stayed in.
Our cactus club down at Well Hall held a talk on the Monday that the riots really started to fan out. We should have clocked something was up when the bus driver said that he would not be driving through Lewisham and watching a load of white kids in hoodies mill around the bus stop at the top of Well hall hill. But we simply didn't catch on and got to where we wanted to go without much trouble. After a relaxing show and tell session we bowled out at 10pm ready to take the bus home.
The bus was late and we walked to the stop where Stephen Lawrence was killed to maximise our chances of getting home (you can get a 161 as well as a 122). When we finally got a bus the driver informed us that due to rioting in Woolwich they will be detouring out to Welling before heading back to Plumstead. We didn't mind this we can walk home from Welling and did so seeing hardly anyone out. (OK so its not very exciting, i'm hardly likely to burn down withies am I.)
Come Tuesday and we are allowed home early from work due to percieved trouble. We see more groups of white kids in hoodies and an awful lot of rumours. Gangs spotted down at Abbeywood, shops closing early and shuttered up just like when you drop a rock into a rock pool all the creatures hide untill its safe to emerge.
Come Friday and we have the day off we can go down to Woolwich and see whats really been done and whats survived. Ironically its all the usual suspects, all the phone shops have been smashed in except 3 (gee looks like the average scum doesn't want all you can eat data). Both Game and Gamesation have been looted and Wetherspoons and Wilkinsons have been torched, extending to the Pound shop and Barclays next door. Finally Mc Donalds has been broken into too along with C(r)ash converters.
Some shops were totally untouched, Sainsburys and WHSmiths and even Poundland made it through unscathed, and Brighthouse made it without being looted. I still have no answers why it all kicked off, but you can watch thugs vs a thin blue line of cops on Youtube.
Warning Whitehouse Extreme noise.
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