Riots in Manchester city centre (not Salford)

[FPC]

Dont really know the argument but bottom line for me is anyone with any sence would just stay away from the city centre and salford.

Any what do you do when you live in the centre mate? Wait for someone to put your windows in or set alight to your building?

 

[ultimateharold]

Round Sackville/Whitworth in the last ten mins there's been plenty of shouting, sounded like the dogs were out and also what sounded like horses. Then quiet.

Been up and down like that all night. A few got in our gardens and smashed something, couldn't tell what though.

 

[Ticket For Schalke]

Whose up for a shambles meet then tomorrow evening? alot on my facebook are, and i certainly am.

 

[lee-mcfc]

[bigimg]http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa230/ManUtd28/parloot.gif[/bigimg]

 

[Why Always Ste]

Sounds good to me..... I can just see us all getting arrested ourselves though.
They'll let the scally's roam the streets, stealing, yet arrest us all for football hooliganism.

 

[FPC]

Whose up for a shambles meet then tomorrow evening? alot on my facebook are, and i certainly am.

Yep, I'm up for it. Got the day off work too which is quite handy.

 

[Halfpenny]

[bigimg]http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa230/ManUtd28/parloot.gif[/bigimg]

Legend.

 

[Anonymous]

Whose up for a shambles meet then tomorrow evening? alot on my facebook are, and i certainly am.

what time mate?

 

[Captain Kompany]

Is anyone going down tomorrow then? Hopefully I can get a car full of us down. DO oyu known if theres some planned meeting points? Can't wait to see the look on these little hooligans faces when they realised they're going to get fucked over.

 

[1.618034]

I guess I've been a little suprised at the softly-softly approach on the streets, but if they get hundreds of convictions (esp the arsonists), then the right message will have got through to the target audience; we're adults in a mature democracy. These kids think might is right. But we don't do that in this country. We don't need to smash you to bits to punish you.

Over 600 arrested in London but only around 100 charged. That's no deterrent to these people. They feel like it won't happen to them, they're not usually good at maths, and a punishment tomorrow is almost meaningless. The physical and psychological damage is being done, now.

I understand the softly softly approach to a certain extent, but I fear in the long run it might prove to be counter-productive. But who knows, maybe this is the wake up call that we all need and some trainers being stolen and a few buildings being burned is a small price to pay...?

We'll see. But this is going to take a paradigm shift of epic proportions.

Like I've said this is different. And this backs that up...

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20778-london-unrest-worlds-first-decentralised-riots.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2 ... riots.html</a>

London unrest: world's first decentralised riots

* 17:25 09 August 2011 by Andy Coghlan and Michael Bond
* For similar stories, visit the Crime and Forensics and The Human Brain Topic Guides

The dramatic unrest in London and other UK cities over the past few days is being described as the world's first decentralised riots, facilitated by social media such as Twitter, the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) network and Sony's Playstation Network. But deep psychological forces are also at play.

In times of social unrest, violent acts that would usually seem extreme can quickly become the norm among groups of people who identify with each other in terms of age, social status or other attributes, says Alex Haslam of the University of Exeter, UK, who studies group conflict and social identity.

When people see looting and rioting happening elsewhere, it shows them what can be realised, he says. "They feel empowered. They think they can do pretty much what they like, and they are having a good time doing it. They simply don't think it as unacceptable as they would at other times."

"Collective action is driven by social identity – by people who share a common social place," says Clifford Stott at the University of Liverpool, UK. While it is too early to know what the rioters might have in common, he says he suspects that it boils down to social class and is defined by economic deprivation. "They seem to be targeting the middle class. It's like a kind of class warfare on the streets of Britain. To them their targets are legitimate."
Alienation

Eduardo Vasquez of the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK, who studies gang psychology, says that the agitators' alienation from their families, the local community and mainstream society disinhibits them from caring about the harm they cause others. Combating this will require us "to decrease the influence of negative individuals and challenge [the rioters'] current perception that there are no opportunities for a better future", he says. But he adds that budget cuts to initiatives focused on youth are likely to lead to more problems.

Meanwhile, much has been made of BBM being a secure network that is being used by looters to spread the word about which areas to target next. If the looters are counting on secrecy, they are going to be disappointed: BBM uses internet packet transmission protocols sent over the 3G mobile network, and messages are eminently traceable.