Bournemouth is often accused of being a sleepy, seaside town by those who don't live there and somewhere where gangs of drunken party goers roam the streets at weekends by those who do. When it comes to taking part in "National Riot Week" though they just couldn't be arsed.
Nathalie was monitoring the comings and goings on her Blackberry (other mobile devices are available but they aren't the ones used for spreading the word) last night and there were facebook pages springing up all over the place suggesting some form of civil disorder or other, there were also a large number of people signing onto these facebook pages telling the people responsible to get a life - or similar.
The Blackberry is the chosen communicator of choice (sounds a bit Star Trek) because it transmits messages in real time and the only organisation in the UK who can track such messages are GCHQ, and they have more important things to worry about. The 16,000 Police officers who took to the streets of London last night seemed to have done the job, as have the vigilante groups who said "enough is enough" and have reclaimed parts of North London. I have to say this is a very British trait, belief in law and order by consent, which is why so many people were shocked by the events of Monday night when mob rule seemed to be winning. There's a subconscious belief in this country that 'proper robust policing' will win the day and that you won't see the use of rubber bullets, water cannon or the army on the streets of the mainland.
The kids have had their four nights of fun, time for the grown-ups to take back the streets.
3 comments:
Well put. I now read there were deaths in Birmingham, a car knocking down men protecting their community: not sure if it's conected as the riots don't seem to have involved cars that much, maybe aram raider or maybe even 'getting even' over some other problem.
They were protecting their business, the father of one of the dead men was actually first on site, something I can't even begin to imagine.
I totally agree. To break the solemn moment watch the video (only a few seconds) of what could have been in Bournemouth, but wasn't:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cbVW_QS2eE&feature=player_embedded
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