English Unrest

[smurff]

Often insurance won't cover the damage.  Policies often exclude losses related to riots and insurrection, and while there may be ways to include such damages in the policy, many people don't because of the cost.  I depends on the policy, though.

[MediumTex]

Adequate insurance tends to be a nice disincentivisor to taking your gun out of the safe to defend your shop.

Just get out of dodge if you can... defend your person if you must.

If necessary, the local militia can be called in:

[Storm]

I found this story mildly entertaining - security hacker gets his flat robbed during the riots, gets his expensive Macbook Pro stolen, gets revenge through tracking software.  Perpetrator is now serving 5 consecutive 5 year first degree robbery terms:

  The story you have just heard is true. The names were changed to
  protect the innocent.
 
  On August 12th, trial was held in Department 98, Superior Court of the
  State of __London, in and for the County of __London. In a moment the
  results of that trial.
 
  Shillip Herbert Keaver was tried and convicted of robbery in the first
  degree - five counts - and received sentence as prescribed by
  law. Robbery in the First Degree is punishable by imprisonment for a
  period of not less than five years in the __London penitentiary. Because
  of the viciousness of the suspect, it was decided that the terms would
  run consecutively.

  You have just heard "DragNet," a series of authentic cases
  from official files. Technical advice comes from the
  office of Chief Constable, Scotland Yard, __London.

http://infosec20.blogspot.com/2011/08/w ... acker.html

[stone]

I think this artical sums up the craziness of the riots more than anything else I've seen. This rioter was an olympic ambassador studying A-levels:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... 748107.ece

[Pkg Man]

We don't have to speculate: We had it, with the Rodney King riots and Katrina. 
Ref: Korean shop owners/L.A. and "Drunks with Guns" defending their neighborhoods, Katrina. 

Lawlessness like the rioters will not spread to suburban neighborhoods in America (especially in Texas!) because the buck stops with guys like me:

Nice!  If there is one thing I hate more than common criminals, it is a gang of looters.  In my opinion the only way to deal with such behavior is to start shooting them, preferably done by the police and/or military, but by property owners if necessary.

If a government cannot protect the life and property of its citizens, what good is it?

[Gumby]

Maybe I'm completely off-base by saying this (I'll offer my sincere apologies in advance), but does anyone else get the feeling from that photo that even armed "drunks with guns" might one day find a reason to riot about something they dislike (a certain law, or policy)? This isn't meant as a comment against vigilantism, but that there must be something that would cause the "drunks with guns" crowd to grab their guns and revolt (i.e. civil unrest).

[stone]

Gumby, I'm sure you are right. Hopefully they would be moved to do so by a worthy enough cause. I hope I'd have had the decency to try and stop the Nazis in 1939 or whatever. What staggers me about our recent riots is that they seem outwardly not to have been about a cause as such.  I guess the whole 2008 subprime financial scam was a collective white collar financial riot. People in Lehmans were not protesting, they were just looting because they thought they could get away with it and perhaps got a buzz from taking money off people. Likewise I think these UK riots were a looting spree rather than an upwelling of resentment. Did the Roman Empire fall to a mindless looting spree?

[stone]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -Army.html

[MediumTex]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -Army.html

I think that a subtlety that reporter may not be picking up on is that rioting in the U.S. is typically seen among poorer people.  Poor people in the U.S. tend to be distributed as follows: a disproportionate share of the poor white people are found in rural areas, while a disproportionate share of the poor minorities are found in urban areas.

Since rioting is basically an urban activity, it makes sense that many U.S. rioters would be minorities.  Making preparations on this basis doesn't strike me as racist or all that unusual.

I know plenty of poor white people who live in the country who would probably love to riot, but I think that a really good riot requires a certain population density that country folk just don't have.  These disenchanted poor white people would probably say that it's just one more boring thing about living out in the country.

[Storm]

Maybe I'm completely off-base by saying this (I'll offer my sincere apologies in advance), but does anyone else get the feeling from that photo that even armed "drunks with guns" might one day find a reason to riot about something they dislike (a certain law, or policy)? This isn't meant as a comment against vigilantism, but that there must be something that would cause the "drunks with guns" crowd to grab their guns and revolt (i.e. civil unrest).

Gumby, I think the only way you can get people to riot is by one of two things:

1.  Society has crumbled to the point where people can't get any food, and they feel they need to riot to survive.

or 2.  A disenfranchised underclass with no property or wealth to lose thinks they can fight back and perhaps get some free goods.

People that own property, have retirement accounts, families, jobs, and lives to lose don't riot, unless their family can't eat or they are being killed by a corrupt government.

People that don't have anything to lose will riot if they think they can get away with it.

[Storm]

I think this artical sums up the craziness of the riots more than anything else I've seen. This rioter was an olympic ambassador studying A-levels:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... 748107.ece

Wow, Stone, I'm surprised but that chick is definitely crazy.  She has wealthy parents and an upbringing that should have kept her away from stupid shit like that, and yet she threw it all away.

Anyone that has displays such poor written English should probably be locked up for murder - of the English language:

[MediumTex]

Maybe I'm completely off-base by saying this (I'll offer my sincere apologies in advance), but does anyone else get the feeling from that photo that even armed "drunks with guns" might one day find a reason to riot about something they dislike (a certain law, or policy)? This isn't meant as a comment against vigilantism, but that there must be something that would cause the "drunks with guns" crowd to grab their guns and revolt (i.e. civil unrest).

Gumby, I think the only way you can get people to riot is by one of two things:

1.  Society has crumbled to the point where people can't get any food, and they feel they need to riot to survive.

or 2.  A disenfranchised underclass with no property or wealth to lose thinks they can fight back and perhaps get some free goods.

People that own property, have retirement accounts, families, jobs, and lives to lose don't riot, unless their family can't eat or they are being killed by a corrupt government.

People that don't have anything to lose will riot if they think they can get away with it.

Alienated kids who are bored will sometimes riot.

Remember those riots after Woodstock II?  Conan O'Brien suggested they sell tapes of the event titled: "When Spoiled Brats Attack".

Drunk and disappointed sports fans also seem to have a propensity to riot.

[smurff]

Alienated kids who are bored will sometimes riot.

Remember those riots after Woodstock II?  Conan O'Brien suggested they sell tapes of the event titled: "When Spoiled Brats Attack".

Drunk and disappointed sports fans also seem to have a propensity to riot.

Don't forget the 1999 "The Battle in Seattle" and various other World Trade Organization (WTO) conference riots.

And there were various riots (around the world) on the heels of protests over the Iraq war, though nothing on the scale of the Vietnam war riots.

[smurff]

I think this artical sums up the craziness of the riots more than anything else I've seen. This rioter was an olympic ambassador studying A-levels:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... 748107.ece

USA equivalents to UK A-Levels:

-high school Advanced Placement (AP) courses or

-individual subject courses that would make up a high school International Baccalaureate Diploma or

-courses from the freshman/sophomore level (up to the first two years) in a 4-year American college/university or

-subject courses from a community college (the kind that could be transferred to a 4 year institution for a bachelors degree)