It's the fourth day of the London riots, and things haven't calmed down quite yet. It was Thursday night when police shot a young man dead in Tottenham, and what began as a peaceful protest has now become a full-fledged riot throughout London. The rioters are using tools such as Twitter and Blackberry messenger to arrange the looting of certain high streets, and these episodes are popping up in all different parts of the capital. It's not isolated just to the less desirable postcodes, but it's even reached the swankier parts of London like Chelsea and High Street Kensington.
Luckily for us, our neighborhood has remained untouched, and we've been carrying on with our regular routine. Both J and I went into the office today, and I wouldn't have known that there were riots in London if I hadn't been keeping up with the news. Well, with one small exception: the Central line didn't stop at Holborn station this morning because of some rioters attempting to start a fire at the station.
Once I got to the office, we were all agog with the updates provided by Sky News and the BBC to see where the riot would hit next. The riots continued to spread to other parts of England, and there were reports of similar incidents in other major cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. Toward the end of the day, we received an email from the higher ups telling us to go home if we lived in areas that were affected by the riots. Most of us stayed, but there were a few that left early in case the Tube shut down service to their area. I stayed put until my usual time, and my friend and I ran home together (as always) and didn't notice anything unusual except that there were a lot fewer people on the streets.
My thoughts on the riots... I'm confused. I'm not quite sure why they're rioting, and the native Londoners I ask seem equally confused. There doesn't seem to be any political message or underlying rage; it just seems to be a smash and grab because they can kind of situation. And I don't understand why they would loot in a city that's has the most surveillance anywhere in the world. I also fail to understand the police's reluctance to use force against the rioters. They're debating whether they ought to use a water cannon against the rioters while I'm wondering why they're not using rubber bullets and tear gas.
I lived through the LA riots, and I never thought I'd live through another one halfway around the world. Funny, but the London riots seem small potatoes compared to the LA riots. It's all about perspective, I suppose.
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