#riots

UK riots analysis reveals gangs did not play pivotal role
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/24/riots-analysis-gangs-no-pivotal-role

Gangs did not play a pivotal role in the August riots, according to the latest official analysis of those arrested during the disturbances. Official figures show that 13% of those arrested in the riots have been identified as gang members, rising to 19% in London, but even where police identified gang members being present most forces believe they did not play a pivotal role.

#police #riots #émeutes #gangs #Angleterre

Italy plans tough new measures against rioters (via @NetLib)
►http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/italy-plans-tough-new-measures-against-rioters/2011/10/18/gIQA8hpouL_story.html

Roberto Maroni said he agreed with opposition politician Antonio Di Pietro, a former magistrate, who suggested reviving a law from the 1970s, when Italy was racked by leftwing protests and urban guerrilla violence that came close to destabilising the state. The law allowed police to use firearms, when necessary, and banned the wearing of helmets or masks during demonstrations. It also provided for preventive detention of demonstrators suspected of planning violence.

#riots #police #Italie #émeutes

the dream of safety: Paul Gilroy speaks on the #riots, August 2011, Tottenham, North #London
►http://dreamofsafety.blogspot.com/2011/08/paul-gilroy-speaks-on-riots-august-2011.html

[it’s not] the same game as it was thirty years ago, or twenty-five years ago (...) For instance, the police admitted that they’ve done a hundred thousand searches under the new terrorism legislation, and of those hundred thousand searches not one, not one, led to an arrest under the terrorism legislation!

#inégalités #royaume-uni via @supergeante

“Although the riots in the UK were triggered by the suspicious shooting of Mark Duggan, everyone agrees that they express a deeper unease – but of what kind? As with the car burnings in the Paris banlieues in 2005, the UK rioters had no message to deliver. (There is a clear contrast with the massive student demonstrations in November 2010, which also turned to violence. The students were making clear that they rejected the proposed reforms to higher education.) This is why it is difficult to conceive of the UK rioters in Marxist terms, as an instance of the emergence of the revolutionary subject; they fit much better the Hegelian notion of the ‘rabble’, those outside organised social space, who can express their discontent only through ‘irrational’ outbursts of destructive violence – what Hegel called ‘abstract negativity’.”
http://www.lrb.co.uk/2011/08/19/slavoj-zizek/shoplifters-of-the-world-unite

Student Protests in Chile - Alan Taylor - In Focus - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/08/student-protests-in-chile/100125

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/chileprotest081011/s_c10_16114283.jpg

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/chileprotest081011/s_c34_RTR2PROE.jpg
#chili #riots

Social media and legal experts have ridiculed a proposal by British Prime Minister David Cameron to restrict the use of services such as Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger to prevent riots.

Read in The Sydney Morning Herald:
’London riot social media blocks ’totalitarian’
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/london-riot-social-media-blocks-totalitarian-20110812-1iq0o.html

From Brixton to #Tottenham, inequality lies at the heart of the riots — New Internationalist
http://www.newint.org/blog/2011/08/08/jody-mcintyre-riots-police-tottenham-brixton

On Thursday evening, Mark Duggan was shot dead in by police officers in Tottenham. The IPCC immediately announced they would investigate; unusual for an organisation known for its inefficiency. The media were told that a non-police issue firearm had been recovered from the scene, and that one of the police officers had been injured. Later reports revealed a bullet found lodged in a police radio.

I received a torrent of abuse online for expressing support for the #riots. I expect Martin Luther King got the same abuse when he said “A riot is the language of the unheard” as did Bob Marley for singing “That’s why we gonna be burning and looting tonight…” .
I’m sorry, but my solidarity does not lie with corporations making millions and their fully-insured smashed windows, it lies with human beings who lose their lives and their
families.

#UK