The Camaro Club (UK)

I've been watching the news over here about the riots in the UK. I sincerely hope that everyone in this forum (and your Camaros) are okay. I've experienced this myself personally. I'm a cop and worked the 1992 LA Riots. Anyway, my best wishes to all of you. I hope that eveyone here gets through this without any personal injury or damage to any of your cars.

Dana

It's a very weird time in the UK at the moment..... This is more than riots as looting and theft seem to be the main thing, not really any kind of protest is coming across to be honest.

The speculation in the media is driving me crazy, as so much effort seems to be put on talking about it rather than actually dealing it.
I was working in central London (covent garden) last night and the police were certainly out in force everywhere I drove on my way home at about 1am, bussed in from all over the country by the look of it, as many of the vans had there constanbulary on the side. Hopefully we've seen the worst of it, but it's certainly changed the way people think about our youth culture.

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Thanks for the thoughts and well wishes Dana

I was a bit young when the L.A riots happened but i'll look it up and see what you had to go through. I bet it was much different, as Stu said, it's kind of pointless. All started out because a guy pulled out a gun in London around police and they shot him and he died. I don't know the full story but i do know that if you pull out a gun infront a of cop, it's not going to end well for you. To put it into perspective, our cops don't carry guns, we have special ARV cops (Armed response vehicles) that drive around in red police cars instead of silver (i have a an ARV cop that lives in my street, makes me feel kinda safer ) and they don't patrol the streets in the same way - as in walking around with a gun on the, they are usualyly driving on patrol but most of the time they are actually called out for a reason, which make you think that for them to have been there, something was happeneing. So anyway, no one will really know what happened but quite rightly the friends and family and locals held a peaceful protest at the police station of the force where it happened and then out of nowhere all these rioters appeared. They took advantage of the situation and used it as an excuse.
Most fo the rioters are young people with no jobs, they're bored, don't have much money (other than what the government gives them from the tax we pay ) and quite frankly - they know we've turned into a soft country, so they know there aren't any serious conseqeunces for their actions. if a cop was to beat one down they would sue and the cop would get fired. ridiculous. these rioters are getting fined tiny amounts of money compared to the damage they've done and the money from the fines coes from either selling the stuff they just sold or the government benefits. it's just awful. i think the government really are just as bad as these rioters on how kid gloves they are being with everyone. there are people jumping out of burning buildings and the cops are told they are not allowed to even use rubber bullets, when there are scenes on the TV of cops having bricks thrown at them, they just have to stand there. My opinion is that if you throw a brick at a cop, they inherit the right to beat the bejesus out of you. This country really has gone to sh*t!
Anyway, rant over the riots appear to be dying down, but i doubt it's the last of them. too many bored people out there knowing that they can't be given a clip round the ear for doing bad, so they'll do it again. what's so messed up is that they weren't rioting for a reason - just for fun. so many videos of people breaking into shops and stealing random things like rice and sunny delight. wtf is that about!
Gladly it appears that no one on here has been affected so far, i know theres about 3 people in London on this forum, so lets hope it stays that way

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Drove through parts of North East , Central and South East London today and apart from the odd boarded window things were not as bad as I expected.
I think the wost of the damage was restricted to limited areas and other areas not far away appear to be almost normal.
From the news coverage I saw on tv I thought the damage would cover a greater area.
Must stress I was driving my company work truck and would not venture into any places in inner city London in any good car.
As far as the riot/looting went I think it was a total disgrace that the authorities allowed things to slip out of control without firm action being taken ...
Makes me glad I live in a civilized suburb .

I'm well aware that most of your street cops don't carry firearms. I have a couple of buddies (who are now US cops) that emigrated from the UK. One used to be with London PD and they both kind of filled me in on that years ago. Thats frickin INSANE to not arm ALL your coppers! The simple fact of the matter is that you NEVER know who you are dealing with on a traffic stop or a domestic call...and your crooks seem to have guns--why not ALL the cops?! The LA riots started over something similar. The CHP and LAPD had a vehicle pursuit of a Black dude named Rodney King. At the terminus of the pursuit, LAPD beat the crap out of him, which was unfortunately caught on video. The video hit the news, then the next thing you know, all the cops involved were charged criminally. The thing went to court and after a lengthy trial, all the cops were aquitted--which is what started the riots. One of our black congresswomen even went on the news herself (Maxine Waters, D-CA) saying "no justice, no peace". Who elects these idiots? Anyhoo, four days and one Billion dollars of damage later, there were 54 dead and a lot of homeless mopes. Burned down their own damned neighborhoods, then whined on TV about not being able to get their welfare checks--it seems that they also burned the US post offices (lol). The common denominator??--well, you've watched your stuff on TV...kinda looks suspiciously like the same folks that rioted over here. Hmmm... Anyway, as previously stated, I hope all is well with everyone in here--and your cars too!

Thanks for the thoughts for us and our rides Dana ,good to know we have friends in times of trouble .
I'm old enough to remember the LA riots ,in fact I was in the area of LA and San Diego in Oct '81.
If I'd taken that vacation the following year I could have been in deep trouble...
Seriously the LA riots made what we have just had look like a kids party in comparison .
Almost ashamed to admit it ,but I am sure if the LAPD were in control of the areas of London which started the wave of copy cat lootings it could have been stopped quickly with lives and money saved.
The leadership of the UK went all soft and liberal ,now we all have to pick up the tab for the stupid policies of our politicians .
Thankfully all the trouble has died down ,so we can get back to the nicer things in life like Camaros [and Firebirds].

I could not agree with you more with regard to the liberal politician aspect of this. With our current president, we are well on our way to the problems you and most of Europe are facing. Hopefully, next year, we will elect a Republican president, who can hopefully stop our current slide down this slippery slope into the type of government you folks have to endure. Where in the hell is Margaret Thatcher when you need her, huh? We need another Ronald Reagan over here right about now. I'm hoping Rick Perry (R-TX) will fill the bill.

You guys need to arm ALL of your cops like we do over here. Not doing so is flat out WRONG. It's amazing how much more control you can have over any given scenario if the good guys have guns. Yea, LAPD would have stopped this nonsense in it's tracks. LASD would have done an even better job.

Anyway, hope all is well with you folks over there.

Dana