General Chat

Anyone who does sign will have to confirm via their email addy for their vote to count.

Sue

I have signed the this e-petition

It will never happen but its a way of letting the powers that be how we feel


Roy

just switched to the news channel and see manchester is now in the thick of it. what next. a police station in nottingham has also been fireballed. finding it hard to get my head around it all. there is no need for this whatsoever. these neds are opportunists just looking to make trouble and steal whatever they can.

its a sad week for britain and all the decent human beings that live here.
florence
in the hebrides :-0

I won't sign it... it hasn't been thought through, many ( if not most) of the age group responsible for the crimes won't get benefits directly anyway!

for an example...

As a parent you have a teenager aged 15 involved in this, but he/she is under age to get benefits himself... you get child benefit, and income support ...so what happens if they remove his/ her 'share'....do you take it from your younger children's 'share'?

Does it come off your working tax credits if you as the parent are working?...

If you can't afford the kid then, do you sling him out and leave him on the streets for the social services to sort out?

Okay there may be some who are 'adults' on JSA... stop that and what do you get? Honestly? you get someone who will have no money and where will they get it then? a job? with a criminal record? ... from their family? or maybe from doing exactly what you DON'T want them to be doing!

JiminyCricket, I don't intend to be controversial but i probable am being, we are already suffering the consequences of pussy footing around with the criminals in our country it's about time we got the politicians to stop talking tough and then letting them off with 3 month and your out in a month in the nearest prison/hotel or 150 hours of community (or is that standing around and doing nothing service)

I for one will make a stand and not worry about what the people its directed at would resort to

or shall we all roll over and play dead

Roy

I'm afraid this has been brewing for several years now and we are paying the price for living in a free country where some people just want the freedom to do as they please without any responsibility or consequence for their actions.

There are already laws to stop drinking on the streets or causing public disorder in town centres for example but without enforcement the message goes out that "you can get away with it".

It is only natural for young people to want to push the boundaries a bit but when there are no boundaries at all, the result is feral children running riot.

Irrespective of colour or creed, there are two types of people: good or bad and society should be asking itself why so many of our young people seem to think that bad behaviour is preferable. I suggest the answer is because they can get away with it and have been allowed to get away with it for years.

There are a lot of good youngsters who have found a way to enjoy themselves without harming others in the process and we do them a dis-service if we tar everyone with the same brush. However, there are very young children who are being brought up with no moral compass to guide them and unless we turn this around, it will become self perpetuating.

If you nip bad behaviour in the bud, it can be stopped but if society allows petty criminals to get away with it, they set their sights on higher things and become the thugs that we see at the moment on our city streets.

When interviewed by the news reporters tonight, some of them arrogantly admitted to being out on the streets wearing masks in order to get whatever they could. The reason why they can openly say this is simple they are "n o t b o v v e r e d".

I am torn between anger and despair and I could weep.

Ice ~ Ice ~ Baby ,

You say as the law stands they can not be charged under the age of 18

that is incorrect the age of criminal responsibility is still 10 years old but the libdems are trying to get it lifted to children age 14 and as far as i can see it has not changed todate?

Roy

You're dead right Roy...it's still 10.

My 8 yr old knows right from wrong......it should stay as it is imho x

Sorry but I won't sign the petition either because (a) This has spread beyond London (b) for all the sensible reasons given by Rambling Rose and (c) this is a knee jerk reaction to a very serious situation.

P.S. The heading should read "Lose" and not "Loose".

On 'Newsnight' today, they had a list of those charged.
They had, amongst others, a designer and youth worker - in fact the list included few under the age of 25.

Hardly 'disenfranchised' youths - just plain moronic greedy chancers, who, like many others, jumped on the bandwaggon of destruction.
Not just of buildings and cars, but people's lives.

Ice ~ Ice ~ Baby

I totaly agree with what you say and where you are comming from where are the parents? they should all be in court with their children and facing charges of child neglect, after all the age of criminal responsibility is still 10 years old BUT the parents are still responsible untill they are 18 years old although they can leave home at 16

As for the e-petition

It will never happen but its a way of letting the powers that be no how we feel
thats why i signed it


Roy

You have to believe that there will be light at the end of the tunnel and that good and common decency will prevail in the end. Already communities are pulling together to clean up the streets.

My worry is that too many children are not given this message and will only see the unfairness of the bad guys (and gals) getting away with things.

I seem to recollect that Boy George was made to wear a fluorescent jacket and given the task of street sweeping for his misdemeanours.

Let's try that here.....in street speak make them "Take the Shame"

Apparently a 21 year old male has been arrested for arson with regard to the family run furniture store in Croydon. How heartbreaking for the 80 year old father and his two sons, who's family have run the business for 150 years, and they only discovered what had happened to their store when watching the news on tv after returning from a family meal out celebrating the father's wedding anniversary. I wonder what the 21 year old male was hoping to achieve with his thuggish stupid actions.

Ice, don't you think that the parents who don't give a damn that their kids are out on the streets way past midnight are not guilty of a form of neglect? It's not just about providing, feeding and giving a roof to your own kids, it's also being responsible for their behaviour, teaching them right from wrong, giving them a decent structured upbringing. Failing to do that IMO is a form of neglect as bad as not feeding them.

First time I've spoken on here about the riots, those of you who can follow me on FB will know how I feel about them. My son works in Westminster and I fretted this afternoon when I heard police had advised businesses there to close, board up and get out quick at about 3.00pm. Fortunately, he's fine, no problems, but it's scary.

If those parents bothered to worry about their kids like I do about mine, there might not have been the riots in the first place.

I really feel for the Reeves brothers. That business has been in their family for five generations, which means they have never known anything else, it's always been there. Bad enough if you've built a business yourself to find it gone like many have, I can't imagine how it feels to lose something that was there before you were.

These rioters should be sent to prison and work there until they have paid for the damage and distress they have caused.

TW

Where is the proof that the parents don't give a damn where their children are? Once children get into a gang or a way of life...no amount of Parental care will stop them. Just telling a child not to do something doesn't tally that they will do as they are told. There is no such thing as a perfect parent. Youth culture is a very powerful thing.....no amount of careful parenting will break that power......Those of us who think we have great children should think ourselves lucky....There but for the grace of God...etc.

On our morning television news, we watched as a young man sat on the footpath, bleeding from a head wound.

Unbelievably, two youths helped him to his feet. Well done I thought, then before our very eyes we saw the 'helpers' unzip the mans backpack and rummage through to see what they could help themselves to..........

I am utterly gobsmacked by what we are seeing and reading. I just hope no more lives are lost. With the scale of buildings on fire, I for one, won't be surprised to learn of more fatalities.

Sadly the reputation of the young who are not thugs, thieves or firebugs are being tarnished by this situation. As a parent, I would turn my own child in if I had proof of their participation in any thing like this - or other crime. But then the shock of their involvement would probably kill me.

Oh for a magic wand, but Politicians with a bit of bottle would be a start.
I get heartily sick of 'underage' criminals getting away with crime. It happens here too.

If you want to play at being a big boy, take the big boys punishment - no excuses, no PC crap - end of.

I did see your Deputy Police Chief saying water cannons and rubber bullets weren't the answer. Why is tear gas not being used to dispel the crowds?

I feel so sorry for the innocent caught up in all the goings on.

Susan

In the midst of all the chaos there are stories of hope.

People organised themselves to clear up the mess in many areas.

People surrounded buildings in peaceful protection of them.

One woman stood in the doorway of her shop and refused to move, the rioters left her alone.

The majority of people in this country are good, we must never forget that or let a small minority of the disaffected destroy what we have.

Gwynne

When i was a very young boy about 9 years old whilst playing out i FOUND an old push bike torch,
I never said anything to my parents and that night mum came to my room to check on my and whilst i was playing in the dark with the torch.

when she saw it she called dad and they questioned me about the torch, they did not believe that i had found the it and said if i had found it why had not told them,

They then frog marched me up to the police station and handed me in to the police with the torch although i was under 10 years old it was still taken very seriously and i was put in a sell to think about my actions sure now they only put me their while they had a cup of tea and a chat.

How many parents today would hand their kids over to police if they thought their kids had broken the law

I bet that None of the parents of kids that are involved in the riots will do the same

that is all part of parental responsibility
Roy