London Police Vans Parked Outside Apple Store Regent Street

[redhanded]

Welsh police vans parked outside Apple's Regent Street store in London.

 

[firestarter]

Welsh police vans parked outside Apple's Regent Street store in London.

Quotes from someone working at the Regent St Apple Store:

@MacRumors Please don't spin it as if police vans were just to protect Apple Store. London has more to worry about today than bloody iPhones

“@appletweets: Apple Hires Police To Guard Its Regent Street Retail Store” ********. You don't "hire police". We just have a layby outside.

Police weren't there specifically for Regent St Apple Store. We have a lay-by outside for easy parking & we're next to Oxford Circus is all.

 

[Arithon]

The so-called riots are simply rampaging theft.

If any of these kids were really "poor" as the TV apollogists are claiming, they'd be stealing food, clothes and shoes; not electronics and designer goods.

They're just self-entitled thieves.

It's not about policing, race, poverty or recession. It's all about greed. They want something they didn't earn and don't care whose home they burn down to get it.

Police were outside designer shops like the Apple store because they were high-value targets for theives. The people who lost their homes in previous days looting were mostly living above shops and had to flee when they were burned out. So the police were not "protecting the rich" they were just using common sense - camp outside designer stores and give the thieves nowhere to go - as last night showed, there was no trouble in London and this tactic worked.

Trouble in Manchester and the north of England was pretty much copy-cat behaviour. Opportunistic thieves running around stealing whatever they could.

My personal opinion is anyone found guilty of looting should be press-ganged into administering aid in Somalia and helping the cleanup in Japan. Maybe a taste of REAL poverty and desperatation might help them appreciate the free lunch they're getting here. Free housing, generous benefits, free education, free healthcare etc. and nothing to pay. Ever.

I got the biggest laugh from this post on Facebook "I was caught in the riot and sheltered in the one place safe from the looters - the Job Centre".

 

[heimo]

Just thinking out loud. What would happen if enough anti-riot people would organize their "protect the city" movement? Blood and violence? Or enough threat to stop rioting at least locally? Why do we always leave this to police? Or is it just that these riots are silently approved by vast majority or citizens?

 

[iStudentUK]

Just thinking out loud. What would happen if enough anti-riot people would organize their "protect the city" movement? Blood and violence? Or enough threat to stop rioting at least locally? Why do we always leave this to police? Or is it just that these riots are silently approved by vast majority or citizens?

The problem is no matter how "well meaning" most of the people defending the city may be there would always be a few angry people filling the ranks as well. It would simply degenerate into a fight between looters and anti-looters.

The police have training and special equipment to deal with these types of situations. We may be seeing problems and destruction now, but if the masses were to "rise up" against it all they would do is make it worse.

I'm not saying people shouldn't defend themselves at all, just that we should be careful. The Police should be pro-active, responding quickly and swiftly to problem spots. Civilians should be reactive, rather than actively seeking trouble responding only when necessary and in a proportionate manner.

 

[JabbaII]

Quotes from someone working at the Regent St Apple Store:

Tough luck for the Sony distribution warehouse which burnt down.

Location, location, location??

Not saying you can buy the police, but obviously police guard high value targets.

i.e. police will be there in seconds in case of bank robbery vs. a convenient store robbery.

 

[Arithon]

To get the measure of the looters listen to this interview.

They think it's "fun", they're burning small businesses to "show the rich" and railing against the government "whoever that is" and they "hope it carries on". Assuming they're not too drunk on stolen alcohol...

I pity that my children will have to go to work to pay taxes to support these mindless parasites.

 

[ct2k7]

The epitome of parenting failure.

 

[heimo]

The police have training and special equipment to deal with these types of situations. We may be seeing problems and destruction now, but if the masses were to "rise up" against it all they would do is make it worse.

Makes sense. Anyone who has ever tried to calm down someone who is drunk and agressive knows that it just doesn't work very well. And now we're talking about crowds of violent raging young people. Perhaps - just perhaps - if there were ten times more anti-movement people on the streets, before looting started, these rioting lunatics would go home or just seek some else place to "have fun".

 

[ssk2]

Tough luck for the Sony distribution warehouse which burnt down.

Location, location, location??

Not saying you can buy the police, but obviously police guard high value targets.

i.e. police will be there in seconds in case of bank robbery vs. a convenient store robbery.

I take it you're not from London. There were no riots in that part of the city because it is an affluent area, away from the ghetto areas where the trouble occurred. These were residential riots and Regent's Street is purely commercial, no reason for rioters to be there.

The Sony centre was pure bad luck and worth a hell of a lot more than that one Apple store was worth, both in terms of the amount of stock held and in terms of the amount of workers employed.

Macrumors staff: can we PLEASE move this thread to the politics forum. Its got nothing to do with Apple whatsoever, the police vans were parked there because the Oxford/Regent street crossroads is highly strategic for accessing the east end of London. They were NOT protecting Apple stores.

 

[MacNewsFix]

While the death of Mark Duggan may have been the impetus for the civil unrest in London, it is hard to argue that the continued mayhem has anything to do with a possible miscarriage of justice.

Example: UK riot thugs steal from injured boy

Example: Riot Girls Brag About Violence

Example: Southall Sikhs stand against London rioters

Example: Turks police own London district amid rioting

Even community leaders from areas where the rioting began say it is time the police got more aggressive about putting down the rioters. There has to be a better way of getting your message across than burning down your own neighborhood.

...but you admitted that the "moving the goalposts" comment was wrong and you retracted it.

+1

-1

 

[HadItWithWindow]

Blackberry Web Site Hacked In UK By Rioters

According to the BBC the rioting scum learned that Blackberry was cooperating with police to upload messages believed to be rioters tactics. As a result they hacked the web site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14476620

 

[nylonsteel]

re removing stock from aapl stores

good move and very smart

"lights out..." - ufo