The Malaysian waitress in the Chinese restaurant in Birmingham, called them vampires because they only came out at night and wore hoods while they destroyed people's lives. But even vampires have a reason for doing what they do.
The number of tube station closures are what first alerted me that there was something going on in London. The announcement that 'The Brixton station had been closed due a police investigation' earlier that day seemed as normal as 'There are delays on the Picadilly line as a body has been found under a train'. Welcome to London boys and girls.
I don't watch the news and live several blocks from a hospital so the fact that police cars and ambulances go past quite often is not uncommon. Even when police started being stationed at the local tube station it didn't really phase me as there are usually police around the local Maccas after school hours. I failed to notice that several shops in the local area had closed earlier than usual and it was only station closure at odd time of the night and week that alerted me that something was going on.
Of course it was an email from a relative that told me what was going on and as soon as I turned on the news channel it was everywhere.
And what a disgusting display of vandalism and robbery! They called them riots intially, but no-one was saying why they were rioting. There was no reason for those bored school kids to be setting fire to people's businesses and ruining the livlihoods of so many people. The news coverage were interviewing a local bar owner who was trying to get his stock and his employees out of the bar, but they couldn't get to the safety of their homes and families because the mobs were everywhere pillaging and burning, but what for?
Despite the girl at hotel reception in Birmingham's warning about staying away from the shopping centre our path naturally inclined that way. It was around 3:30pm and every shop kept announcing that they were going to close soon. So when one shop closed we went to another, until just after 4pm when it seemed that the whole shopping centre was shutting down. As soon as we stepped out there were already several groups of men assembling around outside and as we walked away from the centre of attention there were many more groups heading towards it.
We decided to eat close to the hotel, but surprisingly enough we were the only females in the restaurants without a male accompanying them. That could be why the waitress came over and started chatting and liking the 'rioters' to vampires and telling us that there had been sighted close to that area and we should really go back soon.
Heading back to the hotel, I noticed the bars and restaurants in the area had not opened that night probably for fear for their businesses. But what really brought home the affect that the rioters were having on the local people was that the hotel had actually locked the doors on the inside and they actually had to come and unlock it when we came back.
Now I'm not the type of person who really worries about my own safety, but when I realised how much these pointless, copycat riots happening all around the country were affecting the innocent by standers it really made me mad! How dare all these burn some businesses and put fear into everyone else?! And all for what? The people on tv that they interviewed seemed to be making up excuses to the news reporters as they were more interested in stealing several digital tvs and designer jeans than voicing their causes. Even the lunatic in Norway had a reason to do what he was doing!
The only good thing to come out of this is the community spirit and people banding together to clean up the mess and stand up against the unnecessary violence. Though all the people involved should be given community service to clean up their own mess and rebuild all they have destroyed so they can understand the affect their behaviour has caused.
