I fear for planet earth and mankind

I imagine most of you have seen on the news what is happening here in the UK. What started off as an incident where a young man was shot by police after he was shooting at them has now escalated into full scale anarchy. There was rioting in Tottenham, where the original incident took place, now tonight areas of London and Birmingham are in lockdown as shops and businesses are being looted and burnt to the ground. My mum lives not far from one of the hot spots, Croydon, but she is away from the shopping areas and these seem to be the areas being attacked. I cannot see how the Police can stop this crazy behaviour which is spiralling out of all control. I honestly fear for mankind and this planet on which we live.

 

My goodness! I haven't checked on the news all day.
I have a few friends that live in and around London. I sure that they, and all of your family and friends, are safe.
This world just seems to get crazier and crazier.

 

EJ, there has always been an element of society that takes advantage of a situation to steal and destroy. There is also an element that adds to society and keeps working to better the environment for everyone.
Each person decides which element he or she wants to belong to.
This, too, will pass. There are more gardens than fire bombs; there are more gardeners than hooligans; there are more kind people than cruel; and we shall prevail!

 

I have seen that stuff on the news here too. It is awful what excuses some people will use to do evil things to others. I hope your police can get it put down soon.

I have a friend here who is from England, and I am sure she has family near the trouble too.

 

A similar thing happened over here in Karachi too (about 2 months ago). There was this 17 year old unemployed boy who was robbing innocent people with a gun at the Boat Basin park (a posh recreational area of Karachi's Clifton zone).

Here is the Google Earth link to that area:
http://maps.google.com/?ll=24.825968,67 ... 5&t=h&z=19

Anyway, this 17 year old cell phone thief tried to rob 2 ladies in the evening who were enjoying the sea breeze at the park (one of whom was carrying a baby in her arms). However the 2 groundskeepers of the park saw him, so they clobbered him from behind.

There was a TV cameraman on the spot also (filming some other assignment). But when he too saw what was going on, he captured the whole thing on camera.

Anyway, the groundskeeper took the boy to the police, however the police was busy on that day - So the Army Rangers offered to assist my taking charge of the park's security.

The groundskeeper handed him over to the Rangers, along with the pistol he was using to rob people of their cell phones. However he then started to resist arrest - Now had this been the police, then they would have instantly used handcuffs on him and taken him away.

But military does not use handcuffs. So the moment he resisted arrest and also briefly tried to grab the Ranger's gun - they shot him twice, in the leg (as par military training). And the whole thing got recorded on camera.

Soon there was widespread anger and rioting among the less privileged localities of Karachi (from where this boy was from). Everyone said that the Rangers used excessive force. But the rangers claimed that they only shot him in the leg (as instructed to them in their training).

Of course it so happened that the boy eventually bled to death - As the gun our Rangers use is a Pakistani variant of the German automatic G3 rifle. This gun shoots a 7.62mm NATO bullet at mach 2.3 - So anywhere this bullet enters the body, the flesh boils and than explodes around the entry point.

But in the end, when it became clear that the boy was nothing but a two-bit thief, who was in the habit of robbing women at gunpoint - Public anger soon ended within days of the indecent.

Here is the video of it all (shot by that TV cameraman). However I am posting it over here strictly as reference - So those with a faint heart, please DO NOT click on this link below. I mean it, don't watch it if you can't handle it.

moderator's note: removed website link, too graphic

Anyhow, the end result is that now the entire Boat Basin area is totally free of cell phone thieves (they all seem to have been scared away). All the shopkeepers of the area where I too have been visiting for over 20 years are also very happy over this.

And believe it or not, I too was there that day, (4 hours before this boy was killed). And I remember seeing him. I had noticed something odd about him. He was also giving me strange looks as I went into the cell phone shop to have a phone repaired.

Anyway, my point is that once in a while, a real example needs to be made. otherwise things will eventually get out of hand. So I (along with many others) are happy that this cell phone thief is dead.

Sure, he was only 17, which is why many people feel sorry about it too. But would anyone like to imagine what other crimes he would have graduated onto within the next decade had he not been killed by the Rangers???

Therefore EJ, I don't think you should live in fear. Because the universe does have it's own checks and balances too. I mean, in the last few years, over 10 innocent people in this park at Boat Basin have been killed, who were resisting a cell phone robbery. Those are till this day unresolved crimes - As no one knows who the cell phone thieves were. Maybe this 17 year old boy was the one who had killed a few of them, or maybe this was his first ever crime in which he ended up getting killed - I guess we will never know for sure.

But when everything comes to an end - Things are always in a slightly better (and more secure) position in the future. So focus on that please.

 

EJ,

the picture on fox news is awful. I sure hope your mom is far enough away to be safe from this horrible situation.
This terrible crisis seems to be happening everywhere. No one is safe from the mentality of the chaos. We had a horrible situation very close to home this past weekend also. I Don't understand how people can act the way they do. Ours was about 20 min. from home and some man shot and killed 7 people (who offended him, evidently) and was then killed by the police. Horribly sad. Some of the people didn't even live here, they were just visiting. It all happened in about 20 min.