London’s Burning

So, this is what The Clash was singing about eh? You know what? Before we start on our look at over the pond, can I just be the first to give a big fuck you to our media friends over there? Never before, had we seen a group of bed wetters cry foul, and wag their fingers when we had a couple of issues with the Olympics, and our own riot nonsense after the Canucks failed playoff run. See? It can happen anywhere and anytime. Even after tea time.

Now, on to some of the things that stick out from this riot, because it drips of irony. Why did the London riots start you might ask. Well, technically the starting point was the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man sitting in the back of a taxi by police. That’s the technical starting point, half of these rioters who have been going for 3 days now, are in very young youth. They couldn’t give a shit about police brutality, or racism, the just want flat screen televisions.

Here are some things that stand out. First off, to all those Vancouverites that are cursing out our mayor, check out this 80′s band reject they have for a mayor in London. The mans name is Boris, and the reason you rarely see a man named Boris be mayor is clarified in this short clip. Control a crowd, and inspire he does not.

Right, moving on. Londoners, have started the clean up efforts, showing up in Clapham Junction, a part of town heavily hit with brooms, to ‘take their city back’, and put post it notes on storefront windows. Hold on, this sounds familiar. The Londoners seem to be missing a key point, you have to wait until the rioting stops to start the cleanup efforts. What they should do is show up in a part of a town that’s being rioted by a group of 13 year olds, and lay the smack down. The kids from Hostel these are not.

One highlight, so to speak from this whole mess, is that it shines a light on some real quality journalism. Mark Stone of Sky News went to the streets with his iPhone and starting filming short pieces. Poor guy probably couldn’t convince a real cameraman to go with him. I love the chick at the end, ‘we’re getting our taxes back’. Yeah! Do it for the people! Power to the People! Who the fuck do you think is going to pay for this all?

Here’s a final sad, sad note of all this mess. A riot started and continued by youth, a group that embraces music and new music more than any other. One of the casualties of this riot was a Sony Distribution Center, a 200,000 square foot warehouse, that was the primary hub and storage for more than 150 independent labels. 150 independents lost their entire catalogs. Now, that’s a loss in every sense of the word.