Hackney Today...

So i decided to take my bike for a ride around Hackney...

I started out on Kingsland Road which is about a 10 minute bike ride away from Hackney Central, where the police cars were attacked under the rail bridge..

I cycled through Dalston, came up and around Ridley Market, down Queensbridge Road, Up through London Fields Park and in to the heart of where the violence started.

What i saw...

Not one broken bottle..One burnt vehicle, One burnt shop or building, No Litter...

To be honest i was expecting to see scenes of devistation.
I don't know if the community got together in the morning, seeing as i was already on my bike by 9am..
Or if the scenes of the main stream media were doctored or over hyped but it seemed like a normal day out in Hackney...

The only obvious evidence of looting were that i noticed a number of shop fronts had borded up their front windows with wooden panals. Saying this there were far far fewer shops with wooden panals than i was expecting to see..

I am not saying things did not get completley out of hand but on seeing the main hotspots around Hackney this morning any person sleeping through the riots over the past 3 days would simply be none the wiser walking through Hackney today.

This implies one of two things, either the media spun an incredible story or the community spirit within Hackney is something to be admired...

I would suggest the latter.

I am 100% that there will be absoloutly no repeat of last nite...and if so it will be just one or two very small localised incidents.. I can safely say this because i know the mentality of street gangs and youths in the area..

They have exhumed their frustrations and negative energies...It's over.

Sorry but i think if anything, tonight will be worse. Maybe not on the scale of some of the areas lastnight but in more areas around the UK.
Now they know how badly the police are dealing with the situation, they will carry on until they are dealt with properly.
They will carry on taking advantage of this horrible situation until they no longer outnumber the police 30-1. It will stop when either the police start getting involved or the army is brought in.

Trust me i completly understand your concerns and anxieties but i know Hackney very very well.. i was born and raised here and have lived in its heart for over 35 years.

Trust me there will be no repeat of last nite..

The problem is so far the rioters are winning against the police.
Why would they stop looting while they are still getting away with it?
I hope you are right but i think it will carry on until it is physically stopped. So far this hasnt happened.

Originally posted by 2012king
The problem is so far the rioters are winning against the police.
Why would they stop looting while they are still getting away with it?
I hope you are right but i think it will carry on until it is physically stopped. So far this hasnt happened.

they were lucky and caught the police sleeping. this won't happen with the PM flying back into the country and chewing the a s s off all the top police officers. there will be unbelievable amount of police present on streets tonite. if the rioters have a brain between them they will not be out tonite or the next few nights.

I think that you're right. it won't kick off again in Hackney tonight, or if it does, no where near as bad. Most of the looting was opportunist, so the youths will know that other places are now better secured. From what I've noticed, the rioting has moved each night to new places.

I work in Hackney, and was told to go home before 5pm last night, and again tonight (though I'm working from home).

I think it was mostly opportunist looting - JD sports, mobile phone shops, etc.

To be honest i will be very surprised if there is no rioting/looting tonight. It may not happen in the areas already hit, but it will happen.
As for there being more police around, i really dont think it will make much of a difference. There were 6000 around London lastnight, and hardly anybody saw them let alone saw them having any sort of positive outcome over the rioters, and now they say there will be around 16000 on duty tonight. The problem is that the majority of police on duty tonight will be special constables who have no real powers, other than to make up numbers and make it seem as though there are more police around. Then there are the police officers who are not trained or equipped to deal with riots.
There will be more police about so hopefully they will be able to cover more ground and prevent things from flaring up to start with and maybe even actually attend when people call them, but if they have to try and chase these people down, they will be caught out again.
If you imagine yourself in the rioters shoes, they are familiar with breaking the law, they have no respect for authorities, and they dont care about getting thrown in jail. Why would they give up the opportunity to possibly get away with more tvs/phones or whatever, if they know for a fact that they outnumber the police by a big majority, and also know that the extra police that will be on the streets tonight are not equipped or trained to deal with them?
A total of 450 people have been arrested over the past 2 nights, by 6000 officers. That figure alone should tell you that there will be more trouble ahead.

reply to post by JohnySeagull


Yeah right you think the PM is gonna make any difference, dont be nieve, the only important thing hes got on his mind is that waitress he had to go back and tip in Tuscany on his bloody holidays !

apparently the police have had reports of more violence breaking out already, no links, just heard it on sky news. Plus a 16 year old has been detained in glasgow for trying to arrange riots through facebook.....
Looks like we are in for another night of it.

I just got back from a lovely day out with a friend in dalston then up to shoredicth.

Everything was fine up until about 3.30 when we were having coffee outside a bar, the bar manager came up to us and said the police had called and said there were a group of about 200 youths coming up by Hoxton Square..

So being your nosey neighbour i went to investigate with my friend..
We got to Hoxton Square literally about 5 minutes later and we saw people laying in the park and the nice sun..
People outdoors enjoying their meals and drinks..
No youths no stand offs.

Too much hype..