
© UnknownLondon's Burning
I don't want to say I told you so, but I did. Ok, so maybe I didn't tell YOU, but I've said often enough over the years that one of the benefits to the British state of the occupation of the six counties of Ulster was the opportunities for training their foot soldiers in 'Urban warfare' - training that could later be applied to the 'mainland'.
As part of this training during the last 30 years of the 20th century, British soldiers and the sectarian Northern Ireland police force (the RUC) fired thousands of 'rubber bullets' or 'baton rounds' (as they were later called) at unsuspecting members of the Irish community. At least 18 people were killed by these 'non-lethal' rounds, including 8 children, and hundreds more were left paralyzed, brain damaged and blind.

© UnknownEmma Groves' daughter, Maura, holds the rubber bullet that blinded her mother
The first 'baton rounds' were made of teak wood and used in the crown colony of Hong Kong during periods of intense labor strikes and anti-British protests in the 1960′s. These wooden rounds were deemed "too dangerous" for use in Northern Ireland, so hard rubber was used instead, with no less lethality however. A case in point: Emma Groves, an Irish Catholic, was sitting in her home one evening when British soldiers were conducting raids in the area. Emma was apparently playing the song 'Four Green Fields' loudly on her record player when a British soldier fired a rubber bullet through the window from about 10 feet away striking Emma in the face. She was blinded.
Although official regulations stated that rubber bullets should be fired from no less than 20 meters and at the ground in front of the target in order to minimise damage and target the lower body, in practice they were often fired at close range at the upper body, including the head. Between 1970 and 1974, 55,000 of these were fired on the streets of Northern Ireland, virtually all of them at members of the Irish community and with little or no cause. The first fatality was an 11-year-old boy, shot from 5-6 metres. In what would become common practice among soldiers and police, a witness said a large 'D'-style battery had been used instead of the rubber bullet to increase its weight and impact.
In 1975 the 'rubber bullet' was replaced by the 'plastic bullet' because it was deemed to be less dangerous. In the next 11 years 14 Irish people were killed by these kinder, gentler plastic bullets fired by British forces. Throughout this period, the police on the 'mainland' (the rest of the UK) were banned from using any form of 'baton round' for crowd control. Maybe they thought the Irish had thicker skins than the English. In 1982, the European Parliament banned the use of plastic bullets by any European national security forces, but the British security forces ignored the ban when it came to the Irish and continued using them.
All of which brings me to the point. In response to the recent apparent breakdown of the rule of law and three successive nights of rioting, looting and burning by residents of London's suburbs, the British Metropolitan police (via the government) have said they will
use plastic bullets against Londoners if they continue to expose the fact that life in the UK is a lot less pleasant than
Midsomer Murders would have us believe.
On that point; the UK, and London in particular, had this coming for a long time. The British political and social elite, through their greed and incompetence, have successfully 'bred' millions of poor, uneducated and frustrated Britishers. Members of 'minority' communities (i.e. non-whites) are regularly 'racially profiled' and abused and harassed in the street by police and left in no doubt that the 'system' does not work for them the way it works for the more 'socially upwardly mobile' and affluent. When we add years of corporate poisoning (arguably by design) via
brain-jellifying 'frankenfoods' to the mix, we have a recipe for disaster, sooner or later. It's total disenfranchisement by other, more covert (and significantly more damaging) means.
In light of that, there's something that caught my attention about the recent 'disturbances'. I've noticed that, while the British police have no problem harassing people on an individual and daily basis in the street, over the past few nights they seem to have been under orders to just stand around and allow the looting and burning to proceed unchallenged. So, are we dealing with another example of high-level incompetence, or could there be some other more insidious scheme playing out? Something along the lines of 'stoke the fires of social unrest among a certain demographic and then stand back and allow the rest of the middle and upper class 'whiteys' be 'utterly appalled' at the anti-social behavior of the rioters'. Divide and conquer, or just 'divide and screw up the whole world'.
Anyway, here's a short video, with some very pertinent comments from a man who appears to know what he's talking about, but which also left me 'utterly appalled' at the attitude of the interviewer. Don't miss the maddeningly obtuse 'knock on effect' discussion among the media whores at the end.
As an essayist and print author, Joe has been writing incisive editorials for
Sott.net for over 10 years. His articles have appeared on many news sites and he has been interviewed numerous times by
Sputnik News and Press TV. His articles can also be found on his personal blog
JoeQuinn.net.
Reader Comments
When it realised that there was a lot of money to be made selling its output to Uncle Sam. It was at the same time that its reporting on Palestine became much less balanced, and not long after Greg Dyke was pushed aside - [Link]
"What a bitch! When did BBC start emulating Fox news?"
Other way around, I'd say. The BBC created the template for this kind of journalism.
Joe Quinn said:
"All of which brings me to the point. In response to the recent apparent break down of the rule of law and three successive nights of rioting, looting and burning by residents of London's suburbs, the British Metropolitan police (via the government) have said they will use plastic bullets against Londoners if they continue to expose the fact that life in the UK is a lot less pleasant than "Midsomer Murders" would have us believe."
The Met have been allowed to use plastic bullets for some time, but there have probably been alternatives on the back burner for much longer.
Back in the Eighties, but a long while after the Brixton riots had been and gone, there was a period when I'd come home from some club at half-five in the morning or whatever, and I'd see British Army tanks out doing manoeuvres on the streets of Brixton whilst everyone but me and the city foxes were fast asleep. No one noticed, there was no outrage, it didn't make the papers or anything.
I imagine the late arrival of the police in Tottenham the other night (4AM???) was a tactic of the give-them-enough-rope-and-they'll-hang-themselves kind. Cold comfort for anyone that had their house burnt down that night.
"some very pertinent comments from a man who appears to know what he's talking about."
That's man about Brixton town Darcus Howe.... [Link]
so you condone the riot?
so you participated in the riot?
Rereading the article might also help you to understand why the author didn't find the riots surprising as he describes exactly why he doesn't find it amazing.
Please, no one entertain the notion that there is such a thing as a completely non-lethal weapon! Especially when considering projectiles!
is right! What some people will do for a pay cheque.
To hell with honesty, ethics, or compassion.
They make me sick.
Queen Elizabeth II have money invested in companies that produce rubber bullets
That doesn't surprise me at all. Apparently Churchill held shares in Krupts during the second world war.
Joe makes a good point, three nights of rioting and little police action, makes me wonder if we are seeing the Hegelian dialect put into practice. What new laws are going to passed with cheers from the masses ? Then they will realize that ALL will be targeted. Except the landed gentry of course.
Hopefully, the next dialectical step
of the social insurrection in England
should be the assault on Buckingham Palace
in order to eliminate a feudal relic
-- that the people have to pay from their pockets --
that represent an insulting contradiction
in a "democratic" system.
Such heroic action will be a Triumphal Arch of Victory
that we are going to celebrate
with a bottle of champagne:
!Finally, justice!
And, by doing so the production of rubber bullets
would decline due to lack of investment..!
¡This is the answer!
It may be only a matter of time before they whip out the pain-rays. The sad thing about all of this. The rioters are hurting the wrong people/businesses. They should have attacked the banks and corrupt institutions, not small business and homes. Or better yet, just become complacent with the government (peaceful rebellion en-mass). I suppose they don't know who the real criminals are.
but the British had it coming. I visited the Country back in 1981 and remember the Brixton riots. I remember the mortars hitting London day after day afterwards. The dead horses near Hyde Park. Decay, year after year for that country for 30 years in a row. What did they expect to happen ? I'd say they got off lightly...for the time being. Their record is far from clean. While studying, I had friends there I could stay and rest during x-mas but somehow never made it and I don't think I 'll ever will again.
"Britain’s Riots: Thuggery, Looting, Lawlessness… BY THE RULING CLASS"
by Finian Cunningham
"After a conflagration of arson attacks, riots and looting in several British cities, including the capital, London, there is a sense of order having been restored from a massive mobilisation of police forces.
There now follows the tracking down and prosecution of individuals involved in the mayhem. Conservative Prime Minister is leading “the fight back” to punish anyone who has inflicted damage and destruction to Britain’s society.
The events have visibly shocked the political establishment of all parties, police chiefs and the mainstream media. But what should be more shocking is the myopic and incredibly banal commentary that is being offered to “explain” the outburst of street disturbances and violence.
As pundits sit in comfy television studios trading inane insights about the “evils” of individual immorality, criminality, dysfunctional families, gang culture – in the background, so to speak, are the glaring signs scrolling across the screens of the cause of this societal breakdown. And yet the preponderant signs escape the mental radar of pundits and politicians alike.
The fact that the capitalist economic system is in worldwide meltdown is not even registered in the mainstream commentary. This is the system that the mainstream political parties have facilitated and fawned over, whether Labour, Conservative or Liberal, and which has resulted in social devastation across Britain while the corporate and financial elite has ransacked economic resources. This system of legalised looting has been going on for decades, but certainly took on a precipitous dynamic starting with Cameron’s Conservative predecessor Margaret Thatcher in the early 1980s. Labour’s Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were merely purveyors of the same dynamic.
In surveying today’s Britain, Karl Marx words are so right: “An accumulation of wealth at one pole of society indicates an accumulation of misery and overwork at the other”. That is the hallmark of capitalism in today’s Britain, the US and Europe.
All other problems are largely secondary in causation. Crime, racist policing, disorder, the lack of police budgets to restore order (so ironic), alienation and self-destruction, and so many other ills including the mobilisation of resources to fund illegal wars – most of our present day problems flow from the tap root of dysfunction that is the capitalist economy.
Speaking in the House of Commons Thursday, Prime Minister Cameron's “explanation” for the outbreak of street disturbances across England demonstrates a total ignorance and poverty of understanding on his part of the nature of the breakdown in his society. He blames it on “criminality pure and simple” and “pockets of sickness” and “lack of individual morality and responsibility”.
This view is largely echoed in the British political establishment of all parties and the media.
The looting, thievery and lawlessness that Cameron so condemns is but the reflection at the street level of British society of what is taking place on a much greater scale at the upper echelons of government and the economy.
Despite the appearance of pinstripe suits and well-groomed accents, we can, if we are honest, see decades of looting and thievery of economic and financial resources by corporate elites aided and abetted by Labour and Conservative governments. The taxpayer bailout of corrupt banks initiated by Labour PM Gordon Brown and now overseen by Cameron, paid for in large part by austerity in public spending cuts, is but the latest manifestation of official robbing of the majority to swell the already outrageous wealth of the ruling elite class.
Cameron and his gang of plumy-accented thugs are gunning for $150 billion in public spending cuts to pay for the criminal enterprise known as British banking. This is racketeering that a street gang in London’s east end can only marvel at… and indeed, in a very real way, only emulate.
Combined with that looting by the elite we see the total lawlessness and criminality of British governments who have worked hand in glove with other criminal governments to launch wars of aggression (Nuremburg standard war crimes) in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Libya, resulting in the deaths of over one million civilians. Where is individual responsibility for that mass murder and destruction Mr Cameron?
This social decay and necrotism is a symptom of the collapse of capitalism, an economic system that enriches an elite at the cost of the majority. It polarises political power beyond democratic accountability to the point where, among other deformities, wars and planetary looting are being carried out even blatantly against the consent of the majority public.
So when Cameron and his political cronies fulminate about pockets of sickness, looting, criminality, lawlessness, and the need for “consequences for actions” – his words and exhortations are so richly ironic and benighted.
For he is inadvertently describing the very society and world that capitalism creates in its own image. The indoctrination of Cameron's mind and that of the entire political establishment prevents them from seeing the inferno for the sparks. An inferno that the government of Cameron and his Labour predecessors, and in other western countries, have been dousing fuel on with their slavish policies aiding and abetting capitalist kleptocracy, both at home and abroad.
The real lessons from Britain will not dawn on, never mind be drawn on, by mainstream politicians or media. And the same can be said for the US and other western countries. To paraphrase a slogan used by former US President Clinton: “It’s the capitalist economy, stupid.” "
Finian Cunningham is a Global Research Correspondent based in Belfast, Ireland.
cunninghamfin@yahoo.com
Now after instigating this to deflect attention from the FTSE - London Stock Exchange - as New York was going apeshit! They now know WHO & WHERE their dissenters are. Now for the powergrab and clampdown of the communications systems. Stooopid sheeple walking right into this trap! NO PALACE torched, NO GOVT or POLICE attacked just mindless looting and poor neighborhoods made even poorer! Bravo - even Hitler could take lessons!
PERFECT heist of ALL that ready cash - 2 trillion - just pumped into the US Economy by a raised debt ceiling! YUM!
God Help US All!
"Ever get the feeling you've been trapped?".... [Link]
God save the queen
The fascist regime
They made you a moron
Potential H-bomb
God save the queen
She ain't no human being
There is no future
In England's dreaming
Don't be told what you want
Don't be told what you need
There's no future, no future,
No future for you
God save the queen
We mean it man
We love our queen
God saves
God save the queen
'Cause tourists are money
And our figurehead
Is not what she seems
Oh God save history
God save your mad parade
Oh Lord God have mercy
All crimes are paid
When there's no future
How can there be sin
We're the flowers in the dustbin
We're the poison in your human machine
We're the future, your future
God save the queen
We mean it man
We love our queen
God saves
God save the queen
We mean it man
And there's no future
In England's dreaming
No future, no future,
No future for you
No future, no future,
No future for me
No future, no future,
No future for you
No future, no future
For you
Lovely when he says that she sounds idiotic and she just says "thank you for being here" priceless
rule : Well, I have to admit I am one of them. That's why women love me :-P . Man they stalk my site, everything I write bothers them.
of weapons/people on the planet : 1/12 to reach 12/12. Thing is and I find that true from experience EVIL PREVAILS no matter what.