How Realistic Is Civil Unrest During The London Olympics?

Hiya everyone.

I'm currently living a mile or so outside the Olympic Park in London, and as the counter to the big switch on gets ever closer, something is increasingly worrying me - so I wanted everyone's opinions as to whether I am just being a paranoid prepper or not. It's not aliens, staged or otherwise, or NWO black magick shenanigans. It's not even terrorism. It's the very likely problem of social unrest.

Let me explain. Before the Olympics was announced East London was poor enough, but the gap has not only widened between the richest and the poorest people living in the area around the Games, but has visibly done so. There is unrest fermenting as we speak, especially among the younger street gangs, and considering the fact that armed police and soldiers will be on the streets during the events, all it will take for a potential flashpoint to explode in everyone's faces is an overzealous tasering or worse - a shooting like the one that set off the London riots last year. There is also the problem of overpopulation during the event cramming too many people into hot tubes and busses (bound to generate anger), and the resulting empty shelves in the local supermarkets as they are unable to get deliveries at the usual times on event days. All in all it's starting to look like the perfect storm, even without outside attacks or interference.

I've put some food and water away to help tide me over during the disruption, but more than anything it is the possible riots and civil unrest that worry me. So do you all feel that I am concerned over nothing, or could this whole mess turn out to be as bad as I fear?

reply to post by RebelWithoutASoul


I would say you have a very good reason to be concerned.

Any sort of dissent will be met with the whole force of the law because the situation you mention is also keeping the Met awake at night.

Much of the security in London will be private and largely almost unaccountable. I would suggest leaving London for the duration if at all possible.

I hope things do go well, I really do but if people are suffering anywhere near the way we are up North then the potential for trouble is very high.

Much love.

There are already protests and riots planned, if a copper gets too handy then it will just make it worse as you said! I think you do have reason to worry but I wouldn't worry too much it'll tidy over. I was thinking about traveling a few miles up there during the time but the logistics are toooo much!

British transport is going to be even more useless than it already is..

reply to post by RebelWithoutASoul


There will only be riots, etc if they the elite want it maybe so they can exert control of the streets with the military?

And so it begins!

Might be worth considering the fact that G4S is running the security of the Olympic games.

There have been reports of poor training, staff that can't speak English, drug deals being carried out during training classrooms etc, they've really cut corners to save as much money as possible.

Inexperienced security during such a huge event- it isn't hard to see that leading to civil unrest IMO.

the will be unrest for sure, the only question is how big a fuss, and how much makes it on TV. I sure hope they don't do anything violent

Thanks for the confirmation everyone. It's too easy to get all whipped up over nothing, and I do try to keep my feet on the ground when it comes to this sort of thing, but it's nice to know that the facts, as presented, do seem to at least allow for problems to arise.

You all also brought up some issues that I hadn't yet thought of - especially about private security being involved (I hadn't factored in the implications of poor training and equipment). As soon as profit margins are in the mix, you know it has a higher chance of ending badly.

Life will go on, London will survive, but it's going to be a crazy few weeks I guess...

Depends on the weather. If it keeps raining like this, the kids are less likely to riot. Fair weather rioters in this country.

I do actually think there is more chance of a riot like we saw last summer than any false flag or the apocalyptic scenarios some people have been highlighting

I hope the young people of our nation do kick up a fuss after all they are inheriting the mess the older folk in power have made.
The world eyes will be on London and what better way to show your discontent than to have a jolly good riot
I would be right there with you but alas Iam 38 and me old knees wouldn't be up for it.

I think it's pretty likely there'll be disturbances of some sort, given London's already packed, many workers are under a lot of pressure, and a lot of buttons are being pushed. I dread to think what the transport system will be like.
It's more likely some office workers will flip, rather than young people rioting.

reply to post by XeroOne


I'm trying everything to avoid using public transport to be honest, but I'm crashing in two places at once at the moment, one in East London (my mothers) and one in Central (my finance's) so it's inevitable I'll have to use it at some point. Shame is I can't cycle any more (medium to severe arthritis in both knees), because that would sort that particular problem out and give me an additional way to get out of the city should I need to.

reply to post by RebelWithoutASoul


I'm not sure I agree with you.

This is a subject that fascinates me, and the events of the London riots last year were both frightening and fascinating from a sociological point of view.

We've seen it happen over and over again - there is a protest for some reason, and one act of stupidity on the side of the authorities ignites an immense feeling of injustice. That's the flashpoint.

At student protests we've seen the same thing. The last one to turn violent in London over the tuition fee hikes started when the Met began attacking the protesters and closing them in. That was the moment the injustice was felt and it became a battle between the students and the "pigs".

There is footage of the crowd, with mounted police charging into them. It goes without saying that when the authorities react like that it exacerbates the sentiment of injustice.

With the Olympics, I don't see that happening. There is no real movement in the UK right now. We have union protests, more expected, strikes too - but nothing ongoing or in your face. Then we have a fractured Occupy movement who seem to be drifting on the wind and not really doing much. And then there's UK Uncut, who again seem to be very vocal, from home.

There is no mass protest movement right now, and that's what it would take IMO.

The riots and looting last year started after the genuine riot over the death or Mark Duggan. IMO, the people in that area were right to be enraged. They were treated like crap by a pathetic police service and the family were rightly outraged.
The community was demanding a response and they were ignored and treated with utter contempt. If that were me, I would have been attacking that police station too. You don't just kill a person and then tell their family you'll tell them all about it when you're good and ready!

The following days were nothing more than greed, looting, mindless violence by people who had never heard of Mark Duggan.

We don't have anything like that situation right now.

It could change of course, depending on the ongoing banking criminality being exposed. If there were to be a protest against the banks in London and it were big enough I think we would see unrest on the streets and banks attacked, and I don't think many people in the UK would be that upset about it.

But right now, there is no protest planned (there is a student protest I believe being planned for November?) so I don't think the probability of unrest in London is likely during the Olympics. And it definitely wouldn't be about a few gangs either. They're idiots, fighting amongst themselves over areas they are deluded enough to think they own. Despite the prevalence of gangs in London, there are not enough of them and they are too distracted to be any threat to social stability.

Originally posted by detachedindividual
reply to post by RebelWithoutASoul

 

We've seen it happen over and over again - there is a protest for some reason, and one act of stupidity on the side of the authorities ignites an immense feeling of injustice. That's the flashpoint.

At student protests we've seen the same thing. The last one to turn violent in London over the tuition fee hikes started when the Met began attacking the protesters and closing them in. That was the moment the injustice was felt and it became a battle between the students and the "pigs".

There is footage of the crowd, with mounted police charging into them. It goes without saying that when the authorities react like that it exacerbates the sentiment of injustice...

Now replace the kids with a load of inconvenienced Average Joes crammed into one place, perhaps many from the same community, and there you have a flashpoint. Most political demonstrations these days are about getting that kind of mass, usually with the aim of marching up and down a street and listening to a few speakers.

Originally posted by detachedindividual
reply to post by RebelWithoutASoul

 

Despite the prevalence of gangs in London, there are not enough of them and they are too distracted to be any threat to social stability.

edit on 30-6-2012 by detachedindividual because: (no reason given)

Valid points well put detachedindividual.

My concern arises not from sanctioned protests or disgruntled students, however (I'm still a student myself studying Psychology at Goldsmiths, albeit a mature one), but from the flash-fire effect that a single taser or bullet caused death or camera-phone recorded beating would cause in the locals should a gang or even an individual pick a fight with the security around the event. While there are few protests planned for the Games, and even fewer actual gang members in the immediate area (a point I am happy to concede to you), there is enough ill will towards the Games and the current government in general to cause such a 'flash-fire' riot in a very similar way to that caused by Mark Duggan last year. That spread almost virally through Blackberry Messenger, texts and Facebook in a manner that I think gave a bit of a 'wake up call' to authorities that were unprepared for such a social media lead explosion of unrest.

I am not anticipating that there will be a major incident, at the Olympics. I'd like to believe that Occupy in particular are smart enough not to try anything, given the level of security; but part of me knows better, unfortunately. The lure of a potential international audience is going to be far too attractive for many activists to resist.

I'm not anticipating an Al Qaeda false flag incident, however. I think it would be altogether too obvious, given the setting; and also given the level of security, it would stretch credibility to an extreme.

If there's a difficult situation at the Olympics at all, it will come primarily from Leftist activists or protesters, at least half of which will likely not be domestic in origin. I would also expect the resulting unrest to be relatively minor, mainly because the level of brutality of the police/military response would likely be extreme.

Occupy do not have the stomach for sustained, violent physical confrontation with police, and especially not with the military. Apart from anything else, they have been infected with an entirely non-discriminatory form of Gandhi's philosophy to a chronic degree, while at the same time not posessing one 1000th of the genuine spiritual fortitude that he had. They will put in an initially strong showing, perhaps, but once the police show up and become truly violent, the most they will do in response is chant, "Shame!" which the police do not care about in the slightest.

It was the police's willingness to use violence, which killed Occupy in large scale terms, with much more certainty than the closure of the camps. Given the effect that police brutality has had on Occupy's morale, and especially given the psychological profile of the average Occupier, (white, sheltered, corporate raised and owned, 15-30 year old radical Marxist civilians, for the most part) that was extremely predictable.

I do not, again, expect any incident relating to Islamic terrorism; but given the level of security, the only way they could overcome the risk to credibility with a false flag, would be to make the bodycount genuinely enormous; probably even larger than 9/11; and they are not at the point where they can get away with that.

While storing food is perhaps always advisable, I would not advise panic, or even extreme anxiety, as I am not expecting that there will be a large degree of cause for such. The Olympics will be as boring, as pretentious, and as much an orgy of meaningless, futile pageantry and anthropocentric human triumphalism as ever.

Originally posted by RebelWithoutASoul

Originally posted by detachedindividual
reply to post by RebelWithoutASoul

 

Despite the prevalence of gangs in London, there are not enough of them and they are too distracted to be any threat to social stability.

edit on 30-6-2012 by detachedindividual because: (no reason given)

Valid points well put detachedindividual.

My concern arises not from sanctioned protests or disgruntled students, however (I'm still a student myself studying Psychology at Goldsmiths, albeit a mature one), but from the flash-fire effect that a single taser or bullet caused death or camera-phone recorded beating would cause in the locals should a gang or even an individual pick a fight with the security around the event. While there are few protests planned for the Games, and even fewer actual gang members in the immediate area (a point I am happy to concede to you), there is enough ill will towards the Games and the current government in general to cause such a 'flash-fire' riot in a very similar way to that caused by Mark Duggan last year. That spread almost virally through Blackberry Messenger, texts and Facebook in a manner that I think gave a bit of a 'wake up call' to authorities that were unprepared for such a social media lead explosion of unrest.

I can certainly agree that there is always a risk of igniting civil unrest. I think we both understand how that happens and that one captured moment of madness can create a tidal wave of reaction.

But there still needs to be that catalyst and a big enough crowd to ignite any mass outpouring of anger. And I just don't see one on the horizon.

There will obviously be other things unfolding over the coming weeks with regard to the banking scandals here, and I think those will lead to protests. But as nothing is currently being planned I don't think we're any more likely to see it during the Olympics than at any other time of the year.

I think when it comes to the kids going on the rampage, a lot of the reporting since then has shown the consequences of their actions. There are hundreds of thousands of teens who have known someone who now can't get a job, served time or lost the respect of their families and communities after the riots. I don't think there are many kids out there now who would immediately jump into that again. It's too fresh in the memory and they now know that they have a good chance of being caught.

Part of me genuinely hopes there is a mass protest, because I think we need to shock the government, bankers and police out of their elitist positions. They are so detached from reality and protecting each other every step of the way, this country is finally feeling the "them and us" class divide where the wealthy lord it over the rest of society. One law for us, a completely different law for them...

This does need to end, but it will take something big, a mass movement, a real expression of anger and rage against the corrupt elites robbing us all.

I think we are on course for a class war, in the most raw sense. The government is not doing anything to show that they want reform, they're still pocketing cash, they're still protecting the banksters, and the people are enraged by it all.

I still don't see any reason to think any of this will happen during the Olympics though. But like I said, anything can happen. Perhaps the Met will shoot another person tomorrow and sh*t on the family again?

Good discussion

I think one of my biggest fears would be seeing more of this:

"The man doused himself in liquid and set himself alight. "Officers extinguished the fire and the man was taken to hospital with burns to his legs. The injuries are not life threatening and the man remains in hospital receiving treatment." The DWP has recently issued new guidelines to staff on how to deal with threats of self-harm and suicide from claimants as the squeeze on benefits takes hold.

Link

Hopelessness, despair need for attention to ones plight and addiction to drama can lead the unstable to do very drastic things.

The Olympics will bring much attention and I don't think things will get any better before then.

I am not totally pessimistic but I do see the potential for unrest all around.

Originally posted by detachedindividual
But there still needs to be that catalyst and a big enough crowd to ignite any mass outpouring of anger. And I just don't see one on the horizon.

There will obviously be other things unfolding over the coming weeks with regard to the banking scandals here, and I think those will lead to protests. But as nothing is currently being planned I don't think we're any more likely to see it during the Olympics than at any other time of the year.

Agreed. I also basically see the protest movement as having largely burned itself out at this point, as well. Whenever anyone tries it, the public ignores them, and they just get bashed by the cops. So there isn't really much of an incentive to keep trying.

One thing that interests me is armed police AND soldiers will be on guard. Now, what if the police get up to their usual abusive tricks, and the army don't like it? What if they stand up to the police?

Personally I hope the games pass without incident, and people just have fun. But there are people who will use the platform to peacefully raise awareness for whatever beliefs they have. Thats fine, we supposedly live in a free and open society (we don't, but thats another topic). But there are also the idiots who will use the platform to cause trouble, be it local thugs, police, politicians, corporate entities who can make a profit out of trouble, or whatever.