0 London Calling - The 2011 Riots

Locations of some of the violence in the London environs, August 2011. 

OK, after my very extremely civilized time in London a couple of weeks ago, all hell has broken out, and I really don’t know what to make of it all.  I have e-mailed my friend in London, Natalia, who lives in Brixton and works in the City, mainly to find out if she is OK, and get her take on what is going on.  Her response was not reassuring, including an anecdote about a youth’s threatening behavior towards passengers on the train she was on, and her packing up what we in NYC after 9/11 called a “go-bag.”  Not cool. And as usual, the media in this country are not telling us any useful information.  

August 8, 2011

August 9, 2011

Here is a Google map of Day 2 of the riots. 

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=212059469427545728757.0004a9f106d4a554a3cfb&msa=0

and August 6-9, 2011

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=207192798388318292131.0004aa01af6748773e8f7&msa=0&ll=51.558503,-0.055275&spn=0.114195,0.298691

The Guardian is keeping an updated Google map in their "Data Blog - Facts are Sacred" page at  http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/aug/09/uk-riots-incident-map

Here is a blog about what’s going on in Birmingham, too, including videos.  http://birminghamriots2011.tumblr.com/

Oh, and this just in, an interesting essay appeared yesterday in the blog New Geography at http://www.newgeography.com/content/002376-britain-needs-a-better-way-get-rich-than-looting?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Newgeography+%28Newgeography.com+-+Economic%2C+demographic%2C+and+political+commentary+about+places%29

Britain Needs a Better Way to Get Rich Than Looting