In all the outrage over "looting" ...

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

... haven't people lost sight of the fact that a father was gunned down without provocation by the police? That his identity as a minority may have played a role? A fucking foot locker's franchisee's property rights are now more important than human life.

Not to mention, the investigation thus far is looking worse for the police. It turns out that the bullet in the cop's radio was possibly a bullet from another officer, not from Mr Duggan. As of yet there is no evidence he ever fired the weapon that was on him. Just a thought ... no matter what you think of the rioting don't forget what sparked this.

http://cdn.everyjoe.com/files/2011/08/mark-duggan-tottenham-riots.jpg

[Obs]

What I don't get is why looting is even a problem for some leftists. There's some stuff just lying around. Someone demands I pay for it in labour, but has been temporarily stripped of their means to force me to do so. So why the fuck should I buy this stuff when I can just take it?

[CommunityBeliever]

My outrage is directed against the looting the imperialists commit daily against the third world not things like this.

[Nox]

It's a fucking joke that people criticise the looting but not the root cause of it.

[BostonCharlie]

What we're seeing here is the poisonous interaction of the centuries old white supremacist meme of 'hordes of big black savages waiting to loot kill and rape white women at the first opportunity if we don't keep our heels on their necks' and the desire of the corporate media to push the neoliberal assault on working people and the poor - more austerity, more police repression, more neoslavery in capitalist prisons for profit, &etc &etc.

This mix is working so well that even at liberal places like reddit, there is a flood of posts and comments focusing on the looting and petit-bourgeois moralizing on the same. Disgusting.

Times like these have me wondering if the Third Worldist Maoists are right that nearly all white people are hopeless racist reactionaries. But I know that's not a good materialist analysis of the situation. But it's a tempting angry response.

Fuck white supremacism and fuck liberals who should know better.

[Princess Luna]

What I don't get is why looting is even a problem for some leftists. There's some stuff just lying around. Someone demands I pay for it in labour, but has been temporarily stripped of their means to force me to do so. So why the fuck should I buy this stuff when I can just take it?
You could loot large chain stores dry and it wouldn't bother me one bit, but going after small family owned places is another story. There was a picture on Al-Jazeera of a 87 year old man's tiny barber-shop that was completely wrecked, he probabllily made just enough to live off of and any repairs will most likely come directly from his pocket (unless he has insurance but that's beside the point)

[rednordman]

Yes BostonCharlie put it perfectly. The amount of petit-bourgeois moralising is beginning to get sickening. People are already starting to blame different ethnicities or and simply blame all this on foreigners. I don't want to say this but British people quite clearly are stupid. I mean, I was talking to someone earlier in the day, and I literally ended the conversation by arguing that ' you cannot put all of the blame on foreigners' (they just didn't want to speak to me after saying that). Need I say any more?

[Le Socialiste]

I'm with you, Obs. I can't understand those who take a pro-"crackdown" stance against the looters and rioters. For one thing, private property is theft (something which all revolutionary leftists should be in agreement on), and the lack of understanding surrounding the socioeconomic and political reasons behind the initial stages of rioting on the part of some is surprising.

[Bronco]

Err I don't think the point of this thread is really being addressed here, it's not really to discuss the rights and wrongs of lootings more the fact that it's causing the cold blooded killing of a father of four to be forgotten about and brushed under the carpet.

Most people seem to still think that Duggan opened fire on the police and they were therefore merely acting in self defence. The whole thing sickens me to be honest, it's becoming more and more clear that this was a murder, on top of news that he didn't once fire at officers there are also reports that the gun was in a sock and not ready for use, and also that he was on the ground when he was shot.

I can bet what's going to happen, and it's sure to be another whitewash by the IPCC. We've already been treated to all the lies and misinformation, and he'd already been persecuted by the media for being a thug and a "gangster", what hope do his family have of ever receiving justice?

[Proukunin]

'Looting' is just a way for right wing news stations to blame these riots on supposed 'heathens' instead of blaming them on the political basis and root causes of why these people are 'looting' in the first place.

[BostonCharlie]

Bronco15, yes, it's very very important to stress the fact that Duggan was the victim of a police murder and maybe the emphasis is straying a little. But the focus of the bourgeois media on the looting aspect is, among other things, an attempt to take attention away from the state murder and to appeal to white supremacist attitudes that the murder was somehow justified or at least no big deal - 'have to keep those black savages down'. It seems to be working. So you are quite correct that people have to keep hammering on the police murder aspect of this.