Riot footage shows shots fired at police and helicopter

[oldironside]

New CCTV footage of the riots in Birmingham shows police officers and a force helicopter being shot at.

The footage, which has been released by West Midlands police to encourage members of the public to come forward, shows a group of 30 to 40 young men rioting in the Newtown area of the city on the night of Tuesday 9 August.

The force said the group, all masked and wearing black clothing, caused extensive damage to the Barton Arms pub in Newtown and the surrounding area.

Police arrived at the scene at about 11.50pm, whereupon petrol bombs were thrown at a marked police car and 11 shots were fired at officers and a force helicopter.

An attempted murder and arson investigation has been launched and officers have appealed for anyone with information about the attacks to contact them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/20/riot-footage-shots-fired-police

I look forward to the next posts about "frustrated protesters" and their "legitimate grievances". Looked more like a bad night in downtown LA than Brum to me.

[non sociopath skin]

1. Sorry, which previous postings were your quotes referring to?

I must have missed them.

The Skin

[oldironside]

2. Not on the UK part of our beloved DU.

In the other place.

[non sociopath skin]

3. OK. I tend to read the UK stuff here and the US stuff on the other boards.

Just wondered why you'd posted it here.

The Skin

[oldironside]

4. I avoid posting UK related stuff in the general discussion.

You get a better class of row here. :evilgrin:

[dipsydoodle]

7. Rows with them over there

are frequently due to their lack of understanding accompanied by apparent reluctance to search for information to see differences between here and the US.

Last one was due to them not understanding that our laws are Acts of Parliament whereas Magistrates guidelines are just that - guidelines which have sfa to do with laws.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

8. Indeed

My first inkling of their lacking in understanding came in 2005 when many a DUer predicted that the Lib Dems were going to sweep into power. After the election results were announced, calls of "stolen election" soon followed.

"Why didn't any one challenge Blair in the Labor (sic) primaries?" they asked.

[oldironside]

9. I'll stick my neck out and say...

... that the average British poster here knows more about the US system than vice versa. However, I wouldn't really expect them to have an in depth knowledge of ours. For example, most of my knowledge of the Australian voting system comes from the film Don's Party.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074422/

As you point out, however, it would be nice if they did a bit of background reading before jumping in with ill-informed opinions.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Yes.

Some non-UK posters seemed to think that the riots were akin to the protests in Syria and/or that the victims were rich yuppies who got what they deserved and 'karma is a bitch'. At the other end of the scale were those who took the Daily Mail attitude hook, line and sinker.

Oh well, I suppose the British have lots of misconceptions about the USA.

[LeftishBrit]

6. Nasty.

I hope they concentrate on catching these people, and punish them severely. At the moment, there seems to be a tendency to regard all people linked to the riots as the same, and therefore someone who received some chewing-gum stolen by their brother-in-law's cousin is exactly the same as a petrol-bomber (I'm exaggerating, of course but the attitude exists and is affecting sentencing badly).