Stand-off between rioters and police in Croydon

THE ROUND UP

I came across a British mini-series entitled The_State_Within (2006)

The main character is the British Ambassador to the United States. (Played by Jason Isaacs)

There is a terrorist attack on U.S. Soil involving a British Muslim terrorist.

The Secretary of Defense (played by Sharon Gless of Cagney and Lacy fame—who really scares the shite out of me, I mean what fine actress) is pulling out all stops and the Ambassador's job is to keep British/American relations intact and do something for the rights of British Citizens; Muslim or not!

Meanwhile the Governor of Virginia with the tacit (?) approval of the Secretary of Defense and the President just goes ahead under the Patriot Act and rounds up all British Muslims in Virginia! It turns out that there are 3,000 British Muslims in the State of Virginia. There are students and visiting teachers/professors and tourists and whatnots.

And the Governor just rounds them up. And the Ambassador is so pissed he actually shows up at the round-up center to give them some hope; some consolation.

The show is a seven hour (52 minutes to an hour) marathon with many, many side plots and such.

Now British television can be kind of dark. It is extremely alluring to me. I include British/Canadian because of the many partnerships formed in the entertainment industry by companies in both nations.

Actors like Helen Mirren and John Thaw and Nicholas Campbell and David Jason and host of others provide depth that I do not see in American Television very often.

The importance of The State Within series lies in its perspective.

When a foreign national is arrested in the US or stopped for questioning, we are supposed to alert the embassy of the country from which the foreign national came. That is why the British Embassy would be notified of the goings on in Virginia.

For THE British Ambassador to show up in the midst of this bedlam is intriguing.

To see ourselves as others see us....

CURRENT RIOTS

England is in a mess right now. There are riots involving these very same British Muslims as well as other minorities who came to England for a new life; just like here. And they find themselves on the street or in tiny apartments working for minimum wages. (This is a fine article at Huffpo/UK discussing the London and Paris riots http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/08/12/paris-2005-riots_n_925338.html)

Here is a line from a racist blogger concerning all of this:

Call a spade a spade already. The minority immigrant community in London is mad that England is trying to crack down on crime in the minority mostly Muslim and African Community. They are mad these communities are being targetted by police, even these areas are HOTBEDS for crime, drug abuse, terrorist and antiBritish activity! They should be targetted.

The spark of this RACE ROIT started because a violent, gun carrying drug dealer, with a history of violence got stopped by the police and he fired upon them, the police returned fired and killed the thug.

So the Black and Muslim community start to riot!!! Good move to prove the British polic should not target you, when you destroy your communities and "indiscriminately" attack White people! (sic)

I am apologizing for no one. You blow up a shop or a car or whatever and I hope you receive swift and harsh justice.

And this sort of scenario plays out here and guys like beckerhead and rush and FOX wish to throw nitro on the fire and beckerhead goes so far as to proselytize that Obama will personally call all his 'brothers' to action and burn the country down if he is not reelected! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/glenn-beck-bachmann-obama-take-down_n_924845.html

http://mediamatters.org/research/201108100020

What is a mother to do?

I just finished viewing Louie CK in between episodes of The State Within.

He comes across an old pal of his who started with him in basement comedy. He takes some time to hear his old pal's story and comes to find out that his friend is about to commit suicide.

Eventually after admonishing his old friend not to go through with it after spending hours with him; Louie has to say good day because he must get home and care for his two daughters in the morning.

Again, what is a mother to do? Am I my brother's keeper and all of that.

At least Louie took more than a few hours attempting to help his friend but had to forgo this attempt because he had other responsibilities.

The right wing in this country does not wish to even do the minimal to help tens of millions of people in this country who face poverty, violence and despair every single day.

I think I forget sometimes how difficult certain high positions are to fulfill properly.

The amount of angst (kind of a metrosexual term) involved in being the British Ambassador to the U.S. or vice versa must be incredible.

We have 'incidents' here. No real full blown riots so to speak throughout this new century in this nation. Although gangland warfare kills 10,000 people a year—many quite innocent and in the line of fire.

Gang violence is a problem in every major city in the United States and membership is on the rise. According to the Department of Justice's 2005 National Gang Threat Assessment, there are at least 21,500 gangs and more than 731,000 active gang members. While gangs are less prevalent in rural areas, in major cities, gang violence is responsible­ for roughly half of all ­­homicides. ­ Gangs are also becoming more savvy, using computers and other technology to commit crimes [ref http://people.howstuffworks.com/street-gang.htm

From a minority perspective the numbers are astounding. In 2006 alone, there were 7425 Black homicides.

That represented 20.27 deaths per 100,000 compared to a 3.7 deaths per 100,000 for white folks. http://www.vpc.org/studies/blackhomicide09.pdf

In America we appear to 'spread out' our homicides; our 'riots'.

Unless one counts the aftermath of Katrina as a 'riot'. Is it looting when you are left low and wet; when the storekeeper has taken off for higher ground; when your child is hungry and thirsty? I dunno. Chaos is chaos I suppose.

But we have homeless folks, we have people working two part time minimum wage jobs, we have millions losing their homes, we have millions not only losing their jobs but their unemployment benefits too; we have a lot of 'angst' in many of our cities. Things could blow up any moment without any 'foreign influence' and the right wing radio/tv clowns could do much to foment that anger out there.

With open racism abundant on all of our 'media' outlets, riots could start just like in London or Paris or Cairo with one igniter such as a shooting by a lone police officer or a unabomber.

We have 310 million residents/citizens (maybe 330 million) and a couple million folks could do a lot of damage! That is a Dick Cheney perspective for sure.

See the One Percent Doctrine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_Percent_Doctrine

There is hate out there.

If I go into a rage every single time I hear Palin's voice or Bachmann's vocalizations or McConnell's snide remarks or....

Think about those folks who have no superego; those people who have no social restraints or constraints.

We must look at what is taking place in other environments; in other nations; in other urban centers across the globe.

We may wish to cheer when Egyptians gather en mass to take down a dictator. You can replace Egyptian with Syrian or Iranian or whatever.

You cannot please all of the people all of the time.

I do know this.

FOX and beckerhead and Limbaugh and a host of others across this nation are fomenting revolution or riots and they do not care.

If a riot occurs these fascists will blame the left and the sources of discontent will be meaningless.

With the Patriot Act and with the new Homeland Security and with the fear and trepidation felt throughout our country; 'martial law' is imminent.

Whether this police state is officially recognized this year or the next; we should be prepared to see it first hand within the next five years.

There is no escape.

Flower did send me this link discussing 8 reasons why me might not have riots in this country:

http://www.alternet.org/vision/151850/8_reasons_young_americans_don%27t_fight_back:_how_the_us_crushed_youth_resistance/?page=entire#disqus_thread