I came round this morning and listened. (I say come round because I've not slept in 2 nights, there are simply too many sirens surrounding our North London home). The streets were silent..... no sirens. I lifted my head and winced: massive headache.
I dragged myself up and forced paracetemol down my throat then packed a bag full of water, snacks, bin bags, gloves and set off to join 100s of other Londoners on the Riotcleanup.
As I waited for hours with crowds cheering the emergency services and waving our brooms I was not condemning 'thugs'. When I was on my knees scraping up broken glass, I was not muttering 'mindless violence' to myself. I was almost certainly not thinking we should 'clamp down harder'.
No.
I was smiling at the residents who came out and cheered, I was high fiving the shop owner when we scrubbed the sticky alcohol off her shop floor and I was amazed at Londoners. I will not cry out for harsher policing. I do not want to see a 13 year old on the receiving end of a plastic bullet, even if they are tearing apart our beautiful city. Why?
7 comments:
Ah, I can't tell you how pleased I am to read this. I am so tired of people writing that we should be harder on these people "They need to be lined up and..." is being spammed onto my facebook page about this. Can't people first show compassion to help and support those people affected? I do not want to see someone my age being shot with a plastic bullet either, our capital is on it's knees I believe we should be pulling together not apart.
Ahem, sorry I was just really glad to see this. The people on the riot clean up give me hope. I hope you're safe and well
I love your city too. I'm so glad that so many people came out to show positivity after such a scary few days.
Here's hoping that it keeps getting better.
I hope the rest of the city mends quickly...it has always been my dream to visit your city...
I am very fond of London too as we lived there for almost a year 10 years ago. I have been keeping tabs on the going ons in recent days and in touch with friends there. It's very encouraging to hear such fantastic community spirits! Take care...
Hear hear!
Thank you for speaking for humanity in your city. We need more of the same in our world.
I was directed here from Knitsofacto, I also feel like you, unhappy people do not do such things. Unfortunatly 'mob mentality' takes over as well and so it grows. The gap between the haves and have nots is growing wider and people have had enough of not being able to even put food on the table let alone buy TV's etc.
x Sandi
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