A Night of Shame.

I love London.
It's my home and it's the greatest city in the world for history and beauty.
Unfortunately, I share my city with some creatures who have been behaving no better than feral animals.

This was no protest.
It was pure and simply an opportunity to steal trainers, computers, televisions and prestige clothing under the cover of being part of a group so large, you cease to be an individual.

Whatever had happened earlier at Tottenham ,(and then copied at Enfield), was nothing to do with this.
This was just greed allied with opportunity.

Last night I came home past the Stone Lake retail park, within 200 metres of the Valley as the crow flies.

At around 11pm there were hundreds of people running in the road, carrying their goods from PC World, Halfords and Currys.

What shocked me more were the 40 or so cars, parked up in the bus lane and on the roundabout, waiting for their mates to come back with their heavy goods.
This wasn't locals.
It was people who had driven there with the express intention of thieving.

People standing around the cars were grown up, older people, possibly parents or big brothers who were there to help their younger more foolish family members.

I had a group bang on the roof of the car and just as I was thinking about flooring my accelerator, they ran off.

Last night pictures coming from twitter were quite dramatic, like this one of nearby Woolwich.

I lay in bed, listening to the wailing sirens, the cars screaming up and down the road, people shouting and the police helicopter that seemed to be hovering above my home.

The powerful search beam swung about, coming into my window as it moved around.

This would have all been bad enough if it had just been going on in SE7.

Unfortunately the police resources were stretched to a ridiculous state of affairs.

I was able to track online the other places where there were flashpoints in London, (at this point the problems at Stone Lake and the Shopping centre at the end of my road hadn't registered.)

This morning I went for a walk around the neighbourhood.

Nothing dramatic now.

Just people clearing up after a night of chaos.

Next, Maplins, JD Sports, Carphone Warehouse, Argos and Staples had taken hits but Pound Land was open for business!

Our game is off tonight against Reading and also the England game tomorrow.

Football seems very secondary right now.

My thoughts are with the Police, Ambulance and Fire services at the moment, along with anybody who has lost their home, business, employment or possessions due to the actions of people who I'm ashamed to share a city with.

I went for a coffee on the way home and heard a young mum explaining to her boy, (around 5 years of age), that if you want something you need to work hard to pay for it, not just take it.

I could have hugged her.

 I did see some hugs when a fire crew stopped and some sooty looking heroes got out to stretch their legs.

Another young mum went over to thank them and she gave them all a hug to express her gratitude.

Our city has plenty of people who want to do the right thing.

Let's try and remember that in these dark days.