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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Riots: Tony Parsons says ordinary people are coming together to say 'no more'


TWO hard and bitter lessons in these days of burning and looting – the police can’t protect you and one good person alone is powerless against the mob.

A white man with grey hair who ­remonstrated with a gang burning a bin was beaten within an inch of his life. His identity remains a mystery. The mob stole his wallet and his phone.

These days you can’t expect the emergency services to save your family from being burned alive or beaten to death.



So in this atmosphere of lawlessness, communities are coming together to stand up for themselves.

Family men are patrolling streets where they have had their fill of blood and broken glass to say: “No more.”

Turks in Dalston. Sikhs in Southall. White communities in Enfield and Eltham. They are standing up for ­themselves and their families because they no longer trust the police to do it.

Some say the English Defence League was active in Eltham. But whether this is true or not, surely white communities are allowed to protect themselves too?

CHILDREN

In these streets, where the police did not come and the firemen could not do their job, we have been taught that ­goodness will not conquer evil.

Look at these yobs the wrong way and they will kill you, take your wallet and toss your children’s photos into a bush.

They will torch your home or your business, and your wife and children will weep, and you will dial 999 and nobody will come to help.

So good luck to the street patrols. When the police are reeling, ­communities either come together or learn to cower behind closed doors.

Even Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, says that citizens can use ­reasonable force to fight back.

Suddenly our country feels far more tribal than it did last week.

The street patrols divide along racial and ethnic grounds, with people seeking the safety of their own.

But don’t blame these gangs, be they Turkish or white or Sikh.

Blame the witless morons who smashed and robbed and burned.

In the patrols, we see hope of a better day. These are not vigilantes – they are family men who are protecting their homes and loved ones.

There are real dangers in standing up against lawlessness, as we see from the tragic deaths in Birmingham. The good guys don’t always win.

We want to get back to where we were just a week ago, when we had faith in the police to protect us.

Sadly, I don’t know if we ever will.



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