Thanks for the positive thoughts, everyone. Still safe, and so are my nearest and dearest.

As Chris said, the copycat violence has been ongoing, sadly. Yes, London was better last night, after 16,000 police officers were drafted in to patrol the streets. There were isolated incidents but no where near on the scale of previous nights.

Last night, Manchester and Salford were attacked, which was a little close to home. The Arndale shopping centre saw violence, which made me wonder how so many more people weren't injured, being in a contained area. The Arndale, and Deepdale and Piccadilly Gardens areas of Manchester are particularly popular in the school holidays with groups of young teenagers out for the day with their friends. I know, since I used to do just the same! I would have been pretty scared at, say, 13, to end up caught up in a riot.

Gloucester and Leicester also saw incidents - never thought of Gloucester as a bad area before...

It seems the whole country is watching in disbelief and disgust as this violence continues. I think there's going to be a lot of anger when all this blows over. And a lot of backtracking to do for Big Dave (concerning his 'let's cut the police forces' idea).

Quote Originally Posted by blue View Post
Wasnt the "victim" of the police shooting killed for shooting at the police?
Supposedly so. The news is so wrapped up in the riots, the information coming through about Mark Duggan can seem a little confusing. The last I heard, he supposedly exchanged fire with the police from a minicab, and was shot in the chest and killed. An inquest is ongoing as to whether he did actually fire the gun. The gun has an empty cartridge, but a bullet lodged in a police radio is not consistant with the type of firearm, and is probably from a police issued gun.

There's clearly been some sort of balls-up, but no excuse for the violence seen, 'justified' as a middle finger to the police and its treatment of black people (what??)

Quote Originally Posted by Karen
I did hear that some young Londoners were banding together to clean up after the riots, which is nice.
Ah, I'd be down there like a shot if I could get it organised round my veterinary placements. I was talking with a university friend earlier, and we agreed that when Camden in particular was attacked, it felt like a personal insult. It'd be great to band together with the people of London to show these thugs that they can't break our communities. It might also give the students back a bit of kudos after the protests of November 2010, the damage of which I saw first hand.

Once again, thanks for the continued well wishes, both here and through PMs. I will of course keep everyone updated - although hopefully the situation is coming under some degree of control by now.