London’s Burning: Sparks ignite nationwide opportunist criminality
Posted on 15/08/2011 by Alwyn Wilson
Last week parts of Tottenham erupted in to flames and opportunist theft in what was the beginning of several days for nationwide looting, arson, GBH and other violence. Political motivation was lacking, and many took it upon themselves to get new shoes, DVD players, TV's etc. While those fearing their family's safety looked to Amazon for baseball bats to defend themselves, their family and their property.
The media bandwagon quickly jumped to cover the outbreak of violence. Concerned citizens as well as those wishing to take part took to Twitter to find out what was going on and where the next looting spree would be. As police failed to trend Tweets or follow other means of communication sufficiently, speculation and rumours mounted that the cause of the riots was the death of Mark Duggan, whilst other, less-than-intelligent girls claimed that it was the Conservatives fault and that they were showing the police and the rich that they can do what they want. Various other media sources were speculating on the causes of the riots, mostly boiling down to state dependence, family life and/or parenting, culture and weak policing to name but a few.
Of course, it doesn't help that we constantly remind people of our human rights. Those same human rights that helped stop strong-handed policing, and arguably parenting. The human rights that are so engrained into our society, that we use them as a weapon to try and get our own way, and cover up our moral stupidities. Yet, in being so quick to invoke our human rights, we're equally quick to overlook and even deny our responsibilities as parents or as members of society. There are people who demand respect without doing anything deserving of it, others who are state dependant are angry that foreign workers come to the UK taking up employment opportunities, yet are unwilling or unable to do the jobs they do, or work the hours they work for minimum wage. And then we wonder why with such fundamental flaws in our society that our MP's cannot govern us properly.
Lucas McCain commented on the BBC that “I think another reason that is overlooked is the decline in religious faith in England. Only 15% attend church at least once a month”. I'm not sure if he's working on the assumption that Atheism is to blame, or maybe the comment is made in reference to several Gallup Poll studies which suggest that the higher a person's IQ, the less likely they are to believe in God. Therefore it's possible he's suggesting that when low-IQ people don't believe in God or go to church, they're more likely to burn out cars and steal a TV. If that's the case, then we should definitely start having IQ tests and mandatory church attendance for those who fall below a certain threshold, maybe 125 or 130? But then again, I feel this argument overlooks many wars throughout history which have seen many people die in the name of their religion.
Dreda Say Mitchell also noted when appearing on the BBC, that one cause could be down to the way that we as a society determine success by a financial or material measure. Therefore young or underprivileged people felt they had to go and steal their success? This isn't wildly inaccurate given that broadcasters and celebrities glorify their standing in material worth. However, it must be argued that it is quite irksome to believe that all young people are brain dead automatons who believe, unquestioningly, whatever they're told. It also begs the question, what the fuck are their parents teaching them? You cannot leave it up to the state to raise your child and teach them morals. That is your job as a parent. And in the immediate aftermath of the violence and looting, we have seen parents admitting that they didn't know their son or daughter was out taking part in the chaos. This is an example of the kind of ignorant parenting that failed to discipline their child when they were ill-behaved. The kind of parenting that condones mischievous behaviour through ignorance or neglect.
Regardless of speculative cause, whilst the riots in Tottenham may have begun initially due to years of poverty, discrimination and more, I do feel David Cameron managed to define what the riots were about quite simply when he described them as opportunist criminality. A minority, some rich and some poor, got together and burnt out cars, homes and shops, and stole from corporations as well as local, hardworking business people. Some people assaulted others, and sadly some people died. But even staring at the grim, dark-side of Britain, there were voices of reason and actions of true, honourable men and women which make you proud to be a British citizen. A photo of a couple bringing the police cups of tea, community members organising themselves to clean up our streets, board up shops and help the police. Large donations of food, clothes, prams, toys and more to those who had lost everything were truly inspiring. And even in the wake of the violence and looting, we have seen non-cowardly parents taking responsibility and turning in their children in to police to be punished. During the days which began to make Britain look like nothing more than a fractured society desperately trying to hold on to its glorious Empire history, there are members of our society which proved otherwise. They proved that we still care and we won’t let criminals, no matter how old (or young), ruin it for the rest of us.
353 comments
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Posted by Alwyn Wilson | Permalink
Indeed. One of my gripes with the whole situation revolved around Theresa May ruling out more versatile tactics for dispersing crowds, such as the water cannon, only for the PM to come back and meet with cobra, ultimately allowing the use of it. Obviously serious discussions are to be had so all decisions are made before hand in the future.
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What annoys me about the aftermath of the riots is how politicians (who were off on their hol’s for like half the riots) are trying to claim it was there intervention that quelled the riots and blaming the police for not doing it sooner.