It would undoubtedly be far too cynical to suggest that the London riots came at just the right time for the Metropolitan Police.
In the wake of the phone hacking scandal – and its subsidiary, rather more important corollary, the "exposure of massive corruption in public authorities" scandal – the Met's reputation was not so much in the toilet as round the U-bend, through the pipes and gently pullulating in a big circular tank somewhere in the countryside.
And yet, just a couple of weeks later, the country is united behind it, thanks to the capital's very own tracksuit-clad lumpenproletariat. There's nothing like a threat to property to remind you who your friends are, eh?
Still, at least the London rioters had some vague notion of a pretext (the shooting of Mark Duggan by Met officers).
Their provincial brethren haven't even bothered, unless you are still accepting "errr...the cuts?" as a remotely valid or remotely sincere excuse for any and every kind of nihilistic stupidity.
You know how I plan on showing my opposition to the closure of local libraries? By stealing luxury luggage from Louis Vuitton and burning a bus. You know why I pooed in my pants, rubbed it on my face and threw what was left at a passer-by? The cuts. Oh, and no one listens to me.
Pleasingly, not even the Guardian seems to maintain that what's been going on for the last few nights is in any sense a "protest" – although there are plenty still plugging away with "root causes" explanations out there. Oh, it's all because the poor dears get stop-and-searched a bit. Boo hoo. It's all because that nasty posh man wants to take away their table tennis club. My heart bleeds. I prefer this explanation.
Bradford has been remarkably quiet throughout the current events so far – probably for reasons implied in the photo above. After all, where's the profit in looting a pound shop?
Well, dear Rog, I do not think that there are any "simplistic" explanations... I think that the underpinning message should be that there are plenty of people who had the same backgrounds as the "rioters" and they did not feel the need to pursue a lawless course. What happened is pure criminality and was done by people who are arseholes... and we leave it there that rather agrees with your analysis.
ReplyDeleteProblem we have, as humans, is that we are always going to ask "why?". This has been a trait that has pushed us forward, as a race, but it does not really wash in this context. 24 hour rolling news always seem to dig up complete eejits whose post-apocolyptic analysis happens to strongly agree with their pre-apocolyptic interests, which are very narrow, apologetic and sound ridiculous... however...
... although criminality can never be excused and although we cannot say that if these kids were hugged more, if they had had more investment, if their "connexions" centres were not cut, if they were given extra lessons at school or if they could access jobs more easily, then these people would not have rioted... there is an arc in the inner city which results in (mainly) males kind of ending up in poverty, with a lack of things to do a lack of education, incomplete sense of morality and a tendancy toward crime.
I do not want to hug a hoody or excuse criminals but looking forward I would appreciate if we thought about what we could do for the next generation so that the numbers of these idiots are not swelled.
I should state here that I live in Hackney. I did not riot. I have been a drug addict and homeless, beyond drug use I have not done any other type of criminality and I am not "street", indeed I do not know so much about you but I am guessing that I have had a similar (good parenting, alright schooling, university) background and if I can fall then anyone can.
I would say, as well, that it is very easy to come from a certain background and to judge those from a different and entirely unknown background. Again it does not excuse the riots but if you have no reason to suppose that things could be better for you as an individual then it is rather easy, in a moment of madness, to think "fuck it...". I can empathise with that simply because I have been down low and I may well have, on a different day in a different time, joined them.
Just about all of my neighbourhood woke up a wee little bit more right-wing than before the whole affair.
ReplyDeleteAy, Existential Doubt, if you are a left-wing liberal it is a wearying thing to witness... But then, often, extreme actions do polarize people to the extreme postures. That in itself can be as much a force for good as bad. For instance I do not imagine that the right wing in Norway has been strengthened by the recent events there...
ReplyDeleteThere were so many stupid views and dramatic posturing during and after the riots. Bringing in the Army was the most ridiculous suggestion I have heard (worthy of the Duke of Wellington), as was the idea of shooting them.
Thing is that people want a lovely little simplistic package to explain and resolve these tensions... oh, it is the parents, it is Twitter, it is education, it is jobs... etc. We need to imprison all rioters for 5 years, evict them from their homes and cut their benefits... we should bring back corporal punishment, etc.
But I am afraid that none of these explanations as satisfactory in themselves and I cannot see the "right-wing" solutions actually doing anything more than inflaming tensions and adding more fuel to the fire... of course that is just my personal opinion.