London Riots

The London riots are like nothing I have ever seen before – a city, my former home and our nation’s capital has been catapulted into the dark ages - ugly, scary & a sad indictment of how damaged our society has become.

I have read about people blaming social inclusion (or rather the lack there of), the disaffected youth lashing out against an unjust and elitist hierarchy, government cuts, lack of police - the list goes on. My view is much more straight forward, it’s a case of morons who want stuff and by god they want it now – its simple criminality, greed and a desire to prove your worth by material possession, regardless of how those possessions are obtained – it’s all about what you have got, not how you got it and that’s a very sad truth of these so called ‘modern’ times – people think happiness is intrinsic to wealth and material possession, they would much rather cry in a Ferrari than laugh on a bike.

A sad situation indeed.

The shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29 year old father of four who was fatally wounded during an attempted arrest in Ferry Lane, Tottenham last Thursday, is said to be the catalyst of this tragic scenario - no matter what this man has or has not done, if the bullets found were from police weapons, or Mr Duggan himself fired the shots – the fact is a young man has died and 4 innocent children are now without their father. The local community from which Mark Duggan hails, has every right to protest, to complain about the situation and the way they are dealt with by the police – you could even argue that the unrest that followed that day was understandable if not (and certainly it is not) acceptable.

It is this so called ‘unrest’ (or mindless crime, as of course it is) that has shown us all a window into the very worst parts of our society – for the family and friends of Mark Duggan (and indeed the man himself), the unbelievable situation that has followed his shooting, has a further connotation – this protest and its message is now totally lost – rather than focusing on the problems of gun crime and the devastation it creates, using protest to help communities come together and resolve their differences with the authorities, we simply look at kids from inner city areas and assume they are obsessed with being bad boys, packing heat and shooting up the police - looking and acting like extras from GTA San Andreas.

Community leaders can identify problems and how these kids feel like they are not part of the bigger picture, the big society as David Cameron would put it, however engaging in organised looting, using the death of a fellow man and the hurt it has caused as an excuse to go stealing ipads, 50” TV’s and PlayStations leaves this argument totally invalid (as mentioned in a previous tweet – waterstones left unscathed – says a lot)

Speaking of David Cameron, as he tries to sell us the idea of a big society, this situation has identified very profoundly that we are a million miles from that goal – we need any kind of society, a foundation to work from so we don’t have masses of kids feeling they have so little hope or opportunity, they might as well go on organised looting missions, attack businesses, fire fighters, innocent bystanders and the police, just to steal some mid-range electronics.

However, deliberating on how we have arrived at such a ludicrous place needs to be put aside for now, firstly the police must take control of the streets and restore order – many reports point them [the police] simply giving up and surrendering the streets to the gangs and looters – what message does that send out? "Hey guys, help yourselves, were not going to do anything, as we have absolutely no idea how to deal with this” that’s what message it sends out – oh yes and making decent people live in fear, have to go and bulk buy milk for their children as all the shops are either burnt out or to scared to open – this cannot be allowed to continue - give us our town back, we pay for it, we work all the hours god sends to help make it a nice place to be, to support business & keep it in good shape for the next generation to carry on where we eventually leave off, Government, Police, Army, whoever - just get is sorted and soon. This is the plea of your employers, the public.

Finally, I hope the media focus more on the clean-up operation, which has had nowhere near enough coverage - how people are getting together to repair the mess caused to homes, hearts & minds by the riots (#riotcleanup currently trending worldwide) and how the force of social media isn’t dreadfully evil (as reported for ‘helping’ organise these riots) nor is it a wonderful force of good (as with the Arab spring) it is benign, the only thing that gives it a personality, a theory or infact a trend are the users themselves and it was great to see the likes of @riotcleanup for bringing the community back together, let’s just hope the authorities can figure out a fast and effective way to do the same.