I have to be honest, I hadn’t really understood the full extent of the riots until a few minutes ago. As I am living in France at the moment, it has barely featured on the news, and facebook statuses just led me to believe that it was a bad thing, but nothing that grave. However, when I saw that parliament had been recalled, I knew it must be serious, and after watching a 4 minutes video on the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14460554), I feel physically sick.
In recent months, our TV screens have been full of violence. However, it has been from countries such as Egypt, Syria, Lybia and more. Also, I believe riots is an understatement. When Kaiser Chiefs predicted a riot, I wonder if they predicted it to the extent that is happening? People are destroying their own communities. The shops that they use, the cars that their neighbours drive and the houses that people they know live in are all being set on fire. Rioting is one thing, but this goes way beyond, and it doesn’t look last night was the last night! But what is the reason?
Some people are claiming that technology is to blame. The fact that people can contact each other so easily using twitter is being cited as why these riots have happened. At best, it is merely a catalyst. It is right to say that these have helped the riots be set up, but it is very wrong to blame technology companies. The problem isn’t the fact that people have contacted each other to organise riots, but why they have done it! Also, we have to thank twitter as well.
The original reason was because of the Mark Duggan shooting which took place last Thursday. 300 people gathered outside Tottenham police station as a “protest”. This is a fair enough reason, and whether you believe justice was required or not for the shooting, people have a right to protest in a democrating, freedom of speech-allowing society. However, there are two important points to remember following this.
Firstly, in my opinion, there is rarely an excuse for 300 people to start a riot. There is a significant different between staging a protest, and setting buildings and cars on fire, however unfortunately some can’t see this difference!
Secondly, and much more importantly, the people who are causing the riots are of a low social class. I am not being pretentious, I am saying it as it is. I shall that most of the people are from a low social class, most likely, just for clarification, but it is a serious problem. Also, these people obviously don’t have much better to do.
I shall try to put into perspective, so my opinion doesn’t seem as obnoxious as it came across. Some people have more to lose than others, which is why crime tends to come from the lower classes (by this I mean violent and public crime, as opposed to tax evasion etc…). Crime is very closely linked to social class, and it is normally noted in most countries that when a society (despite what Thatcher says, there is a such thing as society!) is doing well economically, crime figures tend to improve. For example, a middle-class person may be outraged that Mark Duggan was shot, but does he really want to lose his kids, his wife (sorry for painting such a perfect, wife and husband, 2.2 children family, but it is just an example!) and his high-paying job, just to go and start a fire and nick a Wii? However, a low-class person with nothing to lose has a lot less to think about that the first person we talked about, so is more able to risk what they have in order to fight against injustice!
I know I am presenting the facts in a very bland, perhaps even controversial way. The two people I talk about don’t actually exist, they are merely examples that try to aggregate real people. I am also not blaming the rioters for rioting (although I am not condoning/excusing it, I am merely not giving much of an opinion), I am blaming the system. How can we live in a society that lets this happen? How can there be parents out there who let, or at least don’t know that, their kids are setting fire to the buildings in the community? And finally, how can we carry on like this? People feel hard done to, and it is up to the government to sort it out. I am very glad to see parliament has been recalled, and I hope a solution can be found.
The riots may be short-term (I hope), but the broken society which David Cameron wanted to fix has really shown its cracks these last few days. Yes we need more police streets on the street now, but do we need more on the streets all the time? Yes these youths need to be doing something else, but once again the government is there to sort out problems like this. And yes, there is a lot of material damage, but the emotional scars for the people of Britain and the country itself lie much deeper…something needs to be done. If we really are all in this together (not the riots, I hope!), then this needs to be proved as soon as possible.
PS In the meantime, keep calm and drink tea
#OperationCupOfTea
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