London Riots

This is all conjecture and is just my thoughts on the current situation; for a live update, head here.

I'm sure that any of you reading this already know what sparked the riots that began on Saturday the 6th. For anyone that doesn't, it was the killing of Mark Duggan, a father of four from Tottenham, in unclear circumstances during a police operation. What started as a peaceful protest by family and friends was subsequently hijacked by people who just wanted to watch things burn; 'anarchists' brandishing eloquent, well thought out sentiments such as "F**K DA POLICE" and "This is what the government deserves!!"

Incredible.



London hasn't been in a state of chaos like this since the 7/7 Bombings six years ago; it may be tasteless to say it, but at the very least the 'enemy' in that instance was outside of ourselves - many of the culprits may have been British residents, but after the fact it was evident that they were extremists, they were murderers, and therefore easily branded as terrorists. Amid the death and the pain and the confusion, we had something to unite against. It was an 'us' and 'them' situation, something that is psychologically satisfying. It's a negligible comfort, but it's still there.

In the case of the riots, it's not so easy to find the villain. My gut reaction is to spew vitriol and contempt all over people my own age or slightly younger - 'chavs' - that do absolutely nothing to quash their own stereotype about being helplessly ignorant, illiterate, stupid, and malicious. It's far too easy to hate an archetype based on some dickhead you knew at school that bullied you or your friends and never shut up in class. I watch videos on youtube of people laughing as they strip a place of its stock and someone's livelihood, and I feel as though I personally despise every single one of them.

I want to dehumanise them to get the whole thing closer to that coveted 'us' and 'them' situation. It's comforting. I've seen many people on social media websites describe these looters as animalistic: it certainly seems that way, to destroy your own community and bite the hand that feeds you. Tottenham, for example, is an impoverished area that relies heavily on income support. By going around and burning local businesses to the ground - businesses that could have given them jobs - they have effectively destroyed any empathy that people may have had for them. Soiling your own doorstep like that for the sake of a new TV shows that they don't deserve any help - I'm sure for every "rioter" (a word to be used loosely, seeing as the motivation now - especially in places such as Birmingham and Liverpool, where I doubt the sincerity of their upset over Duggan's death - is sheer greed) there is a neighbour, living in the same conditions as them, who has chosen not to go out and join the mob.

To say that someone is just a product of their environment is to disrespect everyone else in the same situation that does not turn to criminality. It excuses people for their actions; it leaves them blameless, and I'm sick of it. It removes their culpability to say that they can't help acting that way because society has failed them, just as it does to simply brand them as animals. They are all human beings capable of rational thought. I refuse to believe that half of the people out there don't know right from wrong, and that their rationalisation has amounted to "let's steal, because I have nothing to lose." They all need to be held accountable for their actions, and be harshly punished.

To set fire to a shop where you know full well people are living above it shows a stunning lack of empathy. I asked such a person how would they feel if it was their mother up there burning alive, and I was met with: "But she isn't."

I'll leave you with the twatterings of somebody who I hope gets what they deserve. A massive fine? 300 hours of community service? Who knows. Maybe they can help pick the broken glass off the floor of the charity shop.