The riots that occurred throughout London and other cities in the UK following the fatal shooting of Mark Duggen by police seem certain to leave a heavy scar in the British psyche which will continue to smart long after the mess is cleaned up and the damage repaired. Indeed, the scenes witnessed had that palpable air of a watershed moment for British society. What the real legacy of the riots becomes is yet to be decided and how we react and move forward as a society will determine what that will be. Either we let it turn the cracks of divide along generational, racial and economic lines into chasms, or we take the riots as a sign of some endemic problems in our society and come together as a community to address them via dialogue, compromise and greater understanding.
Let me start by saying this: I sincerely feel for anyone who was attacked or intimidated, who lost their homes, livelihoods and in some cases loved ones as a result of the riots. I cannot even begin to understand the pain of what some of you are going through. I won’t however, be shedding a tear for the banks or big businesses who had property damaged; they are insured up to the hilt anyway and I sincerely doubt this will adversely affect them. More than any shop windows, or stolen goods it’s our communities that have been really damaged and for that there can be no excuse. Ultimately, because they have free will, each individual who was involved in the riots is personally ‘responsible for the predictable consequences of their own actions’ and I believe the majority were misguided and their anger misdirected. But these actions do not take place in a bubble, detached from society, so it seems only right for us to examine the cultural, political and economic conditions which made so many British people feel so incensed or at least inclined to go on such a destructive rampage. These conditions are the responsibility of every one of us.
What follows is some of what I believe to be the general contributing factors. It is worth noting that these factors cannot account for every individual involved, perhaps some of the rioters and looters were not affected by any of these issues, perhaps it was case of getting ‘caught up in the moment’ or of sheer opportunism for some, but I would imagine they would be in a VERY small minority.
No respect for authority
It seems fairly obvious that most people involved in the rioting and looting had diminished respect for at least some forms of authority. But can we really blame them? David Cameron et al have spoken of a breakdown in the moral fabric of certain sections of society. I would agree wholeheartedly, but it is the bastions of authority in this country as much as any who have shown themselves to be anything but ‘moral’ or ‘decent’; setting a precedent for the rest of society which is supposed to respect them. For some, the shooting of Mark Duggen was viewed in the context of a string of deaths at the hands of police with zero accountability; there have been more than 333 deaths in police custody since 1988 but not a single conviction. This has eroded an already strained relationship between police and certain communities. The Met’s involvement in the hacking scandal has done little to ameliorate its reputation.
Of course, certain sections of the media- another bastion of authority in our society- had their morally bankrupt underbelly laid bare for all to see in the said scandal. Politicians if anyone are surely meant to set an example to the general public; what kind of message did they send out when hundreds of them thought they could get away with defrauding the taxpayer? Is it any more moral to commit theft by fraud than by looting? Nick Clegg was even convicted for arson aged 16 and David Cameron and Boris Johnson whilst in the infamous Bullingdon Club, were ritualistically involved in public disorder, including smashing windows and starting fires. Given this, their harsh words about rioters are more than a little hypocritical. Finally, bankers and business leaders hold positions of authority; in the city a cut-throat approach to business is positively encouraged, business leaders like Phil Greene have looted millions in taxes and ‘reckless behaviour’ by investment bankers is rewarded with bonuses. Do any of these things justify rioting or looting? No. But they do explain why, quite rightly, many people question the legitimacy of certain authorities.
Lack of prospects
Whilst not all of those involved are in such an unfortunate position, it seems safe to assume that many of them are stuck in situations where they have few options available to them. When you feel you have no prospects it engenders frustration, boredom and a sense of hopelessness each of which are surely contributing factors in causing such people to loot and riot. The current job market is a vicious place. For anyone who is unemployed they face fierce competition for even the most menial jobs; there is currently one vacancy to every ten unemployed people. Take a second to digest that. That means that even if every unemployed person were driven, well qualified and well educated nine out of ten of them would still be jobless. In reality many are despairing, with no previous experience and poorly educated; what chance do these people have of securing employment? A majority of those so far arrested in connection with the riots are under 18. This age group have just taken a blow to their educational prospects in the form of the scrapping of EMA and the tripling of student fees, not to mention a slashing of up to 80% of youth projects’ funding. Whilst it could be argued that these policies have yet to really ‘bite’ their mere existence feeds into the notion for many young people that they have no future and that politicians and wider society don’t really seem to care. If you felt trapped in a room with no doors open to you and the only ‘windows of opportunity’ were those stuffed with consumer goods you were told to want but you couldn’t afford, is it really so unfathomable that you might lash out? When someone feels so hopeless, so powerless that the only power they feel they have left is that of destruction the acts of rioting and looting can be seen as a desperate attempt to feel powerful, even if just for a few fleeting hours.
Marginalisation and disenfranchisement
Judging from the footage and the arrests made so far it seems that the vast majority of people involved in the riots were either young, poor, non-white or any combination of the three. Each of these categories of society have faced considerable marginalisation over the last few years (if not decades). Astonishingly, a black person is 26 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than a white person. Additionally, black people on average get paid 18% less than white people and are more likely to be unemployed. Rather than blaming this on some fault of black people, which would be incredibly racist, we must accept that it is at least partly attributable to a residual societal prejudice, which may be unconscious and extremely subtle at times. The marginalisation of young people is very similar to that of black people; studies have shown that the public perception of youth involvement in crime is severely over-estimated. The media also have a part to play in this, with one study suggesting that a whopping 71% of media coverage of young people was negative despite the fact that this week, our young people once again produced the best A-level results ever for the 29th year in a row. Finally, poor people, those in receipt of benefits especially, have been subjected to a vicious smear campaign by both politicians and the media accused of being lazy scroungers, many of whom commit allsorts or ridiculous benefit fraud. In fact, fraudulent claims make up less than 1% of the total benefits bill and are on average 31 times lower than an MP’s expenses overclaim. This has fed into a wider perception in some sections of British society that poor people are ‘vile’, ‘scummy’ ‘chavs’ (see Owen Jones’ Chavs: the Demonisation of the Working Class) and for this we are all partly responsible.
I know from my own experience as a youth worker, that if you treat people as if they are badly behaved they will act as such, whereas when you treat them as if they are responsible and mature they more often than not earn those labels. The same goes for the young, the poor, and non-whites; treat them like criminals by stopping and searching them and overestimating their criminality they will be more inclined to act as such. Call them lazy, vile, scum they will often earn those labels. When people feel marginalised by society they begin to feel that they have no stake in that society. If they feel that society doesn’t care about them then they will reciprocate those feelings by not caring about society, making rioting and looting seem less wrong. Added to this, many people (not just rioters and looters I might add) feel disenfranchised; like the political processes do not represent them nor are they able to have their voices heard through these means. The fact that over 80% of the cabinet are millionaires and only one of them is not white is just one indicator that perhaps our politics is not as representative as some might claim. Disenfranchisement makes people feel they don’t have a voice which can lead people to express their discontent in other ways.
Culture of greed and violence
Some senior politicians have blamed a culture of ‘greed and violence’ for the riots and it certainly seems reasonable that those desensitised to violence are more likely to riot, those who are ‘greedy’ more inclined to loot. I would vehemently agree that greed is a problem that riddles our society and violence does tend to be glamorised constantly in popular culture. But Mr. Cameron blames rap music and ‘gang culture’ for these problems which strikes me as more than a little crass. Admittedly, some rap music is overly materialistic and does reify some sickening consumerist excesses but this is merely a reflection or comment on wider society. Blaming rap music for ‘rampant consumerism’ is like blaming a rape victim for giving birth to their attacker’s child. If materialism is to blame surely the finger should be pointed at the companies who bombard us with thousands of adverts every day, leaving almost no public spaces unbranded. Even worse, many brands aggressively market their high-priced goods to poor demographics, like Nike whose primary target audience is black ghetto youths. Similarly, gangster culture is overly glamorised, fetishised even, but anyone who is actually living that lifestyle will be the first to tell you it is far from glamorous. I see no-one pointing the finger at Hollywood for the endless reel of gangster flicks that are churned out. Even if the politicians were blaming the Nikes and the Hollywoods it seems a vulgar contradiction coming from a government who sanctions the dropping of bombs on foreign soil that routinely kill innocent civilians; a government only too happy to allow the world’s largest arms fair to take place in London next month. It sticks in the throat to hear these millionaires talk about greed when they’ve recently effectively handed banks and businesses that already make billions the biggest tax break in living memory. Human behaviour is learned and it stands to reason that greedy, selfish societies that glamorise violence will inevitably produce some individuals who act accordingly.
I started the article by saying that those involved in the riots were responsible for the predictable consequences of their misguided actions. Now hopefully, we are equipped with the context within which those actions took place. But if we are to expect the rioters, many of whom are from underprivileged positions in society, to accept responsibility for their actions it is surely only fair to expect the same of the most privileged in our society. This is not to suggest that the riots were necessarily a ‘predictable consequence’ of any individual or collective action, however, some sort of reaction was surely to be expected. Politicians have a lot to answer for, both individually and as a group. They seem aloof of the realities of normal people’s lives, robotically dodging questions with the same scripted answers making them unaccountable; this fuels the feeling of disenfranchisement experienced by so many. The expenses scandal has eroded trust in authority figures more generally and set a terrible example of criminality. The Government’s cuts are choking off the already limited prospects of many. Greed and violence are explicitly endorsed by facilitating the greed of the City and dropping bombs on innocent Libyans, Afghans and Iraqis. The police too must surely have expected some sort of consequence for their unaccountable and unlawful killings. Business elites and bankers enshrine the culture of greed and rampant materialism but we all participate in it to a degree. Finally, society as a whole but the media in particular, must accept some responsibility for the marginalisation felt by so many young, poor and non-white people. Essentially it is the responsibility of us all to not only rebuild our communities but to make them stronger and together to tackle the underlying issues discussed.
