Burning, Looting and Laughing: Riots of Fun

The morning after the London Riots I wandered the streets of Hackney in east London to see if everything was cool at my mother in laws house. Along Mare Street, in the business district most of you saw busted up and set ablaze on TV the night before, I was shocked to find hundreds of people banding together, sweeping up glass, boarding up windows and one man re-paving a sidewalk. Charred cars were being hauled away. It was sunny in the early morning; the fresh scent of sweat, frustration and ultimately boredom lingered in the air.

The killing of 29-year-old Mark Duggan by the metropolitan police in Tottenham, north London gave way to a peaceful protest that corroded into a nasty riot on August 6, but the ripple effect of carnage that fanned out across the UK was the screeching of another beast entirely. I love how major news networks across the U.S. and elsewhere have spent the last week trying to drum up a reason for the burning and looting that has lead to the arrest of over 2,700 young people in the comedown after such cranked up urban mayhem, from London to Birmingham and Manchester.

Prime Minister Cameron was pleased with the long arm of the law hammering hard on those involved saying, “What happened on our streets was absolutely appalling behavior and to send a very clear message that it’s wrong and won’t be tolerated is what the criminal justice system should be doing.”

While some offenses are more drastic than others, such as a teenager killing 68-year-old Richard Mannington Bowes in Ealing, west London, the majority of the rioters were hauled in for smashing up storefronts and burning cars. Yes these are terrible acts, but should the British justice system overstep its Fixed-Penalty Notice (FNP) implemented last year, where anyone caught shoplifting less than £200 ($330.00) of stolen items would be fined £80 ($132.00) by the police if caught? Without absolute proof of who stole what the courts will have to endure a long legal battle to prosecute those involved and to what degree of criminal activity they partook in.

Many of these kids semi-coordinated the siege of department stores like Footlocker using BlackBerry Messenger, an encrypted messaging platform that is free of charge with every BlackBerry. Their motives were not of political protest; they wore designer jeans and sneakers while looting electronic shops for iPhones and flat-screen TVs, the better stuff. As politicians ask about the accountability of parents throughout the riots they fail to understand that many of these neighborhoods have young working class parents under 30-years-old who, given their social demographic, work long hours and odd hours, often juggling multiple jobs to make ends meet. Watching their kids is perhaps a low priority given our trying times. By no means is this a full on race issue. It is an issue of social hierarchy, a political system that is laced with corruption and very out of touch with the youth in the UK.

Cameron, whose vacation in Sardinia was cut short over the riots, went as far to suggest the deactivation of Facebook and Twitter to suppress more rioting, as if he could.

“Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organized via social media,” he said. “Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill.”
Last time I checked this was the UK and not Iran, where the June 2009 demonstrations in Tehran were broadcasted beyond the censored Iranian state-run television to the world by daring folks who used social media. To even attempt to shut down these websites is a technical challenge apart from an infringement of liberty.
“So we are working with the Police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality” Cameron added.

On August 9, 16,000 police, including some from Manchester, patrolled London awaiting more riots that never came…well just not there. Birmingham and Manchester had their turn to burn that night where police were outstretched again by bored young teens of all races that took to looting for the sheer lust of it all, many knowing they would only serve a six month jail sentence for a first offence if caught. Parliament was slow to react to all of these riots, even deliberation over the use of water cannons long after the locust swarm of looting peaked.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) released figures yesterday stating unemployment rose 38,000 in the three months leading up to June and 2.49 million people are jobless. Some theorists, think-tankers and economists would speculate the have-nots rioted over unemployment, but judging from those involved it appears it was all out of fun and because the kids finally realized they outnumbered and technologically outsmarted the police. This is why the streets were quiet the morning after the boroughs of Brixton, Clapham and Hackney rioted in London. There was no need to riot anymore. The kids got what they wanted, they won and were back to playing Grand Theft Auto, except now on their new gadgets and flat screen TVs at least until their doors are kicked in.