Although nobody can condone the violent and barbaric acts being carried out across the UK this week, with mom & pop businesses being ransacked, peoples homes being burned down, muggings and even murder; shrugging the riots off as “pure criminality” is an ignorant and downright foolish approach to take. Criminals did not just wake up on Saturday morning and decide it was good day to start looting, there are very clear causes as to what sparked the initial violence and a wider social context as to why they spread.

Failure to address these root issues, while potentially wheeling out a draconian martial law style crackdown will only serve to disintegrate society further and infringe on the rights of law abiding citizens.

Unfortunately the Government will do all they can to shift the blame from themselves.

The Initial Spark

The borough of Haringey has the fourth highest level of child poverty in London and an unemployment rate of 8.8%, double the national average, with one vacancy for every 54 seeking work [1]. Although gang culture itself is a complex issue, it tends to coincide with poverty, and Tottenham which is within the borough has more than its fair share of both.

Enter Mark Duggan. On August 4th, this 29 year old father of 4 was pulled from a taxi by the Specialist Firearms Command and shot dead.

No matter what you may think of the lower class “scum”, gang culture or drug dealing, when the state murders somebody in cold blood they better have a good reason for it.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) initially said that it appeared a police officer had been shot, and police had returned fire [2]. It was reported that a bullet was bizarrely found embedded in a police radio, and the implication was drawn that Duggan had fired on the police, thus making the murder justified.

Subsequent tests proved that the bullet lodged in the policeman’s radio wasn’t fired by Duggan, but was actually fired by another police man. The IPCC had to rule that there was no evidence that Duggan had opened fire.[3]

It’s then understandable why the community is not fond of police, they are essentially a gang themselves that cover for each other.

As reported by The Guardian:
One journalist wrote that he was surprised how many people in Tottenham knew of and were critical of the IPCC, but there should be nothing surprising about this. When you look at the figures for deaths in police custody (at least 333 since 1998 and not a single conviction of any police officer for any of them), then the IPCC and the courts are seen by many, quite reasonably, to be protecting the police rather than the people.

Long story short Mark Duggan is dead with no reasonable explanation as to why. And a community that is all too familiar with police injustice, this time wanted answers.

On 6 August, Duggan’s relatives and local residents who had been stone-walled so far, marched from Broadwater Farm to Tottenham police station. The demonstrators wanted honest information from police about the circumstances of Duggan’s death. They were ignored and eventually treated as criminals themselves.

The breaking point did not come from hordes of youths spontaneously deciding to loot for no reason. It came from further police brutality. Instead of embracing the community, trying to answer their questions or at least trying to calm the situation down, the police decided to attack a young girl!

One eyewitness told BBC Radio that the crowd was in “uproar” after an unarmed teenage girl was beaten back by officers. “The police line had actually charged toward her and started hitting her with batons. “Subsequently it turned out she was only 16 and this made everyone absolutely go up in uproar,” he said. [4]

The catalyst was clearly the police, something the mainstream media are steering clear of mentioning during their repetitive news cycle.

Why It Got Out of Control

The subsequent rioting that Duggan’s friends and family have rightfully dissociated themselves from is a clear example of broken Western society. The environment had already been created, all it needed was a spark.

Although we might laugh at the absurdity of poor British kids looting sneakers and iPods, probably manufactured by a much poorer slave labour force, that humor should turn to pity. These rioters are what have been left behind by a decadent, materialist and corrupt society. They live in a country that promotes greed and goodies by any means necessary, but due to the nature of that rat race, they are not part of it. It’s not mathematically possible for everybody to be rich. They are the statistics left out in the cold.

As the African proverb says: “If the young are not initiated into the village, they will burn it down just to feel its warmth.”

With low levels of education and not much hope for the future it was only a matter of time before this kind of incident took off. What do they care about our jewelers, department stores or supermarket chains? If they see the opportunity they’re going to go for it. Yes it’s saddening to see some of them attack small time local stores and each other, but crime, ignorance and immorality already exists, it’s only going to be exacerbated within the looting environment. If they were born in a well-off area, with socially adjusted families and taught community spirit, then…well they wouldn’t be doing it would they?

Failure to acknowledge the austerity measures facing Britain following the global economic collapse is also an elephant in the living room. We have record youth unemployment right now. [5]

Local councils, which fund youth services, have been hit with over 20% cuts [6]. What we’re seeing may not have been predicted in its entirety, but it was clearly on the cards.

The BBC noted in October 2010, that cuts to youth services could lead to France-style social unrest happening on England’s streets.

“At a time of rapidly increasing youth unemployment, the reductions in educational maintenance allowances, coupled with cuts to further education funding, paint a worrying picture for young people’s employability and their engagement in their communities.”

A youth leader from Tottenham told the the Mirror:
“Young people feel their representatives do not care about them. The council’s youth services have been cut by 75%, which is astronomical. It is a real assault on social democracy and public services.”

Mystic Clegg also foresaw the trouble. He claimed back in April 2010 that there was a “very serious risk” of Greece style riots if an out of touch Conservative party came in to power. They did, he joined them and those riots came to fruition.

While they are not politically driven, they are a symptom of the same financial corruption found in other European countries. Our real national debt figure is £4.8 trillion! [7]

And unfortunately it’s not just the rioters that are uneducated about the true nature of the financial system, so is the rest of the country. They may wave placards demanding no cuts, or put their faith in the redundant Unions, but unless we address why our already heavily indebted Government chose to bail out the financial gamblers in the City with our future taxes, the cuts will cause riots by default. Whether the rioters are aware of why they’re rioting is in many ways irrelevant, but extremely frustrating.

Police Problems

The downturn of British society under cuts and unaddressed social problems that go back years, appear to have formulated the environment for these riots. The shooting of Mark Duggan and the attack on a 16 year old girl, leave the blame for the initial violence at the door of the police. But the other ingredient in this terrible situation combines the police and the austerity measures. How did a small congregation in Tottenham turn in to a nationwide rioting spree?

A large proportion of eye witness reports claim the police were standing back and letting the violence commence. In true big society fashion citizens were forced to protected themselves. For some it cost them their lives. As reported by the Evening Standard: Three men were killed today when they were run down by a speeding car as they tried to protect shops and homes from looters. The Guardian notes:
“Scotland Yard has effectively sanctioned vigilante action against suspected rioters and looters, issuing advice that they can be beaten with weapons if they are honestly thought to pose a danger.”

This is the community spirit that Cameron’s big bankrupt society brings. They can’t afford anymore it so do it yourself.

But why did many of the police just watch and let the rioting go on? Especially considering the heavy-handed approach from police during the G20, student protests, the Royal Wedding (which had plain clothes snatch & grab squads and pre-crime arrests) and to a lesser extent the general cuts protests. Why so softly softly this time?

It was reported today in the Daily Mail that police were ordered to ‘stand and observe’ rioters as they laid waste to London’s streets instead of confronting them…Scotland Yard insiders have revealed teams were frustrated at their inability to wade in and arrest troublemakers while they looted and burnt out shops. They had apparently been told to try and contain any violence but not to haul away offenders who would instead be identified through video footage later.

On top of this bizzare policy of inaction, we shouldn’t neglect the fact that they were also stretched for numbers. Although the police budget has not yet hit it’s 20% mark, a third of the cuts to police numbers have already taken place, taking thousands off the streets [8]. And even before the official acknowledgment of policing cuts following the economic crisis, the police service had continually faced cuts and pressures that strained the frontline response, this is why PCSOs were first introduced. There haven’t been enough bobbies on the beat in a long time.

One solution being offered is to privatize policing, but so far The Community Safety Scheme is a joke, whereby personnel are only given 2 week’s training. Deploying under-trained thugs to deal with other thugs is not going to help the situation.

Violence Is Not The Answer

Whether it’s these youth rioters or the quote “Anarchists” that smashed things up during the cuts protests, all violence does is play in to the state and their controllers hands.

Bloody revolutions have never brought about their envisaged Utopias. In a collapsing society like Britain violence serves only one purpose, to push us even faster down the road to fascism. The Government refuse to address the root problems, they refuse to acknowledge that the state, it’s corporate sponsors and its chosen financial system are the cause of the major problems in the country. Instead they will propose more oppression in order to keep their failed dream alive for as long as possible.

If the Government have to resort to draconian measures like water cannons, rubber bullets, curfews and perhaps even martial law, it sets the precedent for them using it more often in the future for legitimate protests. The rioters may like their new flatscreen TV, but how will they like living in a police state?

Remember, authorities were dreaming up martial law scenarios long before these riots, lets not give them the opportunity to roll them out.

Thanks to the stupid but overall harmless poking of Camilla and Prince Charles, whose driver should have known not to drive head on in to a protest, apparently “…the case for mixing SAS troops with the police and other counter-terrorism forces has been strengthened.”[9]

Or what about the outright cry to ban protests (not riots) in London following the marches in 2010? [10]

Violence just give the state more power to ruin your life.

Unfortunately the road out of this mess is not easy, and it’s not going to help by scapegoating race like the BNP and EDL, or benefits scroungers like the middle class, or the Labour party for helping us in to this mess like Conservative voters, or the Conservative party for their tough measures like the Labour voters. It takes some serious education and willingness to take responsibility for yourself, because ultimately no politician is working for your benefit.

All money is created by private entities (banks and financial institutions) out of thin air and loaned in to circulation, of which an illogical interest rate is added on top and demanded back. Although it’s a little more complex than when you go to the highstreet bank, Governments also borrow all of their money from private entities or they take it from you in the form of tax. All money is DEBT that the people are forced to pay back to the bankers. It just so happens to have caught up with us.

The majority of the problems right now in the Western world are caused by this debt. If the Government doesn’t create money and the people don’t create money, then what is the root cause of the problem? The Banking System, so unless we address the banking system, we will never be out of debt and the problems this causes will continue indefinitely.

In conclusion there are many factors that led to the rioting. Buzz words like “pure criminality” do nothing to explain the situation. This was a perfect storm of social injustice. Poverty, a man shot under suspicious circumstances, a cover-up, ineffective police tactics and crippling austerity.

The irony is that while these impoverished kids mindlessly loot, those in the financial industry that have looted sums far beyond what these rioters could ever do, are still announcing record Billion pound bonuses.

Violence is not the answer, but lets target the right people!

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