Riot Reflections

This article is ridiculous:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/writer-bbc-interviewer-show-respect-old-west-indian-203939047.html

I’ve personally heard several interviews of rioters and discussion of the original shooting that started all the violence. The police officer who shot Mark Duggan may very well have been wrong and should be prosecuted accordingly, but how does that event justify the destruction of so many lives?

People were not rioting and looting in protest to the police; they were all out stealing. It was not about poverty. It was about disrespect. Nobody needs many of the things that were stolen; no one gains from burning down a supermarket and people’s homes.

I hope the police do not go too far and persecute young people for no reason, but all-out criminality and the intimidation of London and many other major cities is unacceptable. People watched desperately as their life-savings, their livelihoods and their homes burned to the ground. People locked themselves in kitchens, jumped out of windows and were beaten in the streets.

At least in London, the riots were neither class warfare nor race riots. The aggressors and victims were both wealthy and poor and from many different racial and cultural backgrounds.

I watched two young, black, English adults (male and female), a middle aged white woman with an English accent, and an elderly woman with an accent from somewhere I couldn’t place, playfully bantering with each other and making sure everyone had enough space on the bus. And then of course there was me. A young female with an American accent. We were all talking and laughing and I thought to myself, this is also London. The people who chose to attack one another caused a lot of damage but they are a minority in this city. Not a minority made of any race or background but of opportunism and a lack of respect for others.

Maybe the government is partially at fault here. Why was there no major public statement condemning the violence when the first police cars were burned down in Tottenham? Why was London understaffed? Why were the prime minister, the mayor and several other leaders all on holiday at the same time? They should stagger their vacations. And why were there such deficient tools available for the police to use to protect people?

Parents weren’t faultless either. Why are kids in the streets late at night? But worse than the kids, how could there be teachers and adults looting? Some people are professional criminals but how could the average person care so much about a new television? I haven’t owned my own TV in years and I’m not about to break into my local store to get one.

The riots reminded me of Black Friday in the United States when shoppers broke down a glass door at a Walmart and killed an employee during their stampede. They trampled him and would not move away to let emergency workers reach the victim. What is wrong with people? How can a deal on a new refrigerator be that important?

Economic disparity is real, and people are rightfully angry as we face a world that becomes increasingly difficult for young people to break into and build futures. But if people want to protest, this is not the way to do it. It’s time to get creative and work together, not for a frustrated few to bring everyone else down with them.