The scenes of rioting and looting that have unfolded in the UK this week have been so shocking that they barely seem real to me. If I’m honest I have felt quite stunned by it and have taken some time to fully form my opinion on the situation. I started to write a post on this subject yesterday and then I changed my mind because I was struggling to articulate my feelings on the subject. Then I read the following quote and my thoughts suddenly became clearer.
There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don’t have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it. ~ Martin Luther King
We all want and need to feel part of something and as I dwelled on this quote, in my mind I saw an image of children with their noses pressed up to a window on the outside looking in at the rest of society and it got me thinking. That’s why they are smashing glass. I suppose you could call it envy but that doesn’t quite fit. I don’t think they want stuff just because it belongs to other people. I think they want stuff because they’ve been told they can’t have it, because they have been told they don’t deserve it.
Good vs Evil?
What I’m struggling with this week as I read the comments in the press, TV and social media is the polarization of our society into good and evil. Almost every article I’ve read either focuses on the evil, violence and mindlessness of these youths or the kindness and goodness of the people helping to clean up the mess left behind.
My fear is that we can clean away every last shard of glass, every broken brick and re-build every wall but the real mess will still be there. There will still exist a whole section of society that is disaffected and separate from the rest of us. I can’t help feeling that the more we vilify these people, the more we can expect them to behave in ways worth vilifying.
Stereotypes aren’t helpful
If you are a youth, who wears a hoody and live on a council estate in London, then the prevailing opinion of you by the rest of society is likely to be pretty low. Our expectations of what a person fitting that stereotype is likely to achieve in life is not going to be particularly high. So it comes as no surprise that their achievements match our predictions. That’s just basic psychology. If you tell someone all their life that they will never amount to anything then you shouldn’t be surprised when they don’t.
Initially when I listened to some audio on the BBC website of two girls talking about the riots, I was shocked by their attitude. Especially this section of it:
Reporter: Why is it (the rioting) targeting local people, your own people?
Girl: Cos it’s the rich people, the people that have got businesses and that’s why all of this has happened because of the rich people and we are just showing the rich people we can do what we want.
I couldn’t believe it when I first heard it and kept thinking why don’t they understand that if they work hard at school and put the effort in they too could have businesses and money one day. When I listened to it again after having read Martin Luther King’s quote, I started to get it. I believe that these kids don’t feel any compassion for the people whose homes and businesses they are destroying for two reasons. Firstly, they feel completely removed from these “rich” people and in no way connected to them. Secondly, they don’t care about these people because they don’t believe that these people care about them.
Are they right about that? Are we guilty of abandoning a whole section of society in the hopes that they’ll destroy each other through drink, drugs and gang warfare? Maybe, I don’t know.
Time to stop and think
I don’t profess to have the answers here and I’m certainly not condoning the behaviour that we’ve seen in England this week. But I would encourage us to stop and wonder what it all means, why this is happening. I couldn’t help laughing when I read in one broadsheet that a reason for these riots is the school holidays and the fact that these kids have more time on their hands.
I think it’s time to get real and to accept that as a society we can’t stick to these neatly formed groups of “good” people and “bad” people. As long as we do that, then the so-called bad will just get worse. Perhaps if we instill a sense of community and self-worth into our ‘disaffected youth’ then we’ll start to see some change. If this has happened because these people feel that they have nothing to lose, then surely a solution is to give them something that they wouldn’t want to lose. Self-worth and self-respect might be a good place to start.
Do you have an opinion on the riots? If so I’d love to hear it.
Caroline – yes, i agree with MLK’s quotes. That’s why most governments try to push for education, house ownership, jobs so their citizens can have a stake in their society. If they don’t and feel alienated like these kids do in the UK, there is going to be unrest. That’s what’s going on inthe middle east right – people feel disconnected from their society? So, they are overthrowing their government? Right or wrong is a different question but for these kids, they think this is their only option.
Thanks for your comments Vishnu, I think you are quite right. Alienation = unrest for sure.
Hi Caz,
Thanks for your insightful thoughts about the Looters. I’ve been meaning to put my thoughts down somewhere, but haven’t known where to put them down….so thanks for providing the opportunity. I must also apologise that this is not a ‘comment’, but an essay. Really, I’m sorry.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this a lot and, I have to say, I don’t see this as much of a surprise to be honest with you. Its been coming for a while…..
To explain why….I think comes down to the simple concepts of fear and fairness. Sounds strange, but hear me out. Over the past twenty years Policing in the UK has changed. Previously, the ordinary constable used to have a discretion as to whether to arrest someone. If they caught someone in the act of doing something, they would chat with them and make a decision as to whether they would do more good with a simple chastisement or by arresting them etc. Nowadays, the Police do not have that discretion, they’ll arrest you whatever you say. There is simply no stopping being arrested.
Also, in this day and age, a lot more is criminalised. I used to get bullied at school, but technically, it could be classified as a ‘robbery’. Granted, only a packet of crisps would be taken and not a mobile phone, but these days that kind of crime, lets call it ‘Aggravated Bullying’, is treated as any other crime.
If a young person is then arrested for that minor crime and dragged through the Courts, two very important things happen. First, they loose the fear of the Police and being arrested for a crime as once you’ve gone through it, its not so bad the next time. Second, they get an idea that however trivial an offence is, it will be punished.
So the concept of fear is simple enough, from a young age, if a ‘yoof’ is arrested and dealt with by Police, they know the score. What’s the worst that can happen? In some ways, the Police are a safer option that your peers as they won’t, necessarily, stab you for perceived ‘disrespect’ or for being in the wrong post code etc.
As for fairness, this is where the rule of law comes in. Recently, there have been very high profile examples of the Police being responsible for killing innocent people. The De Menzes shooting, then the May Day Riot killing (I’ve forgotten the man’s name). In both those situations, the people responsible were not charged with any offences. Then we had the recent shooting of Mr. Duggan, who it would seem did not shoot at Police Officers first.
Now for a young person, that seems completely unjustified. They might think, how come I got done for robbing a mobile phone, when Police kill people and nothing happens? They perceive the Police action, and the lack of a re-action, as completely unfair. And in many ways, they’re right. If rule of law is to be upheld, then even if you’re wearing a uniform, if you commit a crime, you must go through the criminal justice system.
If that doesn’t happen, then the ‘Yoof’ on the street will think, ‘F**k it!’, They will want to get some payback for all the perceived injustice they have suffered over the years. If the Police do not face any consequences from the authorities, then they, the ‘Yoof’, will do something themselves. And, the riots are what they are doing.
The Rioters don’t care about anyone else because no one cares when people do stuff against the Rioters. The shooting of Mr. Duggan is such an example. Will anyone care? Will the Police be charged?
Whilst there are many more social factors at play here, such as discipline at school, lack of parenting etc, my explanation above is just about this particular episode we’re going through. Unfortunately, I think we can’t do much about the current generation. Its the very young we have to target.
Well, I have a lot more to say, but I don’t think this essay counts as a ‘comment’ anymore!
Er…what do you think Caz?
Speak soon……
G x
Hi Greg thank you for your insightful comments and rather than an essay I like to think of it more as a guest post 😉 I really enjoyed reading what you have to say on this matter and I think you are pretty spot on with all of your points. Speak soon indeed…!
Reasons that I can think of:
1. It’s the school holiday
2. Weather’s good
3. Something to do on a Fri/Sat/Sun night
4. Good way to get free stuff
5. Smashing stuff is fun
6. Friends are out doing it so had better join in
7. Quite a lot of those involved are probably Already VERY desensitised to using and witnessing violence.
8. Bad parenting
9. Adequate parenting but bad friends
10. Drink/drugs consumed before joining in
11. “Normal” people not willing to intervene in standard low-level anti-social behaviour thus reinforcing the idea that they can behave with
impunity.
12. Lack of imagination and aspiration (Lidl and JD Sports get looted but Bureaux de Change untouched??!)
just some of the ideas that immediately jump into my head. Will add more as they come to me.
Plus
13. What you said. Which is very, very sad when education and healthcare are free in this country and there are myriad other services to be taken advantage of.
Thanks for your comments Laura, I think you are absolutely right, there are so many reasons why this has happened and I think the point that stands out to me in your list is that many of these young people are already very desensitised to using and witnessing violence. I know if I think back to when I was the age of some of these rioters I would have been absolutely terrified by the events of this week but many of them have described it as fun. Scary stuff.
I watched some videos on YouTube last night and saw a couple that really stood out. One was of a teen who had been beaten up, sitting on the ground. A guy helps him up and seems like he is helping him. Then another guy comes from behind, opens his backpack and takes something out. The teen didn’t know at first but i think could tell he was. I think he was so scared he didn’t do anything.
I saw a video too where a reporter was asking a girl why she was doing it. She said to get her taxes back. What?? So he said, “you’re doing this cause of taxes?”
Really really sad.
Hey Benny, you are so right it is really, really sad. Some of the footage I’ve seen has really saddened me. Thanks for your comment.
I’ve been following these riots almost from the beginning and I think it started as one thing and evolved into another. I believe it started as vengeance against the killing of one of their own and now evolved to some kind of social revolution where these young kids (people my age) want to show society that they have a place in it too.
I tend to agree with them in their protests but I think the way they are doing it is utterly wrong. And it is only getting worse. There’s a need for everyone to protest and fight for their convictions but as we all know, there are better ways to do that. Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. just to mention the most famous. Civil Disobedience would be, in my opinion, the way to fight this.
Another thing I believe caused all this was the fact that London police was unprepared to these types of attacks. They reacted late and poorly.
I liked your final conclusion ‘Time to stop and think’ – this is utterly important in today’s society. People are doing things without thinking about the consequences and we have to stop this. These riots won’t do anything except causing more tension and problems.
Thanks for your comments Hugo, I think everything you say is pretty spot on. I’m just hoping that the impact of these events will result in policy changes that prevent situations like this from happening in the future and help to build a society where everyone feels they have a stake in it.
Hi Caroline,
Wanted to stop by and check out your blog since you were kind enough to stop by mine.
In all honesty, I don’t watch the news and keep up with what’s going on in the world. The main reason is everything I watch is so depressing and I prefer remaining positive. That’s hard to do if all you hear about is how bad everything is. Do they ever report about any of the good things happening today? Obviously, people don’t care to watch that. Only all the horrible crime that continues to plague us.
I hate that this has happened in the UK and I for one can’t even come close to presuming why. All I know is that every single person has a choice in life. I know that a lot of the youth, like you stated, may have been raised with parents telling them they aren’t worth anything. Let’s face it, we grow up thinking that so we don’t take responsibility for our actions. It’s a crying shame actually and one that I wish we could get a handle on.
As Benny said, it’s just really really sad!
Hi Adrienne, so lovely to hear from you! Actually I feel exactly the same as you regarding the news and don’t watch or read it myself usually but these were extreme circumstances! What I read instead is http://www.dailygood.org/ which I find really inspirational as it is exactly that – the good news that normally doesn’t get reported in mainstream press. Thanks so much for your comments, it was lovely of you to pop by 🙂