Dave Forber is Development Director at Web Design and User Experience Consultancy Natural Interaction in Bristol. And a dad, a husband, a petrolhead and dog fan.
The disorder started following the death by way of bullets of Mark Duggan, who I obviously don’t and didn’t know. And never will. Whilst I can fully understand people protesting at the death of a person when shot by police, the information available at the time suggested that he had fired at them. Admittedly, that’s not correct, but at the time this is what was understood.
Essentially we have, therefore, a mob protesting about the police shooting a man who had shot at them. Which isn’t really much grounds for a protest really, let alone the violence that followed.
Now, I have to be careful here and reiterate that it has since been proven that Mark Duggan didn’t discharge his gun so the police essentially shot a man with a loaded gun. In the UK, guns are illegal unless you have a licence and there is no good reason for carrying one. This man did and was shot because of it. Again, I still find it difficult to understand the violence that followed.
Ordinarily I don’t think I would normally defend the Met, but in this case the guy wasn’t an innocent foreign tourist getting on a tube or an innocent man walking in front of a police line, he was an armed man. Armed and dangerous? Who knows, but armed nonetheless.
Then of course, it spread.
What was a questionable protest about a police shooting with undertones of racism by plod became a looting extravaganza. Businesses were burned, family houses were destroyed with scant regard for their occupants and we had people on Twitter boasting about their spoils. The press – even the normally racist Daily Mail and Express didn’t blame it on immigrants – they were referencing millionaire’s daughters, teachers, graphic designers. Basically not the people you would normally associate with rioting.
So, why all the analysis? We have a bunch of lefties saying “If you don’t think you have any stake in society what reason do you have to care for it?” and that “Citizenship needs to be taught at school to avoid this”.
Which is all complete bollocks. It *may* have slight relevance to the first protest in Tottenham, but the later riots had nothing to do with people who didn’t have a stake in society. It was just about people thinking they could get away with stealing and violent crime, which fortunately it seems that they can’t.
I have little sympathy for rioters though. For little, read ‘no’ there. Anyone who is stupid to enough to burn down their own neighbour’s houses and risk killing random people (do you really need- even if it is in protest at the shooting of an *armed* man – really deserves whatever is coming to them.
Sadly it won’t be a long term in jail.
And don’t get me going on whether or not they should be evicted. The answer simply is yes. It seems fairly obvious to me that if they’re intent on violence and burning their neighbours alive, then they should find their own accommodation and vacate it for people more deserving. And if that’s Polish or Romanian or African immigrants, so be it. At least they want to find work and do their bit.
Dave Forber is Development Director at Web Design and User Experience Consultancy Natural Interaction in Bristol. And a dad, a husband, a petrolhead and dog fan.