London riots: The search for reasons has just begun

As the unrest in London and other cities of Britain appears to come to an end, many questions are being asked by the political and talking classes - what caused these riots to spread so fast, and why was Britain so unprepared? With Prime Minister David Cameron referring to rioters as “parts of British society that are frankly sick”, there is a growing need to understand the nunaces that triggered the violence. Questions of race, austerity measures, class, parenting are all being raised as Britain tries to recover from the riots that raged through the country for the past four days. By late last night, incidents were limited to isolated skirmishes and standoffs between riot police and groups of youths, after four nights when often unchecked violence had been well under way by nightfall. [caption id=“attachment_58865” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The big question is why did the riots take place and there’s no one answer. Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images”] [/caption] The images that have emerged from the riots show that the youth involved could be as young as thirteen. The questioning over parenting in Britain is now becoming a key concern in the post-riots analysis with many teachers and adults fearing that parents are too liberal and too scared to discipline their children. The concern is that bad behaviour is being glamourised in the mainstream media such as movies, television shows and that parents have no authority left over their children. This combined with the growing poverty of the areas where the riots exploded, meant that once the violence started, there was no stopping it. Clearly for a lot of the young rioters in Britain it was not just about grabbing plasma TVs or jewellery but what perhaps bolstered the audacious acts further was the knowledge that they would not be censured at home for the same. Other cities in northern and central England such as Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham, which suffered the worst violence on Tuesday night, also appeared calmer. But the racial overtones that these riots have now assumed cannot be ignored. The death of three Pakistan nationals who were run over by a car in Birmingham, as they tried to protect their area from looters, has meant that race as a significant factor that aided the riots, will figure prominently in the context of this violence. British residents in Lewisham were quick to dismiss concerns over racial tension and used twitter to rubbish any such rumours that linked the riots to racial attacks, a move that perhaps gave some assurance to communities that were not directly linked to the violence. Yet to ignore the question of race in the riots would perhaps give only a half-baked analysis as identity crises continue to be a significant factor in British politics. There is no denying violence has made it easy to level the blame on certain communities and provided an opportunity for parties, like British Nationalist Parties, to politicise the violence. Images from the riots [fpgallery id=139] Perhaps the question that is being asked most urgently is regarding the inability of the British police to have quelled the violence. Prime Minister, Cameron’s assurance of “a fightback… is under way. Whatever resources police need, they will get,” after a meeting on Wednesday of the government’s COBRA committee that deals with national security crises, has come a little too late. The tactics of the British police have been subject to harsh criticism, and given the fact that London is due to host the Olympics in 2012 , global concern over security measures in the capital are also being voiced. Despite the fact that London has the world’s largest number of CCTV’s cameras for any city , the failure of the Met to curb the violence in time has meant that the British Police force will now have to answer some rather difficult questions. The failure of CCTV policing is perhaps accentuated with the recent failures in the NOTW scandal. What makes the rioting so much more baffling is that the football inspired violence is common to Britain and thus the current lapse means that the British police can’t even fall back on the excuse that violence is uncommon to British streets. Britain’s growing budget cuts are being seen as a key factor that sparked the violence and many of the communities involved are justifying their acts on grounds of their poverty. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government is not buying these arguments and has called the disorder as arising from “pure criminality”. Public anger over the widespread looting of shops appears to have strengthened the government’s argument, with stolen goods ranging from the expensive — televisions and jewellery — to the absurd — sweets and bottles of alcohol and a petition of sorts has risen demanding that those who indulged in the violence should lose state benefits. In fact the petition has grown so popular that the British government website hosting it crashed. It would not be a stretch to say that the philosophy of consumerism and neoliberalism where government is increasingly replaced by private enterprise with wide-ranging cultural effects, was one reason that fueled the violence. One look at online videos of those rioting – breaking into oxfam shops or jewellery stores – reveals not just anti-state/anti-capitalism attitude but also significant greed . The justification of violence on grounds of poverty is too simplistic to be accepted; the attempts of neo-marxists to describe it as a new class struggle is also, one sided. The use of internet, modern technology to coordinate the violence in Britain has lead to much discussion, which will perhaps ensure a reassessment of how technology and its role in aiding violence will be viewed. But old fashion methods such as the preference for a baseball bat rather than cricket bats means that when it comes to looting and raiding, the rioters stuck to the basics. Games like Grand Theft Auto are also being blamed for ensuring that a culture of violence is made acceptable to the youth. While the debates continue, the British state machinery has been forced to swing into action; Cameron had to order the parliament to reconvene on Thursday, disrupting his own summer holiday and the parliamentary summer recess. The Courts worked through the night on Wednesday to process riot cases. Among the defendants were an 11-year old boy, a charity worker and a teaching assistant. More than 1,000 arrests had been made, with 805 in London alone. With inputs from Reuters

London riots: The search for reasons has just begun

The riots in Britain have raised concerns over parenting, bad policing, race and a culture, where it’s okay for the youth to be greedy and violent.

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