• News

• Reviews

 

“A riot is the language of the unheard” - Dr Martin Luther King

It’s amazing how quickly the disturbances of last week and it’s underlying causes have been hijacked by the political classes and so called media commentators hell bent on diverting the real issues, wrapping it up in a nice neat package labelled ‘gangs’. They would have us believe that gangs and gang culture are to blame.

While the politicians and police are busy blaming each other for their failings and the courts do their wickedest best to vindictively punish the ‘rioters’ with severe penalties – a 6 month prison sentence for the person caught with two bottles of water worth less than £3.50p – the community, some of whose children are already in the hands of a corrupt judicial system, appear helpless in the face of all this adversity. After all, the clamouring public are demanding the authorities to get tough with the ‘rioters’ and the state has come up with unworkable half-baked knee-jerk reactionary measures, among them depriving a family of a home, withdrawing benefits - and the latest wheeze - taking away free Oyster Cards for young people, as punishment. Are they serious? This simply serves to shift the problems elsewhere.

What we must not forget is that at the forefront of all this is a family grieving for the loss of a loved one. Mark Duggan was shot dead by police in a street in Tottenham on 4 August. The subsequent peaceful protest by the family outside the local police station where they asked for answers and were given none, were ignored and disrespected by the law, turned ugly when the police beat a 16 year old girl with their batons.

What compounded this outrageous action was the inept handling of the family by the IPCC and their initial misleading statements to the media. Mark did not shoot at police as we were led to believe. We are used to the media collaborating with the police to tarnish the reputation of those who die in police custody. That is not a surprise. What caught many off guard was the response – the spontaneous outburst of the community and those young people who were not going to take it anymore. The police stood back while Tottenham burned. They stood back too while Enfield, Hackney and most of North and South London (Brixton, Peckham, Lewisham, Croydon) went up in flames. Three days later it had spread like wildfire to towns and cities across England – Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Bristol and it was like the 1980s and the Brixton and Tottenham uprisings all over again. Thirty years on and nothing had changed.

Young people have real grievances. Those who took to the streets to release their pent-up anger and frustration were the children of an older generation who went through similar experiences in the 1980s; disaffection, constant police harassment, racism, economic and social deprivation; inequalities and lack of affordable opportunities. Back then as now a Tory led coalition government is overseeing the worst aspects of societal disintegration, a continuation of the New Labour years which presided over draconian laws and state intervention in family life plus further erosion of civil liberties. A disenfranchised generation brought up under such conditions decided to hit back. The only surprise is that it didn’t happen sooner.

Austerity measures including savage public sector cuts have mainly affected poor working class people – though the middle classes are feeling the pinch too. Their offspring are not exempt from paying higher tuition fees – hence the student riots of last winter’s discontent. Those in the know were warned this was coming.

Our first duty is to our youth

Austerity measures including savage public sector cuts have mainly affected poor working class people – though the middle classes are feeling the pinch too. Their offspring are not exempt from paying higher tuition fees – hence the student riots of last winter’s discontent. Those in the know were warned this was coming.

But there is a wider geo-political agenda at work. We are witnessing a sea-change in the way the political wind is blowing. The economic collapse since late 2007 is taking its toll across Europe and the United States. The economies of India, Brazil and China are on the rise. The Euro is weak and US dollar is in decline. Capitalism as we know it is in crisis.

Whether you want to call it an Arab spring or an Indian summer the extraordinary events of the past couple of years has seen thousands of ordinary people take to the streets in protest against corrupt governments and leaders. From uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria to massive demonstrations in Greece, Spain and France - the people are rebelling. It is infectious and long overdue but with serious consequences. People are dying on the streets for the right to be free.

To say, as David Cameron does, that most of the rioting is down to criminality, indifference to right and wrong and a broken society is to miss a very salient point. If this society is morally bankrupt, it is the government and those in the upper echelons of society who have led the demise. How dare they blame gang culture when there are a whole gang of them sitting in Parliament? Yes, those MPs that fiddled their expenses not satisfied with the £60k plus salaries funded by tax-payers. The Government bailed out the banks using tax-payers money, while the gangsta bankers still enjoy their huge bonuses. There is the gang led by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and News International where the ‘hacking enquiry’ exposed the media’s corrupt dealings with police and led to the closure of a national newspaper and the resignation of two senior cops at the Met (Metropolitan Police) – The Commissioner (Paul Stephenson) and his second in command (John Yates). How are these so called pillars of society any different to those people who took to the streets, saw an opportunity and took what they felt was owed to them? People have had enough.

Historian David Starkey waded into the fray with his racist rant about the whites becoming blacks. This misguided academic has identified ‘black culture’ to be the cause arguing that ‘a particular sort of violent destructive, nihilistic gangster culture has become the fashion and black and white boys and girls operate in this language together,’. By implication, Jamaican gangstas and U.S influenced hip-hop and rap music has caused this malaise. His intervention is seemingly timed to fan the flames for the English Defence League, far right activists and even the Voice columnist Tony Sewell (an African) to pander to his racist views.

The government cannot hide behind their facile excuses; lack of discipline in the classroom, absent fathers, gang membership etc. The causes are many and complex. But right now they are blinded by the vengeance they call justice. A 14 year-old boy, who was not involved in the ‘disturbances’ was served a six month referral order for picking up a packet of chewing gum as he walked past a looted Sainsbury’s store. Unluckily for him he was caught on CCTV. His future job prospects are in ruins. In their rush to judgement it is the Government which is making criminals of our children by meting out harsh sentences where the punishment is wholly disproportionate to the crime. Where is the justice in that? The ‘message’ they are intending to send will prove counter-productive in the long-run.

We have a lot of work to do in our community. These disturbances did not come out of the blue and it is our responsibility to recognise the causes and search for solutions. Youth unemployment has soared with the higher proportion among black males, public services vital to communities – social housing, youth services libraries and welfare benefits – are being cut as this society sees increasing levels of poverty and inequality not seen since before World War 2.

Our first duty is to our youth. We need to guide them and harness their potential and their intelligence. They showed ingenuity in their approach to organising their raids last week. But what they need now is the political ideology to match. We need to take responsibility for teaching and training our children and youths and help them navigate their way through the system. We should resist all attempts to demonise them. They have been the biggest losers in economic recession. Above all, we need to love them unreservedly.

Instead of blaming young people and the ills of society, the government need to look closer to home. The lawlessness and corruption of the financial and political elites is a much larger problem to be addressed. Tougher sentencing and more police powers (including wholesale community curfews) and other simplistic measures are not the answer. We should know the agenda by now. The problem, reaction, solution scenario is being played out before our eyes. Further crackdowns on our youth and civil liberties will be the order of the day – don’t forget the public asked for it. The time to act is now. So while you sit there thinking that the riots were all about wanton, random violence and looting, over the next few weeks and months pay attention to the Government’s reactionary response. Dr King said: ‘A riot is the language of the unheard’. Heed the call. No time for messing. It’s time to get organised.

Sista C is a Pan African community worker and broadcaster