tl dr thread, I hope nobody in the thread has blamed it on cuts, since public spending has gone up this year.
A lot of thoughts are flying around my head so this post will probably appear quite haphazard. Anyway...
These people are not in poverty. Wanting boxfresh trainers, mobile phones, hoodies and 42" LCD TVs is not the sign of someone in poverty - they are consumers who want everything for free. The riots and lootings were pure opportunistic criminality - they saw people getting away with it on the initial Saturday night in Tottenham because the police treated it as a public order incident rather than as a criminal incident, and they wanted a piece of the action, I wasn't surprised at all by how quickly it spread. When the police tactics were changed (this required elected politicians and is a case for elected commissioners, if someone directly accountable were in charge of the Met, David Cameron/Theresa May would not have had to do it), the results were more effective. There is also the problem that low-rank frontline police officers are scared of using force because of the media atmosphere surrounding police brutality etc, and they feel that their superiors and the government will not protect them in the event of someone getting injured.
The riots were caused by an element of our society that
- has no respect for authority
- has no respect for private property and think they are entitled to whatever they want
- does not wish to engage in normal society no matter how much people try with outreach groups, social workers, youth clubs etc
- have parent(s) who do not care where they are
- in some cases, have been brought up to consider the government and the police working against them and racist without much evidence of this (it was true 30 years ago, not any more)
There are some notable exceptions, e.g. in one case there was a guy who works as a mentor at a primary school. Great example he's setting there.
I believe the main cause of all of this is that the social contract in this country is balanced too far in favour of the recipient. There are few responsibilities to balance the rights. Their parents don't care what they get up to outside the house, in some cases they prefer them to be out of the house because they cannot control them inside. In school kids can create hell but the first sign of a teacher considering using physical discipline and you hear "YOU CAN'T TOUCH ME" immediately. If people misbehave in/destroy social housing they may be thrown out but the government has to house them somewhere else. People remain jobless on benefits for years and years refusing to take jobs - so they are taken by people who come in from the EU who are far more grateful for the opportunity, and quite right too. They commit petty crimes to fund drug habits and get slaps on the wrist, a few weeks in prison here and there. They also see a bad example being set by establishment figures who seemingly get away with murder, such as MPs expenses and "bankers still getting bonuses" (even though the banks got rid of a lot of staff, so those who remain are of a high quality and deserve a good pay, and the mythical banker creature does not exist in the way the media portray it) after everything that has happened. In summary they think they have a RIGHT to welfare, to free healthcare and housing and a RIGHT not to work and because "rich people misbehave" they can too. Wrong.
For too long there have been people hand wringing and making excuses for these elements of society and it has to stop. Throwing good money after bad is not going to make any difference. Using force IS the correct way to stop the initial problem, and harsh jail sentences and withdrawal of benefits is the right way to punish it. If we want to stop it happening again we need a better education system that teaches right from wrong, we need to start making parents more responsible for kids, and we need to accept that letting generation after generation live on welfare is not the way to deal with joblessness.
A lot of thoughts are flying around my head so this post will probably appear quite haphazard. Anyway...
These people are not in poverty. Wanting boxfresh trainers, mobile phones, hoodies and 42" LCD TVs is not the sign of someone in poverty - they are consumers who want everything for free. The riots and lootings were pure opportunistic criminality - they saw people getting away with it on the initial Saturday night in Tottenham because the police treated it as a public order incident rather than as a criminal incident, and they wanted a piece of the action, I wasn't surprised at all by how quickly it spread. When the police tactics were changed (this required elected politicians and is a case for elected commissioners, if someone directly accountable were in charge of the Met, David Cameron/Theresa May would not have had to do it), the results were more effective. There is also the problem that low-rank frontline police officers are scared of using force because of the media atmosphere surrounding police brutality etc, and they feel that their superiors and the government will not protect them in the event of someone getting injured.
The riots were caused by an element of our society that
- has no respect for authority
- has no respect for private property and think they are entitled to whatever they want
- does not wish to engage in normal society no matter how much people try with outreach groups, social workers, youth clubs etc
- have parent(s) who do not care where they are
- in some cases, have been brought up to consider the government and the police working against them and racist without much evidence of this (it was true 30 years ago, not any more)
There are some notable exceptions, e.g. in one case there was a guy who works as a mentor at a primary school. Great example he's setting there.
I believe the main cause of all of this is that the social contract in this country is balanced too far in favour of the recipient. There are few responsibilities to balance the rights. Their parents don't care what they get up to outside the house, in some cases they prefer them to be out of the house because they cannot control them inside. In school kids can create hell but the first sign of a teacher considering using physical discipline and you hear "YOU CAN'T TOUCH ME" immediately. If people misbehave in/destroy social housing they may be thrown out but the government has to house them somewhere else. People remain jobless on benefits for years and years refusing to take jobs - so they are taken by people who come in from the EU who are far more grateful for the opportunity, and quite right too. They commit petty crimes to fund drug habits and get slaps on the wrist, a few weeks in prison here and there. They also see a bad example being set by establishment figures who seemingly get away with murder, such as MPs expenses and "bankers still getting bonuses" (even though the banks got rid of a lot of staff, so those who remain are of a high quality and deserve a good pay, and the mythical banker creature does not exist in the way the media portray it) after everything that has happened. In summary they think they have a RIGHT to welfare, to free healthcare and housing and a RIGHT not to work and because "rich people misbehave" they can too. Wrong.
For too long there have been people hand wringing and making excuses for these elements of society and it has to stop. Throwing good money after bad is not going to make any difference. Using force IS the correct way to stop the initial problem, and harsh jail sentences and withdrawal of benefits is the right way to punish it. If we want to stop it happening again we need a better education system that teaches right from wrong, we need to start making parents more responsible for kids, and we need to accept that letting generation after generation live on welfare is not the way to deal with joblessness.
