I in no way condone the riots occurring in London, but I do see beyond the black and white view a lot of people seem to have. In a time of severe national debt, recession, mass unemployment, and huge public sector cuts it's often the poorest and most vulnerable who are hardest hit. This combined with the sad reality that there is often little respect for the police in many of the poorer areas of London. If you expose people who are already living in a cycle of poverty and violence to what could be perceived as police heavy handedness within their community, what do people seriously expect as a result? The fact that most people seem to be more pissed off about property being destroyed than someone dying, or local youth centres being shut down, or the NHS being dismantled, or families struggling to live, or an entire generation of young people being condemned to pay for the mistakes of a previous generation says a lot about this country.
Yes, it is sad and pointless that people are so bored, have had so little security in their home life and upbringing that they think it's ok to go and commit violence and that this is acceptable behaviour, but how does the public seriously think this occurs? Do they think entire suburbs and swathes of communities are born bad? It's far easier to sit on your middle class arse at home and see the world via skynews or the BBC than to stop and think about it from any other angle. It's far easier to sit at home and see things in black and white because if people stopped and actually thought things through, asked questions, saw beyond the symptoms to the cause they might actually have to take some responsibility and do something about it.
Panic on the streets of London
Panic on the streets of Birmingham
I wonder to myself
Could life ever be sane again ?
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