2011 Riots as a Part of English Lifestyle - Assignment Example

How helpful is it to say that Riots followed in a long line of riots and are a part of the English way of life, to some extent, rather than try to explain them as a contemporary urban phenomenon? England is a country widely known for order and civility by most of the world; however, scratch deep enough beneath this cultured veneer and one finds layers upon layers of chaos disorder and mayhem, elements that have been a part of this “somber” land for centuries. The calm exterior may have lead people to assume, after the 2011 riots, that these were just the reflection of contemporary urban phenomenal which had and in some places was concurrently being witnessed in Arab nations at the time. This reasoning is not actually entirely untenable, around this period, several world cities had gone up in flames, in some cases literally so, as citizens mostly youths went to the streets to protest against autocracy, police and military brutality and a host of other injustices (Kelly and Gill, 2012). Therefore, that the same was happening in the UK could have easily been misconstrued to be a wave of global insurrection and fight against injustice that had found its way to London. However, a critical examination of the riots, what caused them and the historical backdrop in which they happened brings out a radically different picture from the one that has been conventionally perceived. Riots have been so entrenched in the history of Britain that they are have more or less become a cultural rather than political phenomenon. In fact one can boldly claim, a this paper does, that the 2011 riots were not really part of a larger global uprising but an embodiment and continuation of a long line of riots dating as far back as 900 years ago. The history or rioting in England particularly in London can be traced back to the 12th century, one of the earliest recorded riots which involved citizens vs. police was followed the massacre of Jews after King Richard was crowned. However, it is a retrospective examination into English rioting would be incomplete without a mention of one of the first “activists” who promote the cause of the poor against the wealthy classes in the face of social and financial inequalities. He was Fitz Osbert a self-styled figure of the poor who would give stirring speeches to the poor and encourage them to break into and pillage the homes of the wealthy. He led several riots in the capital until he was arrested and sentenced to death for his role as a ringleader. During the 13th and 12th centuries, riots were actually not common and even when they did occur; they were easily crushed by the state owing to poor organization. He is most remarkable for the fact that he led organized and well managed riots and even the state had a difficult time getting to him since he was always surrounded by thousands of poor willing to do his bidding. In fact, between the 12th and 20th centuries there were hundreds of riots most of them having one thing in common, they were protesting against injustice or inequality. One would then be forgiven to assume that given the regularity with which people rioted, the consequence could not have been very severe. Conversely, the state took riots very seriously and the ring leaders and anyone caught in the act was usually punished in some of the most gruesome ways imaginable, Fitz for example was torn asunder and hanged. Many others after him were often sentences to hang and before the 19th century rioters could in most cases expect nothing less than death for their participation (Marriot, 2011). British authorities have always been ready to employ the full machinery of the state when it came to quelling riots in the past, if the local police were unable to handle the situations, the army would be called in. Many of the hangings were done in public places so they could serve as examples to others, while this did often reduce the propensity for rioting the effect was rarely long lasting. Why then, one may ask, would they be so consistent in their rioting even in the face of such dire consequences? The answer to that query is the basis of the justification of the thesis of this paper, rioting had with time become a cultural norm in England and irrespective of the consequences, whenever people felt they were being oppressed they would take to the street and force the powers that be to take notice of their grievances. In the second half of the 19th century, there was a marked reduction of instances of rioting owing to the advert of trade unionism and the institutions of parliamentary democracy. However, even in these circumstances, present conditions attest to, riots did not completely died out and despite the new avenues that existed in the new political and labour dispensations, sometimes the people felt sufficiently desperate to take to the streets. Contemporary riots are however rarely results of criminal activities as the state would like to have the public believe, in the 2011 riots, Cameroon said that the rioters ere criminal, pure and simple and should be treated as such (Baker, 2012). While conceding that rioting is often illegal and destructive, such attitudes by leadership have contributed to the underlying culture of rioting. Instead of addressing the underlying issue of inequality and injustice that motivate the rioters, they often focus on the act of rioting and conveniently ignore their motivation. Consequently they only treat the symptoms and the actual problems keep simmering underneath until they become too much and are violently expressed, that way the violet circle is repeated all over again. Modern riots, are not very different from ex post facto ones, in fact most of them seem to follow the same patterns in regard to causes and activities. Many of these commence in cities, which according to (Borden and Miles, 2004) are the places where culture is formed and received owing to the interaction of diverse peoples. The main difference in the methods used to rally protesters, today, owing to mass media, telecommunication and social network, it is much easier for news to travel around and for people to access the same information at the same time thus making it easy to plan and strategize on the protests and riots. To better understand the most recent riots this essay will first examine the last few riots leading up to the 2011 ones so as to establish grounds on which the comparison can be carried out. The Brixton riots were based on a backdrop of police vs. civilian especially the youth conflict with the former being constantly accused of impartiality brutality and racism; he stage for the riots was set in Brixton. This was one of England poor neighbourhoods and many of its inhabitants were blacks who were bearing the blunt of nationwide recession. There was a lot of racial tension in the air between the constabulary and the youth and the stabbing of Bailey, a black youth served as the lynch pin for the riots that went done in history as the most destructive. The young man was apprehended by the police as he ran away from three other youths who were said to be chasing him, he had a stab wound and after he was apprehended, the offices were deemed to be neglecting to give him medical attention causing aggravation among the public. The next day he died and it was claimed his death was a result of police brutality, youths took to the streets and barricaded roads engaging the ill prepared police and the fire service in running battles. The aftermath of the two day riots was significant, 299 police officers and 65 civilians were injured, and over a hundred vehicles both civilian d police were destroyed, with 28 premises completely destroyed and 117 looted and damaged albeit not put out of commission, 82 people were arrested. Following the riots, several minor instances of unrest were reported I other parts of Britain mostly fuelled by racial tension and police vs. civilian discord, these were however quickly mitigated by the high alert police force. The latest riots in England occurred between 6th and 11th of august in 2011 with rioting taking place simultaneously in several cities resulting massive chaos, looting injuries arrests and death. Popularly known as the blackberry riots, they were dubbed thus owing to the tendency of the public to use BBM and other social networks to mobilize support and rally each other. This trend is similar to the Arab rising where social network was used to promote the protest that led to the fall of several autocracies in the Middle East and Africa. The riots were sparked of by the shooting of an unarmed black teen in Tottenham (Mark Duggan) , protests were held in response to the fact and in one of these, the crowd got aggravated when police were viewed to have used excessive force to restrain a 16 year old girl taking part. Overnight, the youthful protesters and police engaged each other in running battles starting in Tottenham and latter spreading to London and other parts of England, several cities such as Birmingham, Bristol, and Manchester and others staged what the government called copycat riots (Wain and Joyce, 2012). All police leave was cancelled and parliament was recalled from leave so that the situation could be addressed, by the 3rd day of the riots, over 3000 people had been arrested thousands of crimes recorded. 6 people died as a result of the violence and 16 were seriously injured, the damage in property is estimated to have been a high a 200 million pounds. Analyst as one, which had been waiting to happen, described the riot and it was attributed to more than just protest over police brutality (Bowling and Sheptycki, 2012). There were several possible explanations but the most dominant ones had to do with issues of race, economic inequality as well as social cultural factors such as hooliganism and gang culture (Oborne, 2011). It is worth noting that hooliganism although not given much credit for the situation may have contributed a great deal to the unruly culture that has often been manifested in the UK. This is especially the case in soccer, ever football season, hundreds of soccer fans are arrested as for engaging in football hooliganism in which they often fight and insult each other within and without the stadiums. Bearing in mind that sports are supposed to bring people together, the situations is often different when it comes to English football fans. This culture of hooliganism which is as old as the game in the country serves as further proof of the fact that rioting in England has historical roots that quite easily transcend contemporary urban protest to which it if compared. The 2011 riots have been compared to the Brixton riots based on a number of distinct similarities in initial causes, the underlying ones as well as the means by which their wee carried out. Both of riots ironically took place in the backgrounds of royal wedding and not surprising during periods of economic downturns. Many of the action were repeated and in some cases, the same streets and probably shops were looted 30 years apart. In the Brixton riots, youths stormed shops and stole clothes televisions sets and other luxuries, which their economic condition had put out of their reach, the political responses, were not very different either. Margaret Thatcher described them as criminals and did Cameroon and many of those arrested were harshly punished albeit not in the draconian ways of the earlier centuries. The most significant point of similarly is probably the fact that in both cases, the lynch pin was attributed to police brutality towards a black youth. However the ensuring rioting was in protest of deep seated complains by the protestor such as unemployment, injustice and naturally, racial tensions. It is apparent that in England, the public, more so the youths are often ready to pay back violence with violence when it comes to police brutality. However, while with the benefit of hindsight one can confirm that the police in the early 80s were often harsh and racially prejudiced; the situation has improved over the years and cannot have warranted the same amount of activism it did 30 years ago. Therefore, it is logical to assume that the culture of protest which late turn to riots transcend the actual perceived course and that the British protestors use provocation such as the police shooting to express their disaffection for other issues. Most notable among this are economic; the rioters will often claim they are fighting injustice while many of the pervade the same by using their numbers to steal and destroying property for innocent people. From critical perspective it would seem many of this is simply trying to access the items and goods their stations in life do not allow for them to afford. In many ways, riots can be seen as a product of the lives the participants are forced to live and this culture of political social and economic injustice that seems to have become a part of British life has over the years spawned a more sinister culture of rioting when the pressure is too much. In conclusion, it is can be said that while there are have been a myriad causes of rioting in England over the centuries ,the themes of inequality and more recently racism have consistently occurred and in the latter has been instrumental in sparking the last two off. That the various British governments have probably spent more time and effort than most others in curbing the riots and to some extent their courses yet they persist suggest something deeper that is convectional in contemporary urban violence. Riots are likely more common and serious there than in most other nations of its social and political standing because historically, they have become entrenched into the cultural fibre with each generation copying the previous despite efforts to solve problems through mainstream avenues such as courts. References Baker, S.A., 2012. From the criminal crowd to the "mediated crowd": the impact of social media on the 2011 English riots. Safer Communities, 11(1), pp. 40-49. Borden, I., Hall T. and Miles, M. 2004. The City Cultures Reader (2nd Ed.) London: Routledge. Bowling, B. and Sheptycki, J. 2012. Global Policing. London: Sage. Kelly, L. and Gill, A.K., 2012. Rotis not Riots: a feminist dialogue on the riots and their aftermath. Safer Communities,11(1), pp. 62-72. Marriot, J. 2011. London riots: history repeats itself but we havent learnt our lesson. The London Times. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/london/8709104/London-riots-history-repeats-itself-but-we-havent-learnt-our-lesson.html Oborne, P. (11 August 2011). "The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom". The Daily Telegraph. Available at: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100100708/the-moral-decay-of-our-society-is-as-bad-at-the-top-as-the-bottom/ Wain, N. and Joyce, P., 2012. Disaffected communities, riots and policing: Manchester 1981 and 2011. Safer Communities,11(3), pp. 125-134. Read More