13 Aug 2011 - This week will mostly be remembered for the UK riots which started about a week ago. I read a good analysis by journalist Richard Hall on the Al Jazeera website. He writes that the callousness displayed by many of those involved, and the sheer scale of the disturbances, has understandably caused a great deal of anger. As a result, many people have chosen to reject any debate over why these riots are taking place at all. The impression appears to be that the crimes committed were so great and so senseless that to try and understand them is to condone them.
Hall points out that the areas worst affected by looting and rioting are among the most deprived in the country. And that these same areas are the most affected by gangs. It is easy to ignore the voices of those who work with the communities affected by rioting, such as Camila Batmanghelidjh, who has spent decades working with poor and disenfranchised youth. She writes of those looting: "Community, they would say, has nothing to offer them. Instead, for years they have experienced themselves cut adrift from civil society's legitimate structures. Society relies on collaborative behaviour; individuals are held accountable because belonging brings personal benefit." It is easier still to ignore young people who live in areas like Wood Green, interviewed as recently as July, who said after the closure of youth clubs in Haringey: "I used to go to a couple of youth clubs […] now there is just nothing to do. We are just out here with nothing to do. We're just out here getting up to no good." And another, who warned: "There will be riots." It doesn't require a tremendous stretch of the imagination to consider that these things might not be a complete coincidence. Conversely, to say these are the only factors would be wrong, as it has become clear that those rioting were not exclusively young people from the aforementioned communities.
Hall concludes that it should not be so difficult to understand that listening to those who live and work in the communities affected by the riots is not the same as condoning the actions of the rioters. Quite the opposite, it is necessary to prevent the same thing from happening again. It is possible to condemn those people who have destroyed livelihoods and risked lives, demand they be punished to the full extent of the law, and try to understand what led them to believe these actions were acceptable.It is also possible to believe that poverty, lack of opportunities and the exclusion of certain groups from society are underlying causes to these disturbances - among many others - and to say that they are entirely responsible for their own actions.
We are left with a choice: either we arrest and prosecute everyone involved and carry on as normal until the next riot, or we arrest and prosecute everyone involved and try to address the causes which led to them in the first place.
