England’s attempt to fully understand rioting touched off by a policeman’s fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year old Black man, in many ways mirror the debate that followed the urban unrest that the United States underwent in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968. The BBC and other news organizations have cited the competing arguments on the underlying causes of the outbursts.
Here are
some of the most commonly cited causes:
RACISM
Christina
Patterson, writing in the Independent newspaper, said: “Race didn’t cause these
riots, but it played a part… Too many black men have been killed by police. Too
many black men and women have been treated like criminals when they’re not.
This is not the cause of these riots, but it’s there in the mix, a mix where
the key ingredient is feeling powerless. Cuts won’t help. Growing unemployment
won’t help. Some investment in youth services, and better schools, and
mentoring schemes might, but money alone isn’t the answer.”
GANGSTA
RAP AND CULTURE
On Aug.
8, the Daily Mirror carried the headline, “London riots: Is rap music to blame
for encouraging this culture of violence?” To Paul Routledge, the author of the
story, the answer is definitely yes. He wrote, “The mayhem erupted overnight, but it has been building for
years. And putting more police on the streets – while vital to end the threat
to life and property – will not solve the crisis.
“I blame
the pernicious culture of hatred around rap music which glorifies violence and
loathing of authority (especially the police but including parents), exalts
trashy materialism and raves about drugs. The important things in life are the
latest smart phones, fashionable trainers and jeans and idiot computer games.
No wonder stores selling them were priority looting targets. Stir into this
lethal mixture the fostering of irrational anger against the world and
disrespect for others and the end result is self-absorbed young people living
at boiling point.”
ABSENT
FATHERS
Christina
Odone of the Daily Telegraph wrote: “Here are three numbers to bear in mind
when talking about the riots: 8 billion (pounds spent by social services each
year on children and young people); 3.5 million (children from a broken home);
and one fifth (school leavers who are illiterate.” The writer suggests looking at some other numbers as well.
She said, “A large number of youngsters are brought up without dads. The
majority of rioters are gang members whose only loyalty is to the gang and
whose only authority figure is the toughest of the bunch. Like the overwhelming
majority of offenders behind bars, these gang members have one thing in common:
no father at home.”
SOCIAL EXCLUSION
Camila
Batmanghelidj, founder of The Place To Be and Kids Company charity, wrote in
the Independent: “It’s not one
occasional attack on dignity, it’s a repeated humiliation, being continuously
disposed in a society rich with possession. Young, intelligent citizens of the
ghetto want an explanation for why they are at the receiving end of bleak
Britain, condemned to a darkness where their humanity is not even valued enough
to be helped. Savagery is a possibility within us all. Some of us have been
lucky enough not to have to call upon it for survival; others, exhausted from
failure, can justify resorting to it.”
WEAK
POLICING
An
editorial in the Sun stated, “[Prime Minister] David Cameron spoke for most of
us when he said police were initially too thin on the ground and misjudged
their early response.”
ANIMALISTIC
BEHAVIOR
Conservative
columnists Max Hastings, writing in the Mail Online, charged: “They are
essentially wild beasts. I use that phrase advisedly, because it seems
appropriate to young people bereft of the discipline that might make them
employable; of the conscience that distinguishes between right and wrong. They
respond only to instinctive animal impulses – to eat and drink, have sex or
destroy the accessible property of others. Their behaviour on the streets
resembled that of the polar bear which attacked a Norwegian tourist camp last
week. They were doing what came naturally and, unlike the bear, no one even
shot them for it.”
SPENDING
CUTS
London
mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone told the BBC: “If you’re making massive cuts,
there’s always the potential for this sort of revolt against that.” Marian
FitzGerald, visiting professor of criminology at the University of Kent, noted,
“The full implementation of the cuts to local authority services that will have
the biggest impact on these areas will not be fully felt until next year.
However, it may be that because there’s so much talk about police spending
cuts, the rioters may have internalised the message that they’re less likely to
be caught.”
CONSUMERISM
Zoe
Williams, writing in the Guardian, offered what she called a pragmatic
explanation. Williams said, “This is what happens when people don’t have
anything, when they have their noses constantly rubbed in stuff they can’t
afford, and they have no reason to believe that they will ever be able to
afford it.”
I knew
the rioting in England had taken on an American flavor when I looked at a quote
from a reader replying to a BBC story about the unrest. The reader said, “I
agree there are many reasons for this situation. However, I put poor,
uninformed, and unexperienced parenting at the top of the list. You have babies
trying to raise babies.”
George E.
Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is
a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his
Web site, www.georgecurry.com. You can also follow him at www.twitter.com/currygeorge.
