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As a young Londoner was shot dead, and a peaceful protest outside the police station in Tottenham began, trouble brewed amongst youths. For years communitites have dealt with ‘hoodies’ terrorizing, threatening residents and committing crimes all around London. Children become accustomed to this kind of life style, they may even find it alluring. Becoming a member in a gang could give them the protection they think they need in life. Instead of trying to better the personal situation they may find themselves in, they think society owes them. Life is hard, you have to work at getting what you want, and nothing is handed to anyone on a plate. As Mark Twain (Huckleberry Finn) wrote, “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first”. This is what these individuals fail to realise, fighting for what you want and succeeding, makes the victory taste that much sweeter. Anger penetrates their world and Thursday saw the ticking time bomb finally explode upon London, its citizens and businesses.
From Thursday evening until Tuesday morning, London saw sporadic rioting on the streets spreading from Tottenham to Hackney, Lewisham to Clapham. London had become a war zone, the enemy is no longer abroad, and the “enemy” comes in the form of children, children who have no idea how their actions implicate other lives and livings. News stations broadcasted constant coverage of the riots around London, showing images of buses, cars, houses, and businesses on fire. Children and young adults mobbed the streets, breaking into any shop that took their fancy. If there was something worth taking, there was no hesitation.
Chaos resumed from mid-afternoon on Monday 9th August until late into the night, Police were thin on the ground and unable to get to every riot point as it continued to spread from shop to shop. Photos of men antogonising officers were pictured as well as the infamous male in a grey hoodie featured on most newspapers Tuesday morning. When a female was asked if she was proud of stealing property she replied
“I’m getting my taxes back”.The common belief would be that this woman has probably never completed a hard day’s work in her life, but of course help yourself to anything, you deserve it.
The mayhem caused from the police shooting a known drug dealer was unforeseen; no one was prepared for the public reaction. Those involved in the rioting used a death as an excuse to act in an aggressive and horrific manner, causing pandemonium. As the week began, reports came in from around England showing the young and unruly unleashing terror on other cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool, and Bristol. The mindlessness of the youth had spread and now others thought that copying was a clever idea, something they can tell the
grandkids about, assuming they live to do so.
16,000 police were deployed from the MET and surrounding counties to help restore calm and make residents feel safer in their homes, however it still seemed that many felt the police were ‘bystanders’ instead of a force to be reckoned with. The truth is, Police Officers have so many rules and regulations to abide by that when it comes to situations such as these it’s hard to confirm the right type of action to take. Tuesday night saw the rise of men around London taking it on themselves to patrol the streets. The aim - to help the police catch the thieves and criminals and ‘take back their community’. Many feeling restless and helpless during this exasperating time felt like another step needed to be taken in order to eradicate this behaviour.
If these are the voices of the next generation, I hope I live to see the termination of them. Respect is a distant concept in this day and age and children have yet to purchase a dictionary to understand the simple meaning. Let this be a warning of what’s to come.
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