Riots 2011: London In Meltdown

Here at Flavour we wholeheartedly condemn the riots that happened over this weekend and that are continuing as I write. Families have been displaced, local businesses have been affected, there has been hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage and many people have been injured. This is not on!

I’m not going to comment on what happened to Mark Duggan because until ballistics come back and until there is 100% corroboration as to what happened it is all just hearsay. I would just like to extend my condolences to his family at this time. Regardless of the circumstances nobody deserves to loose a loved one in this way.

The death of Duggan may have been the trigger for the riots in Tottenham but the sporadic outbursts of violence, rioting and looting that are happening now around the capital of the United Kingdom should not be tolerated. Seeing children as young as 8 looting shops like JD Sports, Curry’s and PC World alongside adults that should know better is proof that we are now living in a society full of a lot of people that do not value property, the law, this country and most importantly human life (as I hear about fireworks and petrol bombs being thrown on the news in the background).

[smooth=id:113;]

With weeks left until children go back to school after the summer holiday and cuts to youth activities happening daily the reality is this will not be the last time we see violence of this kind and in 2011 for something like this to happen is shameful.

I would also like to point out that this is not a black thing; youths and adults from a variety of races and nationalities have been involved. I do not know what will come next but as the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow things are probably going to get worse before they get better.

Check out some of the images that we have gathered on the events of the last few days and this is what people have had to say on Twitter and Facebook

@Merlin Emmanuel “Each day we force-feed our youth a toxic diet of vanity, profanity and overt sexuality and wonder why their moral standards are regressing at such an alarming rate. It is the system and ourselves who are responsible for their arrogation to materialism and consumerism? Instead of demonising them, shouldn’t we be thinking of initiatives as adults that can change their mentality for the better?”

@Mary Florence Bello From peaceful protest to pointless behaviour. Ignorant thugs are using someone’s death as an excuse to cause discord, mayhem and destruction. And we’re left with media distortion, an even more convoluted IPCC investigation into Mark Duggans death and worse relations between black people and the police.

@PauletteEnnever “You know what’s hurting me, all the time me, my daughter and others have spent talking to people young and old getting them to sign the petition for deaths in police custody. It almost makes me feel as if all the hard work has been in vain. Any march or positive affirmative action we take in peace now will be viewed in suspicion by the powers that be. But I won’t give up and will keep fighting peacefully to help heal our broken societies no matter what.”

@Suzanne Burrell my view is that the riots have nothing to do with the death of Mark Duggan, his death is an excuse to ignite the bomb that has been waiting to go off! Young people especially the black community have been suffering from lack of employment, police oppression, racism, failure of the education system, failure of the housing system, loss of opportunity etc. for a very long time! These feelings have been exacerbated by the laws and policies of the new Government! This weekend showed me a group of people who are angry at the system and the way they are being treated and fighting back the only way they know! It’s not right but I understand! I sympathise but do not empathise!

@Melek Derebeyli All this rioting really has nothing to do with Mark Duggan…it’s just groups of opportunists who are using it as an excuse to go round looting, which is quite disgusting really! If only they were rioting/protesting on behalf of the Duggan family, at least then it would be reasonable! But that doesn’t mean looting and setting innocent people’s homes and shops on fire!!! I think it’s a case of youths being bored out of their heads, hoping to cause havoc and chaos…is life really that boring?! I say we need more youth clubs, entertainment for these kids/big kids 🙂

@Charlene Marie Eltis Yes! Iv worked with young people for over 7years…A lot of positive targeted work was being done with young people via youth clubs, gang projects, community outreach etc and all funding was cut, all the support previously in place dashed. It was only a matter of time for something like this to happen.

@Dee Constantine-Simms The very complaints being made about the violence and looting are the very same complaints that our parents made when the older generation were rioting in the 1970’s and 1980’s? Guess what happened? The country dropped sussed laws! Equal op…portunities policies were made law in 1981, after the Scarman Report! As a consequence, Black people were given jobs in the public sector like never before. Yes! The employed youth of the 1980’s who are now employed and professional adults of now! Need to reflect and appreciate why and how you attain your positions. If it was not for open ” STREET DISCUSSIONS” I really do not think change would have taken place so quickly. All the ingredients that existed in the 1980’s are right here now! Its just that so many people are either to blind! to fool or ignorant to appreciate where were are at NOW! What is interesting in this situation, is that the violence is not about Black youth! Its about youth disaffection, desenfranchisement.

@ The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is condemning this weekend’s London rioting, saying community difficulties will not be helped by torching shops.

Director General of the British Retail Consortium, Stephen Robertson, said: “I deplore the violence and property damage inflicted by these criminal actions. I have the greatest sympathy for those who’ve lost businesses, staff whose jobs are now in jeopardy and customers now without local services.

“There may be genuine economic or community relations grievances in these areas but they will not be helped by torching shops.

“Retail is at the heart of thriving communities. Clearly, with high streets under pressure anyway, at least some of the businesses destroyed will not be able to re-establish themselves, causing long-term damage.

“And, at a time when some of London’s most deprived areas are looking forward to a substantial spending boost from visitors to next year’s Olympics, this sends an appalling message to would-be tourists around the world.”

@NajiWavey when the yoots themselves say ‘there’s nothing for them to do’ remember these are the types of yoots with the least amount of opportunities, and those opportunities that they are aware of are cut and chopped. They know right from wrong but when you hav a mentality that thinks fuk it, i got nothing to lose you hav to change the way they think about themselves before you can make them change their behaviour. We need to giv them new opps and then teach them the art of choice making. I work with a lot of these kids, the ones that get thrown out of this one size fits all education system that just doesnt work for them. They are very gifted, intelligent, ambitious yoots with no direction and limited external guidence and will try and find their own way in a place that doesnt encourage or nurture their potential. They need to LEARN not just have an education. the two are different in my opinion. If they are that way its partly our fault as elders because they learn from US so we have to fix up so they can… at least from home first… this is what happens when neglect, on many levels, gets to a point where it cant be contained.. it spills over and we all hav to clean up the mess…

@Donna Bryant i feel sorry for the parents that are struggling to keep their children on the straight and narrow in a society where children have more rights than their parents and where the establishment does nothing but erode the little control we have over our children, there is so little support for these parents its a crying shame I feel for any parent who is witnessing the demise of the child they brought into the world to make a positive contribution……but some of us have got it all twisted and are instead of explaining why and how we are supposed to live in a harmonious society and community to our children, we do the other which is if teacher tell of child parent want to box down teacher, if child and another child fall out parents want to have a beef, when you know your child is upto no good dont ignore it we have to stand firm in what we believe and more importantly it is imperative that we as a caring loving community we need to look inwards and self help and self love its the only way we already know the politicians and the police dont care about us…..that does not mean that we should stop caring about ourselves……please dont anyone say its impossible we never thought that we would see a country like USA galvanise itself and the communities to vote for change we are a long way from that but we can stand up for change……..as I said I could go on and on and on and on…….I’m passionate about this because the the community is the only place I wanna be living I dont have anywhere else to go…..Fix up people before its too late….

@Darren Ashley The preconditions for what we are now witnessing have been set like this way intentionally. The powers know what they are doing when they manipulate the economy, increase the cost of living, cut jobs, close youth centres and other community initiatives… we will be seeing more of this…

@Henna Khan If someone can afford an iPhone/blackberry to help make arrangements on how and where to meet to loot, gets dinner be that chicken and chips they aren’t poor, famine in Somalia – that’s poor. People have questions they want answering then they should bang on the door of the prime ministers house, I would bang on the door with them, to ruin communities who have struggled to lead decent lives – cowards.

Citizen films girl being attacked by Tottenham Riot police in this video

BBC News: Eye Witness Account of the Tottenham Riots 2011