The London Riots and Why We’re the Destroyers of Our Own Privacy

Tottenham

In light of recent events, I’m pushing other posts back to bring you this one today.

As I write this, London is emerging from its third night of rioting. It’s the first night where the unrest has seemingly “jumped” to other towns and cities over England, like an infectious disease that spreads without mercy. I’ve spent much of the time staring wide-eyed at television screens, horrified and utterly bemused. How does one comparatively small riot in one area on one day turn into multiple instances in multiple areas over multiple days? Separated, no less, by a full day’s breather.

Instigation

It all started on Saturday. A peaceful protest was held by residents in Tottenham, North London, in response to the police-shooting of a man, Mark Duggan. The area is known for its tension between the locals and police, and rather predictably, the protest turned ugly.

Focussing on Mark Duggan’s shooting, it’s still unclear what actually happened. Without knowing the details, I can only speculate that Mr. Duggan had done something wrong, police then got involved, he would had to have been considered dangerous for a gun-carrying police unit to be called, and he would had to have been considered an immediate threat to the safety of others for the police to open fire. What we do know is that there are two completely different portraits of Mr. Duggan. There’s one that depicts him as a gangster and a drug dealer, and the other which depicts him as a loving, doting father and fiance.

Unoriginal Vandalism

Naturally, the family of Mr. Duggan claim that he was unarmed and didn’t shoot first (which is kind of contradictory, surely if he was unarmed he didn’t shoot at all). They also said “He’s not stupid to shoot at the police [...]“, which kind of implies he would shoot at others. I also don’t see why it’s so hard to believe that he was both the gangster and the doting father… he wouldn’t be the first gang member who loved his family.

Apparently, it wasn’t this that started the riot however. What started it, was that Mr. Duggan’s family were left waiting outside the police station to be told what had happened to him for an unacceptable amount of time. It’s the handling of “the family’s needs” that provided the spark to the volatile fuel of hatred toward the police. And that is–as far as I’m aware–how it all started, and how Tottenham became a war zone on Saturday night.

Brixton

On Sunday, Brixton held a reggae festival. People had fun, and even from my room I could hear the bass of huge speakers demanding people to chill and relax. It’s a great vibe, and one of the reasons why I love Brixton. That night in the Academy, Morrissey was playing solo to a packed venue, and I had to wonder if he would sing “Panic in the Streets of London”. The gig ended at around 22:30, at least that’s when I went for a walk amongst the crowds pouring out. While they left, and the festival wound down to a peaceful end, “youths” were beginning to come into Brixton, and signs of tension were clear. It appears I got off the streets just in time.

The riots and looting which left Brixton a wreck by Monday morning (most of the high street was police-taped off, and pretty much every shop was closed including food shops) were perhaps predictable. Like Tottenham, Brixton has its history of feuds between residents and the police, with rioting here going back decades and the worst of them being in 1981. The riots of 1995 were in direct response to the death of Wayne Douglas, which occurred while he was in police custody.

So while there is a loose connection between Saturday and Sunday night’s inexcusable violence, it certainly doesn’t justify opening old wounds, as it were. It’s just as likely that Brixton being picked as a target was nothing more than coincidence, for Tottenham residents have no business bringing their violence to other areas. As such, I’m certain that’s not what happened.

Pushed to Extremes

Immoral Mentality

There’s a lot of tension in the world right now. With our economic crises and horribly high unemployment figures, there’s a lot of anger brewing. I honestly think this has a part to play. Even though a lot of the looters and rioters were youths, out of school in the summer holidays, they’re affected too. Unfortunately, there are also those who simply like to cause trouble and mayhem. There are those who are sheep, and follow the herd. As one looter said, they saw people getting stuff for free, and figured why shouldn’t they? Thus, they joined in.

Morals have, then, seemingly gone straight out the window. And it’s all of these subsets of people–the followers, the aggressors, the morally lacking–that come together to do damage, not in protest against anything, but just to do it. To make a mess of things, to steal things, and to get away with it. These people saw the opportunity to be part of a mob, where the risk of getting caught is significantly lower, and they took advantage. They’re cowards. I find it hard to believe that every single one of them had below-average intelligence, but every single one of them certainly acted that way.

But they’re organised. Social networking played its part by making it easy to “organise” the riots, ensuring everyone went to the same place. The whole “strength in numbers” tactic is unfortunately no secret, and the police were simply outnumbered.

The Dystopian Future

So what’s this got to do with privacy? Well, these riots got me thinking about how they would or could be controlled in the future, or more specifically, prevented. There’s really only one solution, which is to do what we already do, but more intensely. I’m talking about Big Brother. We already have CCTV cameras covering public places, and people already complain about the invasion of their privacy.

Heat of Violence

The only way we are ever going to be able to control crime, is to know what everybody is doing all of the time. We’re already halfway there, with intelligent programs seeking out keywords in emails and text messages, and of course the afore-mentioned CCTV which, currently, is a panopticon. The cameras are there mostly to deter us because we don’t know whether we’re being watched or not. It’ll get to the stage where the police are alerted the second someone is on camera whose face is covered. When we have enough cameras, it won’t matter if they cover their face, because we’ll be able to track them all the way back to the house they left.

I recently read “The Traveller” by John Twelve Hawks which highlights this future we’re heading toward, and in the book it sounds very sci-fi, but it’s based on fact and it’s easy to see how it will become reality.

It’s kind of scary when you think about the completely open society we’re heading toward, where there will be no such thing as privacy. I don’t want to live in that society, I’m sure no-one does, but it’s the only way we’re ever going to be able to live in relative peace, and the only people we’ll have to blame is ourselves… or more specifically the below-avergage-intelligence dumbasses who turn peaceful protests ugly and incite riots.

My Thoughts

I am simply shocked and disgusted at the mentality of these people. I know not one of them will think of the country’s economy and how they have added millions of pounds to our debt, and I’m sure most of them claim benefits so they won’t even be the ones to pay the taxes that will pay for their idiocy.

I’ve said it before, they are cowards. They are the lowest form of scum. In other countries people are fighting for freedom, protesting against poverty, and trying to better their lives, while these rioters and looters are doing nothing but making other’s lives miserable for no good cause or reason. I hate to think of the people affected, those who have evacuated their homes for fear of their safety, and those whose lives depend on the shops that have now been destroyed. There is no place for mindless violence, and I sincerely hope that every man woman and child who took part in these devastating attacks, and who are no doubt sitting in their dingy sitting rooms smugly watching their new 30″ plasma screen, I hope they all get their comeuppance.

The second the violence started on Saturday night, it no longer had anything to do with the shooting of Mr. Duggan. Whether he was wrongly shot or not, I have no idea and have no comment, but while I am all for peaceful protests, anyone and everyone who incites aggressive behaviour like this ought to be locked away.

As far as the police are concerned, for I know they’re taking a lot of grief, it’s worth noting that they have had major cuts in workforce and numbers are not as high as they should be. This was exemplified with other forces outside of London having to subsidise the MET, providing extra officers.

The problem is, and this is again down to mentality, is this all started–in part–because of the police taking action. It then goes in circles with the more violent the rioters get, the more aggressive the police have to be, which causes more violence.

Stupidity. Pure bloody stupidity.

About Mark

Mark D. Evans is an aspiring writer. He lives in North London with his imaginary pet wookie. Not really… he lives in South London.

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