London this week

I believe most people’s reaction to the looting and rioting that has been talking place in London and now other cities across the UK is outrage.

I know I was both furious and worried, then furious that I had to be worried about my loved ones.

Not living in the UK and being a bit lax on checking the news every day I didn’t discover the full extent of the rampage until Tuesday morning when Clapham and the surrounding areas were added to the list of borough casualties. It wasn’t immediately apparent to me what had started the trouble, it certainly took some digging to discover it was the death of a young man in Tottenham and the peaceful protest about that which, it seems had been hijacked. Many of the youths shown on the news and the numerous YouTube clips didn’t mention Mark Duggan at all, those that did referred to “a man”. It seemed they had lost sight (if they had ever had it) of the reason behind the trouble in the first place.

One of my friends kicked off Tuesday morning’s debate by stating she thought it was time the army were brought in. I should point out that the person in question isn’t by any means a Daily Mail reading reactionary but simply a law abiding, taxpaying, frustrated resident of one of the effected boroughs. As a contributing member of society she wonders where her human rights are when the powers that be are so worried about the rioters.

Theresa May was quoted as saying that our police force wouldn’t be using water cannons on the rioters because “The way we police in Britain is not with water cannons. The way we police in Britain is on the streets and with the communities” (not because we haven’t got any then?) the trouble is when the community itself is on fire sometimes you have to change tack.

It has been endlessly speculated that these (mostly) young people don’t feel part of a community, they are the archetypal “disaffected youth” the product of an evil, youth club shutting, benefits cutting society that refuses to look after its own. Be honest, how many of those featured on Sky News could you see in a youth club? More to the point how many youth clubs are open at 3.30am and give access to free trainers?

Some of the looters have been called simply opportunistic....”yes officer, I just happened to be walking my dog through the middle of a riot at 3am and saw this 52” flat screen TV just sitting there, carelessly left behind metal shutters and re-enforced glass” come on, it’s hardly a bit of light scrumping on a summers day is it.

For all my reactionary fury there is something in me which questions what has gone wrong for this mass of population to turn against its own. There is some truth that people who feel they have no stake in society have nothing to lose by not conforming to, or indeed by damaging that society. One delightful young lady who was interviewed whilst swigging from a stolen bottle of rosé wine (rosé! traditional drink of the political activist) at 9.30am gave the following insight “we’re showing the police we can do what we like, the rich, yeah we’re showing the rich we can do what we like” the rich in question were local shop owners, I’m not sure that a corner florist (for example) that was set alight would be an obvious anti-capitalist target.

Is her point frustration at her perception that she won’t be able to attain these same floral riches for herself due to the economic climate she’s growing up (questionable whether this is actually happening or not) in or is it just plain envy? Had the young lady spent endless months sending out her CV and letters seeking employment only to become disenfranchised with the very society she seemed to be taking revenge on?

Without any clear agenda and without any coherent voice it is difficult to feel anything but disgust for the people carrying out these raids. They seem less interested in making themselves heard and more interested in as one friend put it “stuff”. And I’m the token lefty in my circle of friends.

Time and again we hear the excuse about these youths have been “dealt a bad hand” by society whose their only response option is violence. Sorry, not buying it. Whilst there are of course social problems we have the benefit of living in a society where you can change your path, it may not always seem like it but we do have choices. Perhaps a stint working with aid agencies in Somalia might put things into perspective for them?

One of the most galling things for a lot of people was how powerless the police seemed to be. The perpetrators know very well that they only have to shout “police brutality” for an officer to be suspended, they also know that in great numbers there’s nowhere that the police can hold all of them, and what about evidence? How long, how many man hours is it going to take to sift through the CCTV footage to identify just one person? I don’t in any way condone the police being untouchable and I’m equally sure that within the police force there are factions of less than desirable officers as I’m confident you would find in any large organisation. I’m not sure, given reflection that I can sign up to “when you commit a crime against an innocent person you waive your own human rights from that moment on” I almost believe it, and it’s an understandable knee-jerk reaction towards people who are seemingly harming our society.......but it’s a rather big statement isn’t it?

Wouldn’t we then descend into lawlessness? If we have laws against war crimes which let’s face it are probably even more understandable and originated from bloodier conflicts than this, shouldn’t we who consider ourselves morally superior want to retain our dignity? By keeping their human rights we hold them accountable for their crimes and we hold on to our society, that’s not to say I don’t think water cannons couldn’t have been put to good use.

The whole thing poses some very uncomfortable questions.

One of the most enduring things for me to come out of this is the @riotcleanup gangs who turned up then next morning with their brooms, ready to clean up and reclaim their communities. Largely driven by Twitter it was a reminder that people do value their communities, that people are willing to invest their time into the places they live and I hope that this sense of community spirit, of togetherness can prevail in London and the other cities and that this will be the outcome.

Reclaim your boroughs, know your neighbours and maybe, just maybe some of that will filter down to the generation who feel so separate from everyone around them.