Three weeks ago parts of London erupted in violence. Now, as the August lull fades, it seems that the memory of those scary few days is as well. The worst thing we could do now is forget the real problems which triggered that violence.
The people, old and young, who took part in the violence are now being slowly brought to justice. Some are going through the courts right now, others have their faces plastered all over the Met Police website. It’s right that we focus attention of those who committed crimes and make sure that their communities know who they are. There is nothing more powerful than your own community telling you that what you did was wrong.
But while the manhunt for the criminals continues, the masses of innocent spectators to the violence – those whose communities may already have been affected by crime and poverty – are now hidden from our attention once more.
Residents in Tottenham and other parts of London were terrified for days and some had to leave their homes during the night because of fire or violence in their buildings. It’s not something that they will want to remember in a hurry, but the worst thing we could do is to forget the fear that we all felt at the time that our society was somehow breaking down.
Thousands of people and places who the media and politicians talked about for days as the forgotten neighbourhoods, the ‘banlieue’, the ‘sick’ parts of our country, have been hidden again since the media attention waned.
I said at the time that the priority was to restore law and order, make people feel safe in their homes, protect our communities from further attack. Well now it’s the time to remember the fear and pain caused by the violence, and not let it drift into the haze of summer as if it had never even happened.
The truth is that we have chosen not to see poverty right on our doorsteps. We have chosen not to see the faces behind the high youth unemployment figures. We have chosen to ignore young people, call them ‘hoodies’ or ‘youths’ rather than ask why they aren’t in school or in work. This isn’t even a political issue, it’s about what we as citizens are willing and happy to tolerate around us.
We risk forgetting the people who were out on our streets attacking shops, houses, cars and businesses only three weeks ago. Part of that is because of the way we responded to the riots.
Most of us responded by way of crisis intervention and we have been too quick to forget that the root causes of the problems require a long-term strategy to address them. These young people who we saw caught on CCTV footage have quickly gone back to their lives, and we now risk forgetting them. In some cases the support from their peers, communities, or public services are still not present, but our attention has quickly been drawn on to the next crisis.
I’m convinced that the way to prevent this violence again is long-term treatment, not short-term intervention. But the problem is, I don’t think we know what this treatment should look like. And surely that’s the task that we all have to put our minds to if we want to take collective ownership of what allowed the riots to take place?
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David Chaplin is a former chair of the Young Fabians
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Don’t you just love it when the royal ‘WE’ is used?
I strongly suggest you look at community safety strategies, especially those for the area affected for example this is Hackney’s : http://www.hackney.gov.uk/safer-communities-action-plan-for-crime.htm
BULLET POINT 2 “TACKLE CAUSES”
and ask why with key objectives in place to deal with issues which if used since the introduction of community safety strategies as part of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act would have given provision for most of the excuses being given for the riots they were allowed to fail.
MP’s Abbott and Hillier and others who have failed have been asked but, as is the norm, for the political elite head in the sand ignorance has been the chosen option.
The political elite and the media may have chosen to let things fade and forget about people affected but thankfully organisations like Envision and many others won’t.
Absolutely agree on the importance of learning the lessons from the youth riots, and that their scale and nature showed us something is deeply wrong with our society. We have ignored dislocated disaffected young people in Britian for too long. But surely, the only way to break from the group-think and the policies which led us to our current position is to try and get out of the Westminster bubble and actually listen.
Here’s what came out of a recent Young Fabians interview series in Brixton. http://www.youngfabians.org.uk/blog/index.php/2011/08/30/causes-of-the-riots-insights-from-brixton/
Your remarks “we have ignored disaffected young people” and ” (we should) listen” have been expressed on numerous occasions when the topics of urban rioting and youth crime arise – usually from middle-aged, middle-class liberal-thinking women or black youth workers. What both kinds of lobbyists choose to turn a blind eye to is the plain fact that these so-called ignored members of society is that they have, by choice, withdrawn themselves from our communities. They have not been expelled. They have not been forceably deprived of education or opportunities. Like career criminals they have willingly opted to behave as they do because they lack empathy for anyone outside their self-centred ferral bubble. What would we hear if we “listened” to this group of youths? NOTHING! Their lack of interest in education and learning has resulted in their inability to express anything other than grunts – a disability too often displayed by ‘simparfetik yoof leadars’. I agree that as a society we have not paid enough attention to them: we should have intervened in their lifestyles much earlier in their lifes and more forceably. More importantly we should, as a responsible society, have ensured that all children are reared by caring, loving and responsible adults and effectively intervene when such families fall below generally accepted norms.
I hear your loud cries of “Big Brother” and “Dictatorship” but every society, if it is to be stable and content, needs all its citizens to accept and sign up to common mores. These mores will be nuanced as UK society evolves and that is why we always need to be acceptable members of society.
While our “disaffected” youth were rioting and looting in London and elsewhere I was enjoying the performances of our National Youth Orchestra. These fantastic musicians brilliantly illustrated what society should be about: people from all backgrounds and cultures listening to each other and performing in harmony. These beautiful youths represent the true nature of society, not the ferral yobs whose loutish and moronic behaviours are too often ‘justified’ as “an understandable reaction to, for example, police oppression” (‘stop and search’ is the usual pathetic complaint).
For goodness sake, stop talking about “listening to our disaffected youth” and start to educate them. I am sick and tired of adults behaving like children. The role of parents is to teach their children to fit in to society. It is not to treat their children as equals with views as equally valid. Grow up!
By definition, youngsters are less mature, less experienced, less knowledgeable and less wise than adults (despite some TV broadcast’s claims to the contrary) yet the media is still awash with shallow, chattering-classes views that have nothing to do with reality!
When you say that “we have ignored (the) dislocated (and) disaffected young people in Britain for too long” you really should be stating ‘we have failed to address the poor “adult-child” relationship that has existed in certain sections of our society over the last few decades’, the same sections of our modern-day society that are responsible for the vast majority of the criminal and anti-social activity we experience today. Challenge the adults and one might have the opportunity to transform their children.
What a load of ‘journalistic clap-trap’! This is like a Media Studies teacher assigning his class to “write a 1000 words on the recent riots. Make sure you include comments on issues like ‘poverty’ and ‘exclusion’ but be careful not to attribute blame or responsibilty to a particular section of society (apart from the police) as it may offend certain outspoken media-savvy groups and lose you marks”.
“We have chosen not to see poverty on our doorstep, we have chosen not to see the faces behind the high youth unemployment, we have chosen to ignore young people.” Pass me the sick bag!!!
Get real! These were not impoverished, deprived and unemployed youngsters – they were youths whose moral upbringing said “take every opportunity to be destructive, rob shops of as much as you can to enhance your personal lifestyle and demonstrate an utter lack of concern for anyone outside their immediate group of co-conspiritors.”
Now, David, ask yourself: are there any groups in our neighbourhoods that fulfill those criteria and if so, who are they? Additionally, we have to ask why these identified groups behave in these anti-social and illegal ways and what can we, as a neighbourhood, society and government, do to remedy these negative actions.
Are you capable of addressing, if not suggesting solutions, to these issues or would you prefer to continue writing crass articles?
M. … the Nat .Youth Orchestra will be playing music from history in the main. If you think creative advance cannot come from despair ,desperation, anger, the feral (to have changed from being domesticated to being wild or untamed) then I’m afraid you don’t know much about it. I have pointed out elsewhere the black (in particular – although not all rioters were black-far from it)) “beats” sensibility belies the belief that these youngsters do not have a sophisticated understanding of three dimensionality ; four dimensionality infact.You obviously have conservative with a small c musical appreciation. The language of Joyce amongst others ie. the modernist project in general infact is one where many of these youngsters are very definitely onboard .They wanted to be HEARD to say something, ANYTHING,for once,most goods stolen would be sold instead of the usual drugs; a lifestyle which provides highs from danger/adrenaline as well as intoxication. If you cannot hear the voice of those who know only too well they are TRAPPED in criminality
you have a problem. “All citizens to accept and sign up to common mores” who are you ,Stalin ? what about men who nail their goolies to a board, do ‘that ‘with oranges ,all sorts of strange practices go on ,so who defines this “acceptable member of society” ? Some people live in contemplative monastic communities having renounced the world .It takes all sorts.
Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear! What planet are you from and what language are you using to communicate with us earthlings? I used the example of the National Youth Orchestra to show that most of our youth are not involved in mindless thuggery and anti-social activity as demonstrated by the minority looters, arsonists and assaulters. Your ignorance of music, musicians and what they play is utterly astounding but that issue is not germane. You criticize me to expect everyone to sign up to ‘common mores of behaviour’ as “Stalinistic” but that label could not be further from the truth. I am not advocating some ‘dictatorial imposition of behaviour on people’ but quite the opposite. I believe in ‘shared values within society’ defining what is right and what is wrong, what is permissable and what is unacceptable.
You see these feral thugs as ‘innocent fish caught and trapped in society’s net of social exclusion’ and that they are just fighting to stay afloat in this ocean of inequality. The REAL truth is that these criminals (in London, at least, mainly young black males) have spent most (if not all) of their lives rejecting the ‘common mores’ of society (evolved over centuries) in favour of attacking society at every opportunity in order to advance personal power, wealth and subjugation of others. Just like the bankers, they freely opt to act according to their desires. The difference is that bankers do not physically brutalise their customers and set fire to their properties. Society tends to look less sternly on conmen than on serial rapists.
Punish the bankers that produced this global catastrophe? Sure, but do it legally. Similarly, we should punish the rioters by legal means.