UK Riots: What now?

As the riots in England are now at an end it is important for us to proceed with caution. From the political right we are seeing demands on the e-petitions website that rioters to lose their benefits while councils have threatened to evict people from social housing. We must avoid this kind of reactionary response which may do more harm than good.

It is important that we ask questions:

• Who started these riots?
• Why did they spread?
• What motivated people to join in?
• And how can we prevent it happening again in the future?

It is important that we establish the facts of the case and investigate the underlying factors behind the riots before we make assertions about the best way to tackle the problem. We are very mistaken if we believe that people commit mass violence and riot without provocation. People do not exist outside society; indeed context is everything. That these riots should occur at a time of rising youth (and other) unemployment and sweeping cuts to public services may be no coincidence. That riots are happening in other countries such as Greece shouldn’t be ignored either.

I don’t seek to defend the actions of these rioters but I believe it would be wrong of us to ignore our obligations, to ignore the role of society at large and to reduce this solely to an issue of individual responsibility. The way we treat people in our society especially those at the bottom is relevant and especially the way that we demonize them in the mass media as lazy and irrelevant. Is it any surprise that when those struggling are cast in popular culture as criminals that they then become such?

It is exceedingly important that we persist in asking tough questions and challenging what seems to be the prevailing consensus on these riots. Yet at the same time we must not cede ground to the right on law and order by having them portray us as soft on crime and as if we are seeking to justify their actions. It should be possible to both ask these difficult questions and to wholly condemn the actions of the rioters.

I stress again that for the moment we must be cautious before taking any reactionary and draconian measures against those involved. They will be processed by the courts and receive their sentences but if poverty and deprivation is to blame for these events then removing benefits and housing will only serve to further compound their misery and criminality. If this happened because society turned its back on these people doing so again will not make it better.

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