Riots

I was saddened greatly at the recent riots in England. What seemed to develop during the peaceful protesting against the death of Mark Duggan culminated in riots, the deaths of at least four other people, destruction and theft of a vast amount of property and probable injury of many other people judging by the weapons being used and glass, fire etc. Were the consequences really worth the actions? Did the rioters achieve what they set out to achieve?

Like everyone else, I can only speculate as to what caused a percentage of the population of England to take to the streets and express their anger, but no one has the answer, not really. Even in a large group of people, everyone still has their own mind and acts an individual, even if encouraged or pressured by someone else. Every single person those nights will have had their own reason for doing what they did and subsequently they will have to live with the consequences of their own actions.

And that’s all we have left now – consequences, the aftermath of these riots.

No one can change what happened, any of it, as much as they may want to. As my OCD brain seems to spend a great deal of time thinking and fretting about consequences, I started to think about some of the consequences of the past few days.

One of the main consequences of the riots is that, it is probably going to take a lot of money, effort and time to rebuild the things that were destroyed. Apparently there are some insurance policies that do not cover acts of riot and so property owners are being told that they may be able to claim the money from the already cash strapped police force. As well as there being a global recession, even if people have insurance, due to the large amount of claims that are undoubtedly pouring into insurers right now, it may take time for assessments and for the money to be made available to the property owners. Some burnt out properties may be considered crime scenes so police will have to attend to them which mean perhaps forensics etc and if this is the case, the cost may rise further. One unexpected consequence I suppose is that the insurers and police may have to employ more people to deal with all this.

For those who have to rebuild their businesses or houses, this prospect must be so daunting and my heart really goes out to these people. Having your business looted or your house destroyed by fire must be heartbreaking, working towards making a success of things and having that taken away from you – it’s not surprising that these people are angry and to be honest, it would be easy to feel the need to retaliate but, as the saying goes "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." And after feeling the effects of these riots – why on earth would they want to put someone else through that?

What are the consequences then for the perpetrators of the violence, looting etc.? I’ve tried to imagine what it must have been like; breaking into shops, smashing things up, stealing expensive things, wrecking peoples livelihoods, running with the gang, ‘sticking it to the rich’ as has been bandied about. The feelings must have been intense – anger, frustration, adrenaline pumping, fear, excitement. Now, it is the next day, back to reality and, as graffiti in my old hometown read ‘much has happened, little has changed’. Sure, you might have a new Xbox or jewellery or a new phone but was it really worth it? Has anything really changed other than there is some destruction and devastated people? Is a criminal record really worth whatever was stolen? And as for the – ‘sticking it to the rich’ motive, the thing is, that this hasn’t really affected ‘the rich’ a great deal has it? Yeah, a few big shops have been looted but they can probably claim it on their insurance making it more of an inconvenience really.

The people who are really hurting are those with small businesses during this recession struggling to make ends meet who saw their livelihoods torn apart. The families of the people who have died during the riots. People whose homes were damaged by fire and violence. People who were innocently walking home and were either injured or prevented from getting home safely. The parents of the people who took part in the riots. Maybe even the people who took part in the riots themselves and now regret it.

Don’t get me wrong, you may think ‘well it’s easy for you to say this sitting up in Scotland where there hasn’t been any confirmed rioting’ and I suppose you’d be right, I’m no more qualified than anyone else to talk about this, but perhaps I’m saying all this as there but for the grace of God go I?

I’ve been watching the news these past few days, agoraphobia has led me to watching rolling news, and so many possible explanations have been given as to why this has happened. One was the ‘single parent family’ argument – this often gets up my nose as my parents are divorced so both my sister and I come from a ‘broken home’ and I have never been a violent person. My sister is well dressed, has a good job and is one of the nicest people you could meet. I don’t know how you would describe me but before my illness I was a (hopefully) successful software tester – a role I hope to return to – I wasn’t particularly well dressed but that’s due to my general lack of fashion sense and I hope that my friends would consider me not a bad person.

I have many of the features that the people on the news described as risk factors for wanting to be involved in rioting and looting – I came from humble beginnings; my parents were in no way rich, we weren’t destitute but there were a lot of things that I wanted in my childhood that my parents could not afford. I come from a ‘broken home’. I grew up on a council estate. I was told by several people that I would never make anything of myself.

I spend a lot of time alone and often feel disaffected, alienated from people. I live in an area where I don’t know any of my neighbours or indeed anyone in my community – apart from my husband obviously. I have been made redundant several times, I cannot even get a job at the moment as I can’t leave my home alone so I am forced to exist on benefits and the kindness of my husband. I’m depressed that my life is this way at the moment. I don’t feel like I have much control over anything.

Isn’t that one of the main causes of unhappiness in human beings? When there is a lack of control or perception of lack of control in a person’s life they are more likely to lash out or become depressed? I’ve always had a problem with lack of control, unfortunately when I have a lack of control of anything in my life I tend to end up taking it out on myself. With the control factor in mind – did the rioters feel like this was the only way they could gain control over something in life?

The problem with this is that, effectively what you’re doing is throwing your toys out of the pram which may get attention but it may not be the attention you wanted. If the rioters did this to get attention it certainly worked admittedly – the news was saturated with coverage – but the short lived attention hasn’t really turned anything around. Momentary control, that didn’t really get any solid message across or offer any sort of solution to aid the cries for help,. If people were reaching out to be heard, to be noticed, have their plight told – did anyone really get the message? Perhaps this outpouring of anger and frustration was a way to say ‘help me’?

And therein lies the sadness – if all of this really was a cry for help, all it has resulted in are anger, destruction and punishment.

Was the reason of everyone on those streets those nights to avenge the death of Mark Duggan in Tottenham? Was the case investigated quicker? Whatever the circumstances of the man’s death – would he have wanted such behaviour to take place in his name? His family have reportedly said they do not condone the violence. His brother reportedly said that he didn’t want the riots to be about his brother’s life as Mark was a good man.

Or for many people, was it just opportunistic? Some people stole sweets and beer rather than high price items. Would you really steal given the opportunity? I tried thinking about this – if I had the opportunity to steal something and no one would know, I wouldn’t be caught and I would have something I really wanted – would I steal it? The answer is no, really, I wouldn’t do it. Because I know it is wrong – I’ve had it drummed into me, all of my life that stealing is wrong. So, given the opportunity, would you really steal something if you thought you wouldn’t get caught. Maybe you would but would you feel ok about it afterwards?

Surely there are ways to get your message across without violence and devastation, if there are enough people with the same problems, surely they can be addressed without chaos? As a child you learn that having a tantrum often does not help you get what you want or need – but can you really put hundreds of people on a theoretical naughty step and will it help? I know that things are pretty terrible at the moment but surely violence just makes it worse?

In the wake of the riots, social networking has been under scrutiny for easing the communication of the rioters in order to gather large groups of people quickly but surely social networking sites are not responsible for what people do with them? You can give someone access to a social networking site but what they choose to do with it is their choice – personal responsibility has to come into this somewhere – I know everyone is looking for someone to blame but ultimately, if you choose to loot or riot, unless someone literally is threatening your life if you don’t do it, you have a choice to walk away. I know that there is peer pressure and people can get bullied into doing things – perhaps I don’t really have a full understanding of what drove the rioters that night but whatever they did, responsibility has to be taken. There really is no excuse for breaking into buildings, violence, threatening behaviour and stealing.

I’m saddened by the unseen consequences – the psychological affect on both the rioters and the victims of the events. Dealing with what you have done is a burden on its own, even those seeming to lack conscience will be justifying what has happened to themselves and as you get older you often find it more difficult to believe your justifications. And for the victims of the wreckage, they may never feel safe in their own home or business again. What if someone decides to give up their business as they feel they can no longer cope? Will depression rates go up? What will be the long term effects on those people?

People may move away from the areas where the riots occurred – fearing for their safety and the safety of their loved ones. Insurance premiums may go up in those areas due to perceived heightened risk and this could have knock on effects. Will property prices in those areas go down? Will people want to invest in those areas? How will people pay to repair and rebuild their shattered buildings and community? Perhaps community spirit will prevail and fellow citizens will assist each other?

There are so many other consequences that I suspect that the rioters never even considered but may have occurred. During the riots, how did ambulances get through the melee? What if you were pregnant and trying to get through the streets in an ambulance to give birth in the hospital? Was anyone’s life endangered because the emergency services were dealing with the rioting and looting? What if a doctor’s car was torched, preventing them reaching their patients? There is video footage of one poor young man being helped to his feet and subsequently mugged – how many other people did this happen to?

How much money was lost as people could not travel safely to work and could not do their jobs? How many people were injured by glass and other debris? Did the injured rioters seek medical assistance for their injuries? If not they would be risking possible infection or bleeding to death. If you were a rioter and are sent to prison, if you have family who is going to take care of them? I understand that one of the girls in court had a six week old baby.

And what about the opinion of the rest of the world? After the events of those nights – who will want to visit the cities affected? Tourism may go down and I understand that funds from tourism are important to us. What will the global opinion do to our economy? Is the rest of the world disgusted with us for not being able to maintain order in our country?

The clock can’t be turned back, what is done is done. It’s dealing with the aftermath that is going to be the challenge now. Whatever the reason for the riots, let’s hope that they don’t happen again and if we can’t find a solution to all the problems that exist in the U.K. – at least please let us try, together, to make things better?