2 years on: The Riots

So this week is 2 years on from the Riots which happened around Britain in 2011. I distinctly remember this, as I was at my birthday party when some of the worst rioting was happening. It was crazy to see so many people out on the streets causing destruction, destroying peoples livelihoods and putting lives at risk.

The riots came about after anger and protests from the death of Mark Duggan, a London man was shot dead by police on August 6th. This attention from the media which showed escalation of anger with attacks on police and destruction of police vehicles a bus and some businesses. Further rioting in Tottenham continued into the night with looting and arson taking place with the media stating there was a complete lack of control by the police.

 

 

 

The following days, similar riots took place in other London boroughs, named as copycat violence and the media coverage continued with devastation shown on the streets of London and a complete poor police presence. The following days saw riots spread to other English cities, including Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester along with other smaller towns. These riots seemed to have lost the connection with the death of Mark Duggan but solely motivated by the fact that the riots in other areas had gotten so severe and seemingly had many get away without punishment.

 

Over 3100 people were eventually arrested, with many in Manchester arrested days after the event after looking through the thousands of CCTV cameras. There were a total of 3633 crimes in London with emergency calls up 300%! At least £200 million damage was caused.

The riots were fuelled by social media and blackberry messaging services where groups would name locations and times for rioting targets.

They were a crazy few days and was quite scary for residents of these areas affected.

But, what is the likelihood of rioting returning to the streets? With the high community spirit from the Olympics and Royal events, some believe that the likelihood is low. But the fact is, that the riots can occur at any time. It takes one thing to spark anger. And there are a lot of things that are causing anger at current time, including scrapping of some benefits, bedroom taxes and much more. These are affecting the poorer class systems the most and it may seem that it is only matter of time for one more thing for the government to do that will affect them the most which will spark rioting. With the lack of support for the young, the reduction of youth groups and the large social gap, there is always a chance of some sort of uproar.

 

Pictures from guardian