Okay, so there’s rioting in London. Apparently people were protesting the death of a 29 year old black man who was shot in a police operation on Thursday. He died of a single gunshot wound to the chest. It is alleged a cab he was in was stopped by police and it is suggested that the 29 year old opened fire on the officers or at least shots were fired from the cab that was carrying the 29 year old. He was a suspected gang member and it is alleged he was carrying a loaded firearm at the time of the incident.
Riots started in Tottenham and spread quickly through several London suburbs. Roaming gangs started looting shops, attacking buses and setting cars and shops on fire. The majority of the riots are allegedly copycat type crimes committed by opportunists who have no political affiliation with the shooting. There also seems to be very little connection to previous protest riots of the past, but it’s a little hazy still.
Okay, so here’s what I don’t understand, why were people protesting initially? Maybe it’s my American naïveté and the fact that shooting by police and criminals is so commonplace in America that the idea of an actual anti-violence protest is beyond my scope of rationality. But really? Gun violence is nothing brand new to Britain. These current riots still don’t make much sense to me. Were people upset over the police’s use of force? Were they concerned it was racially motivated? Is London that fragile that one shooting can topple the government’s control? If that’s the case, the time to take London and England is at hand!
I guess there is a seething tension between the police and the people after some questionable incidents of the past. And it’s something I find surprising. I thought the Brits were a nice and civilized society, but it would seem they have the same disenfranchised youth America has and no one has taken any time to actually deal with the problem in a direct and reasonable way. So things get set on fire and shops get looted all in the name of the anarchists and unrecognized. The disregarded have a voice and when they find it, it’s spit fire and destruction.
Civil unrest is nothing new, especially for the English. They’ve had a violent history spanning all the way back to the Romans in AD 43. So a little looting and rioting is no big deal really. Unless you are one of the many individuals directly affected by the damage done of course, then you might have a beef.
But I’m still not sure I get it. I’m still not sure if I have the whole story. Who organized these protests that turned into country wide riots? What is bubbling under the surface of England that fuels such rampant unrest? I know why things like that happen here in America and we struggle with it every day and maybe that is the difference; these things don’t happen every day there (or as often at least) and maybe their outrage is legitimized. Imagine if we reacted the same way to every shooting here in the States. There’d be nothing left but ashes.
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