This has been a tough blog to write. More so than any on the Middle East or Israel.  Mainly because I find half the stuff I think about this situation is reactionary, and sounds eerily like the Daily Mail. Then the other half is bleeding heart liberal, and neither of them can reconcile. Actually, when I boil it down, I am just very sad about the whole thing.

Sad that Fire Engines couldn’t put out flames on homes and businesses because looters and rioters were attacking them. Sad that these kids feel the only way to react is to loot and burn. Sad that their parents haven’t told them that this behaviour is wrong. Sad that the police can't do anything for fear of repercussions.  I harp on about my up bringing, and I understand these youths have absent parents, who themselves are barely more than children in emotional maturity, but there is responsibility there. I remember as a kid, I phoned a prank 999 call. The police came round, and although not beaten, the shame and the fear of violence was enough to ensure I never did it again. Kids today aren’t scared of the police, or their parents because in their eyes they have nothing to lose, and all authority has been rendered ultimately impotent.  

I hate that people are seemingly forced to take sides in such a situation. It is either the fault of the police, kids, parents or the government. Everyone is trying so hard to point a finger of blame, no one is trying to fix this. And I fear the reason no one is trying to fix this, is because they can’t. I sure as hell am not going to suggest anything that can rectify it, because I have no clue. Much like most of the commentators on various news channels. They are projecting their informed and educated opinions onto rioters with whom they have nothing in common. Disillusioned with the coalition? Higher costs of university education? No - these are why you are unhappy - JD Sports has taken a fair share of damage - that is hardly a political statement!

We are now living in an age of entitlement. We have raised a generation to expect to be able to have everything, we expect to have the respect of our peers and be famous, we expect all the consumerist good things in life, we don't expect to have to work for these things. We are inevitably disappointed when this doesn’t happen. So we get to a point where when the opportunity comes to ‘take’ something, they will. It is their right!

What happened in Tottenham, on the first day, in that community, was by definition a riot. If it truly was in relation to the shooting of Mark Duggan that is, but what has followed has been criminality. Many of the suggested causes such as disenfranchisement, government cuts in spending etc have played a part in the events. But the underlying cause is surely the decades of downplaying the importance of personal responsibility and self restraint, and decades of selling an unachievable dream. Quite how you reverse those changes is another difficult debate entirely, and one which I have no idea how to answer.

I think an obvious thing that will come from this is that race relations will suffer. People and communities will become more insular, and divided as a result. These looters don’t realise that actually they are tarnishing everyone with their actions.  And they are destroying their own homes and communities. And for what? Some Nike Air Max and some Body Shop toiletries? As if the BNP needed any excuse to highlight this is the result of unchecked immigration and multi-culturalism!

As for the Bullingdon boys: where were they? None of them could be bothered to return from their holidays immediately, and we have hardly heard a peep from them, apart from the usual platitudes of "mindless violence" etc. The reason they aren’t speaking, is because they have no clue of the problem either. They have a generation of young people who they cannot connect with.

I suppose it is easy for me to say this? I am not stopped and searched by the police on a daily basis. I am not treated like pond life by the police. There needs to be work done in this area (policing) to address this, but how you can blame the police for the reckless behaviour of these looters is beyond me? I mean they sure as hell can’t baton them, because the moment one ‘yute’ is put in a coma and it will be all about police brutality. They truly are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.  And as for the people calling for the army, what are they going to do? Although the streets looked like Baghdad last night, it isn’t. The army is not the solution.

But out of all this sadness, on Twitter, came the hash tag #Riotcleanup. At once a wonderful, and sad thing. Wonderful because for all the savagery, people still want to come together. To exist as a community, and to make the place where they live pleasant. But sad because none of those who did the crime will be made to clean up their mess. Maybe this responsibility would disenfranchise them more, which would be a shame, but people should realise the consequence of their actions. 

We need to prove to everyone that London is bigger than these riots, stronger than these opportunists, and address the myriad of problems that have brought us to this point.   

- Anand