The country I tentatively give the moniker 'Home' was for the first real time in what seemed to be full collapse, whether you look at it Socially or Economically, the cells bars were rusting through and the imprisoned escaped into the streets with the intention of causing havoc. The Boiling Point to this entire situation is at heart, or as far as much of the media would lead you to believe, about one man's death. The man in question was Mark Duggan, 29 year old father of 4. Whether you choose to believe he did wrong in his life is up to you, Police evidence says he was carrying a converted Starting Pistol that fired real ammunition, I don't doubt that what they say is the truth but with the earlier stories of Police Corruption this year, I think it might be smart to take everything with a pinch of salt, and probably a little shake of scepticism too. That said, I do believe he was carrying and in the end his own demise was very much his own fault, regardless of how the Police acted. This sparks a Peaceful Protest from his Family, quickly spawns into a night time session of looting and general pilfering from Mr Duggan's 'Connections'. All that is just the set up to what I actually find important, the events mentioned above wouldn't be something too uncommon to hear about in America on a bad day in a bad area.
The days after the first night of badly Policed Criminality are the things I, and the majority of the Country find important, the behaviour and inclusion of the regular British public in the riots and looting in the next few nights. I followed the events post Duggan's death, and at first I was surprised to see something happening in London that wasn't being crushing quickly by Police like it usually would. People running through the streets, some with faces covered, some morons without, smashing property, looting shops and starting fires.
The second day, it began to become apparent that the Police's lack of effort in quelling the disturbance had spurred (No joke intended, it's too easy/been done) more people to join them and misbehave. Now before I go too far and really make it look like I believe the Police were just being lazy, I know they weren't, it was mainly because of the Handling of the Riots last year with Water Cannons and Kettling used on Students, I don't agree with those practices, but if you go to a Riot you should expect it, and really if the Police can do things like that we should be allowed to as well, fair's fair right? Due to those 'Protests' the Police were significantly stunted in their choice of action, and without using some violence there wasn't much they could do to scare rioters. This, and this alone was the reason these riots continued for more than the one night which wasn't even necessary, if the Police were authorised to show some aggression, fire some Rubber bullets and shoot some water, it would have ended within a few hours. How can I be sure? Because the so-called 'Gangsters' and Londoners that were out giving a bad name to the rest of the City are also the same people who would back off as soon as the Police showed them they were going to get put in their place.
I remember one day in High School when I was probably around 12 or 13, and we had a Sports Teacher that intimidated everyone, even up to the Higher Years and College level, he isn't immediately important in this story, just bare with me. For some reason one of the Older kids decided that we'd all gang up together in the Playground and March out of school, or against the Head Teacher, something stupid that only a bunch of 12 to 16 year old's would think would work. There was probably at least 200 to 300 people there, and I remember marching up the steps of the Playground and towards the front gates, literally 30 seconds into this we heard 'It's Mr G----! Run!!!' and that second the entire crowd spun round and ran back towards the Playground. It was at that moment that I realised two things; 1. Mob Mentality is very easy to get stuck into and 2. It only takes one person that people are scared of to stop something, no matter how big it is.
That time in my life resonates with me to now, I knew that if the Police would show some force, be allowed to do their job properly that this bunch of weak-minded, crowd following morons would have fallen straight back into line and everything would have been fine. Instead, we've ended up with a bigger mess than I think anybody ever imagined when this first started, and who knows where we'll go on from here.
TBC.
