London violence mixed with racial dimension

Md.Masum Billah: The London society witnessed an unprecedented event last week. The violenceescalated in other big cities taking the toll of five people and left several hundred injured. The damage caused by the violence is estimated to have been two hundred billion Pound Sterling.  But the psychological damage the nation has incurred is simply immeasurable.  London is going to host the Olympic Games next year but the recent violence has cast a gloomy picture over the whole affair. Violence probably would have continued the fifth day but the police crackdown and heavy rain prevented it. Prime Minister David Cameron told in an emergency session of parliament that he would give police extra power including the ability to order youths to remove face covering. Cameron added that a year before London hosts the 2012 Olympics; Britain needed to show a more positive face to the world.  He said, “We will not stop until the mindless violence    is defeated and law and order is fully restored on all our streets. We need to show the world which has looked on frankly appalled,that the perpetrators of the violence we have seen on our streets are not in any way representative of our country-nor of our young people.”Police has begun raiding houses across London on August 10 to make arrests over the riots that rocked the British capital. So far the Metropolitan Police arrested more than  900 people in connection with violence,disorder and looting since Augusts 6 and 271 people have been charged. Cameron’s tough new line came after he flew back from holiday in Tuscany on Tuesday  to take charge of the  biggest challenge to Conservative –led  coalition government since it came to power in May last year. He said, anyone whose property was damaged would be compensated. Nick Cegg, deputy Prime Minister told BBC” Right now it’s important that people are reassured that their streets are made safe, their homes are made safe and safe society is allowed to move on. “

Violence began in Tottenham on August 06 after the fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggan; Christina Patterson of the Independent said the race factor could not be overlooked in this incident. “Too many black men have been killed by the police. Too many men and women have been treated like criminals when they’re not the cause of these riots, but it’s there in the mix.” Some have also criticized  police’s reluctance  to crack down hard  on the first riot in the north London district of Tottenham  on August 6 , saying the cautious  approach encouraged unrest to continue and spread across the country. The last time Britain saw wide-spread rioting in the 1980s street violence came after a long and failed
political struggle against the Conservative government of Margaret Thacher,which suppressed trade unions and decimated social services. Today, the rioters seem to be motivated by a more diffuse anger, behaving  shoppers on a spree while some of the shops looted are big chains, many more are small local business run by people who are themselves struggling through Britain’s economic slump.

The violence has revived debate about the Conservative –led government’s austerity measures which will slash 80 billion pounds from public spending by 2015 to reduce the deficit. Cameron’s government has slashed police budgets as part of the cuts. A report last month said the cuts will mean 16200 fewer police officers by 2015.  Britain youth unemployment rate is currently over 20 percent. During the economic boom a
decade ago, though nearly and they did into all turn to crime. Sir Max Hastings  in the Daily Mail, commented “a perverted social ethos, which elevates personal freedom to an absolute and tough love- which alone might enable some of its members to escape from the swamp of dependency  in which they live.”Like the overwhelming majority of youth offenders behind bars, these gang members have things in common no father at home. This is another food for thought of the Social Scientits Paul Routfege of the Daily Mirror blamed ‘the pernicious culture of hatred  around the rap music ,which glorified violence  and loathing of authority  especially  the police but including  parents, exalts  trashy materialism and raves about drugs.“Social media and other methods have been used to organize these levels of greed and criminality”—Steve Kavanagh, the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police said. The modern communication instruments have also become
a cause of concern. The first arrested fifty six people who were produced before the court show that 33 percent of them have ages ranging from 15 to 20 years, 36 percent  20 to 24 four years,13 percent 25 to 29 years and 8 percent 30 to 34 years. The social scientists say the degradation of social values and unemployment stand as the major cause of this violence. Do the poverty and unemployment picture of London society
match with the developing courtiers? Of course, not. The youths of London don’tknow the pain of empty stomach of the people of Asia and Africa. They don’t know the cruel unemployment problem of these regions. Even then, they resort to commit crimes of the worst form which only can be attributed to weak social values. The whole western society should give full attention to this fact more than anything else, we think.
(Md.Masum Billah,Program,Manager: BRAC Education Program,Cell:01714-091431,Email:[email protected] )