Pointless Violence Arises from Pointless Drama: London 2011

Metropolitan police officer in riot gear

If you haven't been keeping abreast of the news for the last couple days, there have been a number of riots in London, England. And when I say riots, I mean full blown riots -- looting, crime, angry mobs, etc.; the whole nine yards and then some. I'm not going to get into my personal emotions regarding the subject, as I'm pretty much a wreck right now with worry (I have several close friends in various parts of England, including London). They've begun spreading across the country, north to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds.

From an outsider's perspective, this is possibly one of the most primitive things I've seen in a first class country. A BBC correspondent just said via the live feed that: "...the situation has gone from rowdy [...] to life threatening." I've spoken to about three of my good English friends and they're all okay, they're safe for now, but furious about these riots. They don't see any reason to them.

Why did it start? Because an armed drug dealer was shot last Thursday by a police officer in Tottenham. If you don't know why that's a big deal, then I shall tell you: it's illegal to own and carry a firearm in the United Kingdom. British citizens do not have guns in their private possession, nor do most police officers. Most police officers are typically equipped with mace, a nightstick, and handcuffs; with special training, they are given tasers and certain special forces are allowed to carry firearms. Otherwise, they've got to rely on what they're given in standard issue.

Firemen put out the last of a fire in London

Mere hours after a "peaceful protest" for this drug dealer's death (still trying to wrap my head around why there was one needed for such a scum bag), Tottenham was in flames. Protesters threw stones at police and smashed windows throughout the borough. This is where the riots erupted from. Tottenham has a long history of tension with police, you can look up the 1985 riots if you don't believe me. Looters then spread through London, lighting buildings (including a shopping mall) on fire, forcing families out of their homes, and endangering the lives of countless others. Now there are robberies taking place in London and Birmingham, the City Centre in Leeds is in a full blown riot, while Liverpool, Bristol, and Manchester are beginning to experience riots as well, and police are advising people to stay indoors.

In defence of the public, police in riot gear have taken to the London streets, police dogs have been dispatched and water cannons are being used against protesters. I've also read some remarks about tear gas and rubber bullets being used and share in sentiments that nerve gas wouldn't be too terrible a thing to punish them with at this point. The problem here is that in light of the nation's economy, David Cameron cut the police force's numbers in the UK earlier this year, as a result, police are now stretched too thinly and cannot possibly handle or even end these riots quickly enough. If things continue as they are going, the army will need to be dispatched, similar to how the Coast Guard and Army were called in during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

All of this is pointless. All of this is unnecessary. And I can't even tell you how scared and angry this makes me. The man shot was black, so what? The man shot was a drug dealer, so what? I don't care. Yes, it's sad that someone was killed, don't think I don't care about that, but people get shot all the time here, perhaps that's the difference between us and Britain. This simply infuriates me: nothing about this man is enough of a justification to destroy a city, homes, and the livelihoods of dozens of people. People have barely escaped burning buildings with their lives -- is that really so JUST? Do these people not realise that in doing this they're only creating more problems for themselves? Ultimately, this isn't going to hurt the police force (though they're just lit a station on fire in Birmingham), it's going to hurt the common everyday man or woman in the UK: the taxpayers.

All the looting, destruction, and crimes that are taking place will result in (1) Increased taxes, (2) An increase of prison inmates, and (3) Injury and possible death. It's not hard to see where this is going when you sit there and think about it. You're setting buildings on fire in urban locations, possibly risking the injury of innocent civilians and for what? Because a cop did his job? Because a cop shot a drug dealer who was only corrupting society? It's ridiculous. This is ridiculous. Not even Mark Dugan's (the victim of the police shooting) friends think that violence is the answer.

David Cameron, British PM (Con),
will be leaving Italy at 3AM Tuesday
cutting short his family holiday to return
to London in light of the worsening riots.

Locals blame it on 'hardships' and the politics of Britain. I'm sorry but that's a load of shit if you ask me. A London police chief has gone on record with BBC saying "...All I have seen in these riots is violence. Pure, gratuitous violence..." while a looter has been quoted as saying, "...we heard other people were getting free stuff, so we though, why not us?" So frankly, it's a really poor excuse as far as I'm concerned, especially when I can guarantee that most of those who began the riots are taking government pay outs like our welfare hounds here in the States, who do nothing but work the average American dry. If you really can't stand how you're living, if you're living in such deplorable squalor, then get out and make a change. Appeal to the politicians, get active in your community, get your community together and work at it. But don't start riots and cry over it being because of hard times economically. If you have a roof over your head, clothes on your back, and food in your stomach, you aren't in that terrible a position.

All this violence is going to do is create more problems. Clearly the people starting the riots are illogical, uneducated fools who can't see this. This is all pointless drama when it comes down to it. I'm not trying to justify the death of this man, but for Christ's sake, don't start violent protests and kill more because of him. He was armed, he took aim at a police officer in the city of London who was equipped with a firearm of his own. That officer made a snap decision and chose to fire his own weapon as the situation demanded that sort of decision. Do you think that officer simply wanted to murder that man? Of course not -- no one in their right mind wants that. You can't defend some thug when he brought this fate upon himself. And you can't justify displacing and harming hundreds of other people either all on one single police shooting gone bad.

Fireman walks past a burning building in
Tottenham following this weekend's riots.

Keep London, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, and the rest of the UK in your thoughts tonight and for the rest of the week, until this is over. The people who began these riots are fools and deserve to be arrested and charged for the maximum penalty of their crimes. They don't deserve to be free to roam the streets if they believe endangering others is a just cause. There is no just cause in this because a just cause would be one of the rational alternatives I listed above. Violence is never the answer.

Have a nice week everyone,
Vicki

PS: You can find a live feed with streaming video on BBC's site, here.