Aftermath

"This world of ours... must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect."  - Dwight D Eisenhower

A couple of weeks on and things in Croydon are largely back to normal.  Other than House of Reeves looking more like Roman ruins and the acrid smell emanating from the area, it's business as usual.  Even the trams were back in service after 3 days of being out.  The buses were back shortly after. Gotta love the British.  "Carry on regardless" stiff upper lip indomitable people we are.

And don't forget the power of a cup of tea!

Naturally the riots are still the biggest topic of conversation in pubs, clubs, cafes and offices; probably will be for a while too.  But the tide is turning from "Where were you?" and "What were you doing?" to "Why did it happen?".

To me, it's obvious.  This was purely and simply greed and jealousy on a MASSIVE scale.  What triggered it was people seeing the vandalism and looting happening in Tottenham and Enfield, and thinking "I'll have some of that."  The riots were not about class, or status, or race, or religion.  People saw that others were stealing things with impunity, with the police seemingly unable or unwilling to take action.  All they had to do was get a group together, and let them get groups together, cause a ruckus and grab whatever they wanted.

And so they did.  All over London.  And Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Manchester, as well as small pockets elsewhere.

Whilst I can't comment on other areas, I can say what I've seen in Croydon.  The shops that were affected were almost all ones that stocked electric goods, jewellery, clothes and/or alcohol.  These gangs knew what they wanted.

But CAN they be generalised so easily?  I don't believe so.  These rioters/looters/scumbags clearly have come from all walks of life.  Some were just caught up in the thrill, some were professional criminals and everything in between.

When you can't accurately generalise, it becomes difficult to give reasons and find solutions.  It's not all people on benefits, nor is it just 'disaffected youth' or black kids, etc.  If you want to generalise them, use one word. Scum.

They didn't care about their communities.  They didn't care about making a statement.  They didn't care about the opinions of the government.  They saw an opportunity for getting free stuff and they took it.  They knew they outnumbered the police and they'd be helpless.

The only thing that would have stopped it is the 'robust' policing that was talked about (sadly, after the event) in Tottenham.  That would have shown the looters that they would be dealt with harshly.  Instead they saw the police holding back, while the looting just went ahead.  That's why so many looters were confident that they'd just get away with it.

Whilst I generally support the police and think they did a good job under the circumstances, they really only have themselves to blame after the G20 protests, etc.  They were clearly scared of being too heavy-handed and facing criticism from the public and ministers.

Government NEEDS to make a definite ruling about the difference between a protester and a rioter.  One should be policed, one should be stopped.  What that ruling should be, I don't know;  I'm not a politician.  (I know that's the coward's way out but so what...)

There's still plenty of anger in the country, and rightly so.  This was the darkest day for England, that I can remember.  Although deaths and casualties were surprisingly low, it was the sense of sheer evil in the streets, radiating off the news reports, from the pages of the newspapers.  And worse, it was OUR evil.  No blaming terrorists or dissidents.  These were OUR kids, OUR neighbours.  And we were helpless.

I'd like to think that even from this, some good can come out of it.  We've seen lots of community projects starting up, and a spirit that I can only imagine was similar to the 'wartime spirit' talked about by our grandparents.

There's no easy solution.  Part of me thinks that there will never be one.  And the danger of complacency slowly creeps back over us all.

I just hope I'm out of town if it happens again.