Crime and Punishment

Increasingly commentators are linking the riots with a lack of moral leadership by MPs, bankers, police and the media and I suspect they are right to.

This piece in the Telegraph by Peter Oborne is particularly good and this is a comment from Peter Tatchell:

"UK establishment is quick to condemn rioters. But police took bribes and failed to investigate phone hacking. No officers jailed. Cash for knighthoods and peerages. No one jailed. MPs abused expenses system. Only a few jailed. Editors bribed police. None jailed. Priests raped kids. No jail for most. Army killed and tortured civilians in Iraq. Soldiers not jailed. British elite = hypocrites. No right to moralise"

The lack of moral leadership seems to be filtering through to the judicial system which may or may not have been given orders to impose disproportionate sentances on rioters, although the circumstantial evidence is strong.

Four years for failing to incite a riot? Evicting innocent mothers from council homes? Removing benefits to ensure that people have to steal? Encouraging parents to beat children? Not sure how any of that will benefit society.

China has riots more serious than England's every week

Picked this summary of global unrest from Wikileaks. Puts some of the UK's troubles into perspective.

Syria: Who can have missed the disgusting actions of the Syrian government. This seems to be the latest attrocity.
Israel: 30,000 marching yesterday
Yemen: Hundreds of thousands.

South Korea: 15,000
US: US day of rage 17th Sept
Chile: 800 students arrested earlier this month after protests for equal access to education
China: 'China saw almost 90,000 such "mass incidents" of riots, protests, mass petitions and other acts of unrest in 2009' and 'China has riots more serious than England's every week' - plus more riots last Friday.
Egypt: A few hundred in Tahrir square on Friday
Libya: Turning into an Arab Autumn - but the rebels made progress today

And plenty more...

Commentary on the riots from Hannah

From my friend Hannah on the riots - a letter to the Kent Messenger:

Dear Editor,

Maidstone Green Party utterly condemns last week's arson, looting and violence. If any good might come of it then let's hope that it serves as a wake up call to government and the impact of its policies on society. Unfortunately the rhetoric from Tories, Lib Dems, Labour and even Helen Grant is to deal with the problems by escalating the violence towards the trouble makers. Simply responding to angry, disenfranchised people by turning water cannons and plastic bullets on them will not deal with the underlying problems in society. That is not to say that the minority committing this violence should go unpunished, but that the violence also needs to be understood and its causes need to be addressed.

Sadly, while Helen Grant calls for more violence towards children by their parents in 'troubled' households, I suspect there is already too much violence in some of these families. Perhaps more compassion, understanding and support for these children might make a difference, but simply exposing them to more violence will not teach them to be non-violent. Not only doesn't she understand what young people need to grow into responsible adults, neither does her party. They are closing youth centres, stopping young people from modest backgrounds going to university, preventing some even staying on at school beyond 16 with the withdrawal of the Education Maintenance Allowance, presiding over rampant youth unemployment and they are now calling some young people 'feral'.

It is any wonder that young people are becoming increasingly disenfranchised. Furthermore, widening inequalities in society will make it more violent and less cohesive, yet that is exactly what the Tory / Lib Dem coalition are doing. Meanwhile bankers and MPs are getting away with looting society 'legally' and the constant bombardment of the need to consume more, have the latest fashions and possibilities for quick wins in life, all contribute to disillusionment and anger in people.

Hannah Patton
Maidstone Green Party

Behind the anger behind the riots

Like most, I have been following the commentators on the riots, especially when there are inteviews of people who have been involved. Understanding what lies behind the anger is essential.

Witnessing the build up of anger over the past few years has been easy:

• the economic collapse mirrored by MPs who consider it perfectly reasonable to steal money; 
• X Factor, Top Gear and lottery winners who inspire dreams of getting rich and famous quickly without too much effort or talent so you can drive flashy cars; 
• a society and economy built on 'greed is good', the need for econmic growth, consumerism and the lastest fashions; 
• police who target young back men, the same group who continue to do worse at school as the education system doesn't work for them; 
• an education system that says everyone must do better than average or they are a failure, yet ignores the ludicracy of the statement; 
• the destruction of hope, putting university out of reach of millions without the narrative that says university might not always be what it is cracked up to be;
• the destruction of society in a right wing frenzy of cuts
• and so on...

Anyone of these can trigger the anger needed for civil disorder, so why are the political leaders surprised? They created the problem now they want to use water cannons on the disaffected - mildly preferrable to the 33% of the public who would like to see the police use live rounds on them.

This comment by Anthony Paul Smith seems to resonate but I would suggest that the whole piece by him: "It is a heterogeneous expression of rage. At the police, at the cuts, at the lack of being able to be heard, at a culture that instils a consumer desire they can’t match, and yes that rage spills over into self-destructive acts."

Finally, this from BBC with an interviewer who is not interested in the problems of society, just looking for blame - however it gives a bit of a glimpse of the feelings underlying the anger:

Can violence ever be mindless?

I'm getting tired of people claiming that the riots are 'mindless' violence. From what I have seen from this year's riots, as well as those in decades past, is that the violence has a cause and a rationale - it is anything but mindless.

Perhaps then the thugs that undoubtably come out to add to the troubles are mindless? Well they may well have different motives to those with genuine grievances and anger, but their actions are even more considered - they are out there to cause mayhem and have little else in mind. Being single minded is hardly mindless, it is perhaps the opposite.

Other than violence commited when someone is out of their mind, perhaps drugs or drink, I'm struggling to think of violent situations which have no thought behind them. Even if people would act better with hindsight, there is still a train of thought behind violence.

Let's stop using the 'mindless' word and think about a better one. Simply calling the violence mindless is er, mindless.