London's burning

The news from London is, well, shocking. Rioters have looted and burned quite disparate areas of the city since Saturday night, two days after a fatal police shooting incident. A peaceful protest by the family of Mark Duggan on Saturday somehow morphed into violence, and it’s been continuing ever since, dying down in one area for a few hours and then popping up somewhere else.

Gangs of apparently mostly young men have cleaned out cash registers in grocery stores, ransacked jewelry shops, and set fire to police cars, city buses and buildings. The images are appalling, reminiscent of photos of London during WWII, only this time in color.

As of this writing, Tottenham, Hackney, Brixton and other areas have been affected. That would be North London, the East End and south of the Thames. These neighborhoods have not much in common—except that they’re poor. More than 200 have been arrested and I don’t know how many are in hospital. And the cops are getting massive amounts of overtime pay.

I have a few thoughts (probably as disconnected as the neighborhoods) on this:

It seems as though all elected officials, from London Mayor Boris Johnson to PM David Cameron, were out of the country on holiday. Only the Home Secretary, Theresa May, could be wrenched away from her Chiantishire villa by Monday. I guess you have to weigh how important it is to do the job you were elected to do against those lovely Tuscan summer nights with fresh pasta and a nice glass of pinot grigio.

But once the rioters got to Hackney, which is next to one of the showcases of next year’s Olympic Games, it apparently became more of a priority than it would otherwise have been. Unless, of course, Knightsbridge or Bloomsbury started going up in flames.

There have been allegations that Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger have been used to spread the word, urging flash mobs with face masks to show up at this place or that to “beat the feds”. I presume that by “the feds”, that particular tweeter meant “the man”. Whatever. I wouldn’t be too surprised if mobile technology played a major role in directing the rioters, since it’s been my observation that no one seems to be so poor that s/he is without a cell phone and an apparently unlimited talk plan. I don’t think that makes Twitter or BlackBerry somehow culpable; if you’re going to cheer the resisters in Syria and Egypt for using social media, you can’t condemn the platform if it’s used by thugs.

Which brings me to thuggery. No matter how economically underprivileged you are or aggrieved you may be with your government, cleaning out sporting goods and electronics shops is hardly the moral equivalent of blocking a line of tanks at Tiananmen Square or even mobbing a G-8 summit. My guess is that there are going to be a lot of new “for sale” listings on London’s Craig’s List pretty soon. And that that was precisely the point of the activities ever since Tottenham caught fire.


I have no take on the law enforcement efforts except that they're using (amongst other things) mounted police; I say: keep the animals out of it. They didn't start this; don't put them in harm's way. Oh--& now would be a good time to knock over a liquor store in Bristol or Leeds, since every cop in England seems to have been sucked into the riot control.

Finally, from all reports, hardly any of the burned and looted companies have been big chain stores. They’ve mostly been local establishments, owned & run by people who live right there. Shopkeepers who haven’t yet been attacked have shuttered their stores. And since public transportation has been severely curtailed, that means that the residents of those areas better have stocked up on groceries, because it’s going to be a while before they can find a store that’s open for business. Ditto medical care and getting to work.

It's going to be a long, hot August for Londoners..