Last week 29 year old Mark Duggan's death in Tottenham at the hands of the police raised many questions from not only his family but also many residents of the Tottenham area. Many people questioned, and still question, whether his death was justified or not. A answer which the police and government failed to answer immediately and instead seemed to wait until things got worse to give some information into his death. And get worse they certainly did! Two days after his death shocking scenes of rioting and looting in Tottenham was the result of growing frustration in Tottenham and resulted in many shops being destroyed and looted, a bus and two police cars being set on fire and many shocking displays of violence against the police. In the following days to this particular riot, riots spread firstly across many parts of London and then many parts of England. I'm going to spare you of the details of all of the riots though as i'm sure you're quite aware about all of it by now, but the one question I want to ask is simply 'who's to blame?'
The Government: Well you raise tuition fees, cut EMA and cut most councils spending budget and what do you expect to happen? The government claim it is 'senseless thuggery' which yes part of it is but the government have certainly not made things easier. We already saw from the student protests at the end of last year that tensions between young people and the government was very high and the government have not done anything to address that problem since. All these cuts have pretty much ensured that the majority of young people living in deprived areas have nothing to look forward to in the future which is only going to make the amount of young people turning to crime increase. In addition to that, the government were extremely slow to react to the riots with the Prime minister and Mayor of London choosing to wait two full days to return back to the country and address a country in crisis. Its actually hard to believe that the conservatives only got into power last year with the amount of problems their government has faced already and in my opinion unless they can make significant improvements they won't be so lucky when the next election comes around.
Parents/ careers: It is seen as the responsibility of parents/ careers to raise their children correctly and teach them the wrongs and rights of life.... something which obviously a lot of parents have failed to do looking back on the past weeks violence around England. It is often said that children are the product of their parents and whilst this is true I think it is too easy to put the blame on to the parents for the actions of their children. Some people are simply uncontrollable no matter how strict of a parent you are with them, especially when from a bad area it takes much more than a parents influence and teaching to help out a child surrounded by so much deprivation. I've seen this firsthand when a mother has done her best to provide a good living for her son/ daughter but has just been unable to get through to them so I think it is very unfair to blame the parents for their child's actions.
Young People: Of course it would be much more simple to put the blame on the majority of the people committing the crimes and yes I do feel that a lot of young people acted in a disgusting manner which shouldn't ever be repeated. But I also feel that we are all only products of the system that we live in, so if anything has made young people so aggressive and violent then it is all the above points.
Inequality in society: if you're a bit confused about what I mean what i'm trying to point out is; the inequality between young people and adults; the inequality between the poor and the rich and the inequality between black people and white people. As i pointed out earlier a lot of young people feel as if the government does not care about their needs and have not made any decisions to benefit us young people in any sort of way. Their has been absolutely nothing for young people to do this summer, education has become expensive and it is almost impossible for young people to even get jobs these days which has caused this unwanted feeling felt by young people. Also many people feel as if this conservative government have only made changes to benefit those people who are rich and haven't done anything to consolidate those living in deprived areas or people who come from poor households which many people think has caused a even bigger divide between the rich and the poor. The last point is of course about racism in society. Now whilst I son't think this was at all a race riot and the only reason I believe the majority of the rioters where black is because the majority of the people living in these deprived areas are black, I do think race is still something which is not at all equal yet in society. Just the fact that the majority of people living in deprived areas are black or Asian highlights the inequality still obvious in terms of race.
Jazzy's Verdict: Whilst I believe the riots were unneeded and if anything has only made the situation worse, I feel that all the above have something to do with why the riots actually occurred in the first place. The government need to work hard on trying to make life better for everyone without leaving out a particular group of people as they have seen from this what neglection can cause. Parents need to make sure they are aware of their own child's problems no matter what problems they are going through themselves because their own problems are very likely to effect their child's. Young people need to take control of their own lives and start taking responsibility for their actions instead of simply blaming it on someone else. And lastly, inequality is not something that will ever be completely wiped out of society but the government and society themselves can do their best to try and bring a better balance to it all.
