Riots have hit London and a few other cities in the UK over the last three nights causing mayhem, destroying property and leading to looting. Tonight, hundreds of Sikhs are gathering to defend the Gurdware in these cities should they fall under the eye of the looters. It is bringing together Sikhs of all backgrounds and affiliations; promising a glimmer of hope from an otherwise horrible situation.
To find out more about this mobilisation of Sikhs, go to the Sikh Riot Awareness UK page.
The trigger has been widely recognised as the shooting of a 29 year old black man Mark Duggan in the Tottenham area of North London. 48 hours after his shooting, members of his family, friends and the wider community congregated outside Tottenham Police Station to protest at what they saw as the heavy-handed action of the London Metropolitan Police and the unhelpful communication from them about the matter in the following days. At this gathering of about some 300 protestors, a relatively minor confrontation between a teenager and the Police is said to have ignited running battles that ensued well into the night. A double decker bus was set alight and 49 fires were being dealt with by morning. But more importantly, as a sign of things to come, shops selling household goods, sportswear, toiletries and glasses were looted with CCTV images capturing hooded individuals taking away trollies laden with items.
On Sunday night and Monday night the riots did not dissipate and instead spread further to different parts of London and cities including Bristol and Birmingham. Parliament has been recalled, extra police forces have been sent on to the streets and news media is talking about nothing else. The state of chaos has garnered many questions that will surely be asked over the coming months and indeed years as to what has led to the riots. But what troubles me continuously is the idea that somehow the behaviour we are witnessing on the streets is justifiable. Across social media I have seen a number of people try to explain that the last few nights should have been foreseen based on a range of factors from the recent funding cuts to bizarrely the Iraq war. Arson, robbery and intimidation have no justification, particularly when they are acts committed by large groups. In the UK, we have numerous benefit hand-outs, free education, free health services and assisted housing. How does this compare to the plight of those in the Arab world who have rioted in recent months for basic rights without resorting to petty thieving
This is no revolution and there is no moral ground being sought. The victims are shopkeepers, home owners, franchisees and everyday people trying to get to and from work. The perpetrators are almost entirely groups of people who are taking this opportunity to commit crimes freely. They are not attacking the ‘machine’ that keeps them down and anyone suggesting so needs to watch how this man’s home was set alight in Clapham [link], how this innocent boy in Barking was attacked and then mugged [link] and how these two girls boasted of their petty pilfering [link].
The UK has learnt once again that our way of life and civil society is as fragile as the rest of the world, especially when good men do nothing and let those amongst us who are troubled take over.