By John Dyer, UK correspondent
Parliament sat in extraordinary session 11 August 2011, debating the causes and handling of the riots of the previous week, the most severe in a generation. The Prime Minister knew the cause. The cause was gangland culture and not tough enough law and order. Certainly not his austerity programme. No need for a Commission to suss it all out, as some from Labour asked.
Labour’s front bench had it figured too. Disaffected youths, gangland culture, compounded by the Coalition’s cuts to the police. The Green Party’s one representative suggested social inequality. The Liberal Democrats were noticeably muted, with Business Secretary Vince Cable not in evidence despite the report on the economy and any need for a Plan B, scheduled to immediately follow the Prime Minister’s lead off presentation on the violence. It seems everyone had it figured out.
1500 Arrests thus far under frenzied media scrutiny
But there are problems with the instant assessments that so neatly fit everyone’s pre riot points of view. For starters, 1500 hundred arrests have been made thus far. A number of these have been charged. Under the intense scrutiny of a frenzied media, the gangland youths often turned out not to be youths, from social housing, or members of a gang. Among the arrestees were young professionals and middle aged white men, single moms, employed, at least one preteen and the daughter of a multimillionaire.
This did not stop Sky News, which has - since the Murdoch hearings and shuttering of The News of the World - increasingly come to resemble Fox in its reporting, sourcing, and colour commentary. A Sky News on line article began with the bold headline, Exclusive Interview Teen Gang Reveals Looting Spree. Read a couple three paragraphs and you learn the interviewees were four young friends who claimed they had no relation to a gang. But today they exemplify “gangland culture.”
Bring in the tough cops. Which is what the government is reportedly doing. Because the government already knows what’s to blame- gangland culture and lack of tough enough policing.
Labour seemed to agree. The problem was the government’s cuts to policing. But ooops, they haven’t happened yet. No matter. They are going to happen. That is enough to link the two issues. The cops themselves are quick to do so. The day after the debate, Labour is calling for dialogue, but the basic view remains the same.
But there are problems with the analysis.
Thus far, the gang members have not been prominent among the arrestees, have they. Maybe they will emerge later. There are a lot of arrestees yet to process. Even assuming all the rest turn out to be gang members, there is one little problem with the analysis. Gangs and gangland culture have been on the scene for years without riots. So why did they choose the second week in August, 2011? Why now?
There are other problems. While the government and Labour characterize this sorry affair as looting not rioting to make a political statement, much of the damage thus far attributed to the riots has been from vandalism and arson, not theft. There is no question there was theft, but thus far most of the theft offenses charged have been anything but grand scale. Maybe the grand scale details will emerge later? Let’s keep an open mind.
Strategy, organization and coordination
The riots were organized, directed at authority and prosperity. Videos have caught images of men with blackberries and phones coordinating and directing the rioters. The tactics used included setting fires away from the looting for the believed purpose of distracting and thinning police lines. This is strategy, organization, coordination and thus far strategy, organization, and coordination more clearly aimed at property damage than property theft. To be clear, I am not saying that many of the participating rioters were not looters, but the coordination, strategy and tactics thus far evidences an intention to cause chaos and damage rather than to make a killing on loot.
The tactics bear an uncanny resemblance to those used by Anarchists during the peaceful demonstrations concerning Tuition fees and later pension reform. In both of these latter cases Anarchists hijacked the headlines with wanton destruction.
Finally, shouldn’t we return to that basic question, why now?
Whatever degree of organization, by whom organized, the fact remains all these factors failed to ignite a riot before now. While we cannot excuse their violence, shouldn’t we take seriously what the rioters say about events? Lots of would be causes out there, but all of them have existed for some time. Something triggered them now.
But Parliament is not asking why now, who coordinated, or how come the early arrestees are so different in profile from gangland youths from social housing. With the possible exceptions of BBC and the Guardian, everyone already "knows" The answer. No need for a Commission. No need to reexamine austerity cuts to social programmes or the flatlined economy.
For the Prime Minister it is, Bring in Rambo.