A bit of history is relevant. If u think this is the case do you object with the 81 riots in Brixton being celebrated recently as an "Uprising"? I remember the riots that happened in the 80s. During the 81 riot there was looting and destruction of of local businesses. Also the Fire Brigade were attacked when they arrived on the scene.
I didnt notice politicians complaining about the recent anniversary of 81.
The logic of your argument is that all rioting is inexcusable and people should always use the correct institutional channels and democratic procedures. However much they fell aggrieved and not listened to. Is this your position?
That's your interpretation of the 'logic' of my argument. And it's wrong.
I'm from Northern Ireland. I was born in Derry city a few months after 14 unarmed civil rights demonstrators, many of them children, were shot dead by Paratroopers - with over half shot in the back whilst running away. Britain's Tiannenman Square.
I spent 19yrs of my life being brought up in a city and a part of the world where severe community-rooted, politically-motivated public disorder was the norm, not the exception. I *get* the fact that public disorder can spring from justified grievances that aren't being addressed (particularly as Northrn Ireland was set up deliberately as a sectarian apartheid state).
But in the 30yrs of Northern Ireland's shockingly frequent public disorder - some of which I witnessed first hand - I don't recall hearing of a single incident of looting. I do recall, however, as a small child being in a shop in the Bogside in Derry whilst a riot was happening nearby. Two rioters came in wearing balaclavas. They got a couple of bottles of Lemonade, went to the front of the queue, aplogised to everyone else for pushing in and then paid for their drinks before leaving to presumably rejoin the riot.
I have no doubt that the events in Tottenham on Saturday night reflected the level of community anger there, fuelled by the inadequate response of the poiice to the Duggan shooting. I suspect the events on Sunday in places like Brixton had more to do with criminal opportunism (you only have to look at the types of premises that were attacked/looted to understand that). And I have no doubt that the events since then have been very largely "motivated by greed and violence". Not my words - but those of Diane Abbot on Newsnight tonight. As she said - we need to say it like it is.
The 1981 riots were motivated by genuine grievances against a blatantly racist police force that had been building up for some time and had no legal channel of being addressed. But this is not 1981. There is absolutely no comparison between the genuine explosion of communal rage that happened in 1981 and the stuff we've seen over the last few nights, and any attempt to do so both elevates the recent events to a level they don't deserve and drags the 1981 events down to a status that they deserve better than. In 1981 they didn't just loot a few electronics and clothes stores for a few hours and then melt away. They rioted consistently for 3 nights. If Brixton on Sunday was driven by some sort of idelogical reasoning, purpose or long pent-up rage/frustration - as 1981 was - then why weren't they out making their point night after night ? The npolice were so stretched on Monday night that Brixton would've been at their mercy. It's because if we're honest it was largely about looting and recerational violence, not a geneuine protest. Anything worth nicking was gone after one night.
There is minimal comparison between 1981 and recent events in my mind. Any attempt to do so just gives criminal opportunism a credibility and glamour it doesn't deserve, whilst dragging a genuine historical event event down to a level that dishonours it. 1981 deserves better.
