UK riots analysis reveals gangs did not play pivotal role

Riots in Tottenham, north London. The official figures show that those arrested were poorly educated and came from deprived areas. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

Official figures show those arrested came from deprived backgrounds, striking a blow to theory that tackling gang culture is key to preventing repeat of disturbances

Gangs did not play a pivotal role in the August riots, according to the latest official analysis of those arrested during the disturbances.

Official figures show that 13% of those arrested in the riots have been identified as gang members, rising to 19% in London, but even where police identified gang members being present most forces believe they did not play a pivotal role.

The finding by senior Whitehall officials is a blow to the principal response to the riots being pushed strongly by the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith – that tackling gang culture is key to preventing any repeat of the disturbances.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Home Office background analysis shows that those arrested during the riots overwhelmingly came from deprived areas and had the poorest educational backgrounds.

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Police and Thieves: Making Sense of the English Riots

After witnessing several nights of turmoil, the people of the United Kingdom are still trying to comprehend what just happened. There's no simple explanation for this apparently leaderless and rudderless uprising in London and several other cities. But amid the grim ashes and street clashes, the message of rage has seared itself into the public consciousness, rekindling an age-old tinderbox of class warfare.

Observers dismiss them as roaming bands of delinquents. Or they describe them as well-organized, tech-savvy flash mobs. They're portrayed alternately as greedy opportunists or as disaffected youth whose day-to-day misery goes ignored until a crisis breaks out. Reflecting the diversity of urban Britain, they are everyone and no one. And they're just kids.

Though the unrest initially grew out of a protest against police brutality in the poor, racially mixed enclave of Tottenham (where another famous riot took place in the 1980s), it's escalated to a level that many people couldn't imagine: So much breaking and burning happening in one of the most prosperous nations in the world.

Yet the riots bleakly mirror the state of working-class Britain. The initial demonstrations, over the death of a local young man, Mark Duggan, stoked long-simmering hatred for the police, who are notorious for mistreating black and Asian youth (paralleling the situation in U.S. cities).

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CNBC: British Riots - and unrest world wide - caused by "economic uncertainty"

While most mainstream news outlets are blaming the British riots on random thuggery, they are really an outgrowth of bad economic conditions and governments' poor response to the financial crisis.

As I've noted for years, raging inequality and policies which help the big boys at the expense of the "little people" are causing unrest - not just in Egypt - but worldwide.

Britain

As CNBC reports today:

Great Britain and other parts of the world are experiencing unrest at a time of global economic uncertainty and stock market volatility.

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Police in London say the violence began during a vigil for a man, Mark Duggan, who’d been killed by police. However, those on the streets say what's happening goes beyond one man's death.

In late June, half the public schools in Britain where closed by a massive protest over public pensions cuts, including three major teachers' unions, customs and immigration officers, and air traffic controllers. Some 750,000 people took part in the protest.

London's press has reported that discontent has been simmering among Britain's urban poor for years, in neighborhoods like Tottenham, where the riots started.

But as one man told NBC News about an economic protest two months ago, "There was not a word in the press about our protests. Last night (Saturday) a bit of rioting and looting and now look around you."

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Hume: London riots a long way off, but closer than we’d like

A rioter walks through a burning barricade in Liverpool on Aug. 9.

It’s a long way from Tottenham to Toronto, but not as long as we might like.

No one expects the street violence that erupted in the London neighbourhood last Sunday to break out in this city anytime soon, but many of the same conditions prevail.

To begin with, there is a growing number of young men, aged roughly 15 to 20, largely immigrant, who feel little connection to the larger community. This sense of disenfranchisement, mixed with growing inner-suburban decay, perceived police hostility, overcrowding and lack of decent jobs, does not bode well for the future of Toronto.

Add to that the mayor’s proposed cuts in social services — everything from libraries and daycare to transit and snow removal — and we have the makings of disaster.

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Panic on the Streets of London

I’m huddled in the front room with some shell-shocked friends, watching my city burn. The BBC is interchanging footage of blazing cars and running street battles in Hackney, of police horses lining up in Lewisham, of roiling infernos that were once shops and houses in Croydon and in Peckham. Last night, Enfield, Walthamstow, Brixton and Wood Green were looted; there have been hundreds of arrests and dozens of serious injuries, and it will be a miracle if nobody dies tonight. This is the third consecutive night of rioting in London, and the disorder has now spread to Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham. Politicians and police officers who only hours ago were making stony-faced statements about criminality are now simply begging the young people of Britain’s inner cities to go home. Britain is a tinderbox, and on Friday, somebody lit a match. How the hell did this happen? And what are we going to do now?

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Do you think this type of violence will be coming to your city......soon? Tom

B.C. Premier promises to expose rioters to public gaze

B.C. Premier Christy Clark has asked spectators who took videos and photos of the looting, vandalism and violence to let the police see what they have.

“I’d like to make this call out to everybody who may have some evidence for police,” Ms. Clark told reporters Thursday before walking through the streets with boarded-up storefronts and burnt out vehicles. “Make sure we see those pictures of the people that incited this.”

Ms. Clark also had a message for those who were involved in breaking windows and grabbing merchandise from the stores.

“If you were a part of this, and I’m speaking to people who may have been responsible last night, I promise you this. You won’t be able to live in anonymity, you won’t be behind your bandana or under your hoodie.

“We are going to do everything we can to make sure the public understands who you were. Your family, your friends, your employer will know you were a part of it. Because this cannot happen in our city. It isn’t the kind of city that I want to live in,” she said.

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Looks like provocateurs to me. Tom