Recently I tweeted that I hope people would look back at history and learn from previous riots, but it seems some people haven't done much swotting up. People are ranting and raving about 'mindless thuggery' and 'disgusting chavs'. It would be naive to suggest that there wasn't a high percentage of people who just 'jumped on the bandwagon' and rioted just for the sake it. But when have you ever heard of a random riot? In fact, I don't think that there is any event in history that hasn't had multiple factors, that hasn't had underlying issues or causes.
On Panorama tonight, a boy told the camera man that he hated everything about the police and the government. The government will always be critisised, because you can't please everyone all the time. There will always be tensions between youth and authority, be it the police or their parents but when someone is telling you that they hate everything about the running of their country then I hope those he is talking about aren't stupid enough to ignore it.
To refer back to the social soap box which is twitter: someone tweeted "Those Who Criticize Our Generation Forget Who Raised It." I'm not in favour of making excuses for any under the age of the 18. The whole 'they don't know any better' doesn't really cut it because everyone knows the difference between right and wrong. But the author of that tweet does have a point. Kids today are being born into problems that they didn't create. So when an 11 year old gets arrested for rioting, maybe think of something more articulate to say than 'chav' or 'thug.' If that 11 year old had had something productive to do that day maybe they wouldn't have been there. Surely you have to ask the question why kids that young are in that frame of mind in the first place? Some people are angered by the rioters, I'm angered by the response to the riots: the riots make me sad more than anything.
But don't get me wrong, I'm sad for the people who have been robbed and looted and beaten and I'm devastated for those who have died. I more than appreciate the fact that innocent lives have been destroyed and it's not right. I just don't think it's right either to dismiss these incidents, sweep it all under a huge carpet of ignorance and carry on until the next time social tension reaches boiling point.
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