London's Burning

For three nights London has experienced rioting. The news reports and images portray a widening war zone, characterised by violence, looting and arson. There are the usual angles emerging from the media, lawless hooded youths, the lack of a police response, the destruction of local businesses.

Looking to explain why our capital city, and other cities around the country have become battle grounds, some have searched for the chain of events that led to this civil unrest. Four days ago, Mark Duggan was shot in Tottenham in north London. I could say any number of things now that would characterise Mark Duggan in our minds. If I tell you he was only 29 you might think what a young age to end a life. If I tell you he was a father you might picture his young family and think of their loss. If I tell you that he was known to the police you might believe he lived on the wrong side of the law.

But actually, I don’t know who Mark Duggan was, most of us don’t. I can’t discern his character from our plethora of British media houses. I can’t make sense of the conflicting reports about the circumstances surrounding his shooting by police. There seems to be a keenness to arrive at pantomime characterisations of people and events. I guess it might take some time for the facts to emerge somewhere down the line.

It would appear there was a police operation involving armed officers, that Mark Duggan’s minicab was surrounded, that shots were heard. Exactly who fired, how many shots were fired and why police opened fire remain questions without definitive answers. Claims that Mark Duggan was carrying a firearm seem to be confirmed. We are very much in the hands of the investigators to learn more about the incident, and in the hands of political leaders who will no doubt decide what, how and when information is released against the context of a city in melt down.

Somewhere along the line, the peaceful protest that then ensued outside Tottenham Police Station deteriorated and ballooned unexpectedly into the images we have now witnessed over the last three nights across London and other major cities. Does what is happening on our streets have anything to do with Mark Duggan now. Probably not. So what is it all about?

Well, the pundits are not short on analysis and theories. Is it the bad behaviour of unruly teenagers, the product of poor parenting, the uprising of the have-nots, the frustrations of an unemployed youth, the consequence of conservative government austerity measures, the consequence of the labour government’s nationalisation of childhood, the dysfunction of a godless society, lacking cohesion and community, the abdication of parental responsibility? May be it is all and none of these things. Maybe this is not a community united by a single cause, but instead a collection of individuals and small groups united by opportunity to do whatever it is they have each fixed their sights on.

It is terrifying, and the fires have lit up more than just the street of London, they have ignited a conversation in this country.