Tottenham riot escalated around 11.30 on Thursday after a handful of youth burnt down two police cars and broke into local shops. Media outlets ignored the initial protest, which was largely peaceful aimed at getting 'answers' for the Mark Duggan shooting. As soon as the protests escalated to a riot, Sky News and BBC covered the events live.
When I spoke to Reni Eddo-Lodge, the president of UCLAN Student Union, she told me "I haven't really read the news," adding that her information was from Twitter and Facebook regarding Tottenham events. Reni has lived in Tottenham for most of her life, and explained "In terms of the media, this simplistic description of what has happened in the community simply demonises it, and doesn't get down to why it has happened," adding that she was "severely unimpressed" with the tabloids coverage.
Another local resident Areeb Ullah described the situation as "heart-breaking" and "It was a combination of issues, many things are affecting young people in this area, including EMA cuts".
Dave who was tweeting from Tottenham last night told me "There were a lot of people who didn't have respect for police" and "It wasn't chaos, or break down of society. I just saw people not caring about properly law. Realising that smashing a window is not the end of world, and they have the power to do that."
Many other people shared similar sentiments about Tottenham, Seline, an activist for Human rights told me that she genuinely believes the protest started peacefully but "escalated by a handful" and went on to add "it was expected because of where they live, it's a run-down area. I wouldn't condone it. It doesn't make the protest look good. And the media will focus on that only".
It didn't take long for other areas to start rioting, but this time around it wasn't about Mark Duggan or public frustration. It was clear riots in other areas had nothing to do with Police brutality but simply misuse of events by opportunists.
Looting broke out in Enfield, and on early Monday morning in Edmonton Green. Guardian journalist Paul Lewis managed to keep up with looters, adding, "This is orchestrated. Teenagers on the streets saying there has long been "a plan" to be at #EdmontonGreen at midnight." Alongside him Mustafa Khalili video-producer for the Guardian tweeted "Young boy stabbed outside Edmonton workingmen's conservative club" in Enfield. Another Journalist following riots on the streets tweeted "At least 200 youths pelting stones + bottles @ police. Businesses told to shut up shop. 2 different cordons" Andrew Hough.
Nick Griffin was quick to turn a spin on events, couple of hours before the riot escalated to Edmonton Green, and Brixton he tweeted "Of course, anything the blacks do will be minor compared to what'll happen if Muslim areas get started".
In Brixton, numerous shops were looted and set on fire, including Footlockers, Currys, and H&M. Couple of hours after looting, it started raining which helped in calming the situation in Brixton, Matthew Taylor tweeted while walking around in the area "Heavy rain in #brixton seems more effective than pol at clearing street."
Several attempts were made in other areas to start looting, including Westfield where masked Youth were seen throwing stones. Unfortunately these events are an indicator of communities breaking down, Youth looting, vandalising and setting fire to local property.
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The latest crash at the stock exchanges has reduced the share values by 7,000 billion US$. That’s the crisis of the wealth. But the poor are hit even stronger by the recession and cutting programs - above all the youth. According to official numbers in Europe 22 million people are unemployed, among youth each fifth is without a job. That stirs up protests - and disconcerts even the financial industry: "Combined with a feeling of the lack of perspectives the high rate of youth unemployment is a highly explosive mixture", the economists of Hessiche Landesbank (Helaba) warn. "A time bomb is ticking." During the recession companies dropped millions of people. And under the pressure of the financial markets the governments cut their households, cut social expenditure, salaries and jobs. Young people are affected most hardly. In Greece, Ireland or Italy officially more than one quarter of the under-25-year old are without a job, in Spain even nearly each second is unemployed.
The problem is intensified by the increase of the statutory retirement age, which shall relieve the national budgets. Thus less jobs remain for the youth. At the same time the opportunities to get vocational training or to study are rare. The British government has cut its expenditure on education massively. In order to compensate this, in the future students have to pay study fees up to 11,000 EUR per year. End of 2010 this led to violent protests in London already.
Who finds a job nevertheless, is not necessarily financially secured: For first-time-hired gross wages about 1,000 EUR aren’t seldom. Jobs with precarious conditions are on the rise everywhere. "One limited job contract follows a former, several part-time jobs must be combined to have a quasi full-time income", Marion Dezenter, an economist at Helaba, explains. This applies also for Germany, where the number of youth who is employed with atypical conditions rose by 42 per cent since the year 2000. With kind regards to the "Generation Internship".
The lack of perspectives drives young people on the road to protest. In Portugal, in France, in Spain, in Great Britain, in Greece. "In socially disadvantaged residential areas like now in London a spark is enough to let the situation explode" says Gustav Horn, director of the German Research Institute for Economics, IMK.
Originally published in German by Stephan Kaufmann at www.mz-web.de and the newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 11 Aug. 2011. See also http://goo.gl/rfIOd