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As I write, I can still smell the smoke and the helicopters buzzing atop. I live in Tottenham and have for fourteen years now. As I returned home on Saturday night, our bus was abuzz with worries about whether our partners and friends - whom we were returning to - were safe. We could see a police cordon and behind that, familiar buildings surrounded by flames with young men, faces covered, leading a stand-off.
Tottenham is one of the most deprived boroughs in the country. I live streets away from where eight-year-old Victoria Climbié died because of her abusive guardians. A few years ago, Ikea opened up at the edge of Tottenham, with a deep discount on the first day. It became a scene of a stabbing over sofas. A few years ago, my partner and I were beaten up, yards from my home by several thirteen year old boys and girls.
No doubt, once more, some commentators will come out blaming "deprivation and poverty" for these riots. I reject this view completely. I grew up in India, where there is real, abject poverty - families without homes, food, shoes. Anger about a fatal police shooting does not necessitate burning buses and looting shops. This view is also unfair to the many, many families in Tottenham and elsewhere, who live on a tiny income and never once think about going out and ruining our public streets. I just received a phone call from an elderly Jamaican lady, who misdialled her daughter's number and connected to me. All she cared about speaking to her daughter, making sure she was safe. She doesn't want to burn cars and shops to make a point.
The actions of this small, but significant group tarnishes the entire area and it shouldn't. My area of Tottenham is one of the most diverse in Europe, from Holocaust refugees to Eastern Europeans.
Every day, when I sit at my bus stop, overlooking the spot in Tottenham where those kids kicked and punched my partner to the ground, I know whose side I am on. Not on the side of those who think looting widescreen TV's from shops is a way to express a view, but on the side of the ordinary resident - the Turkish hairdresser, the takeaway owner, all of us who choose not to allow the rule of the mob to triumph over the rule of law.
You didn’t happen to see the Home Secretary handing out redundancy notices did you?
"the rule of law"
What law? There is no law North, South, East or West of the Palace of Westminster.
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You grew up in India where police with long batons beat the heck out of anybody who steps out of line.
You grew up in India where the poor are viciously oppressed by custom, tradition, religion and the requirements of social class divisions based upon extreme subservience.
If you wish to make comparisons between India and the UK then give us the whole picture., Describe the exploitative degraded practices of contemporary India where the rights of the poor are suppressed and ignored. Describe how in the United kingdom the poor have real rights.
I understand that there are serious problems of street intimidation and violence by young adults. They are at a loose end. What should they do?
Do you want the British police to beat the poor to a pulp so you can be safe?
The majority of the residents don't support the game, and the players don't speak for them. Their actions were criminal, plain and simple!
=So, why is such violence happening?
I wonder what caused this though: a fatal shooting has become the clarion call for people with grievances to make themselves heard. Unfortunately, what started as a peaceful protest ended in violence. I think the current public perception of the police is one of suspicion; we`ve had the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes; the killing of Ian Tomlinson, not to mention the NoTW scandal (and so on).
On the other side of the coin, many of the young people who were rioting probably had an absent father. That is not to say that one parent being absent will cause - or be a `justification` - for people to go off the rails, but I feel - from my own experience - that it leaves a gaping hole in one`s life, which is often filled by peers. The lack of good role models in public life, as well as a whole culture of `bling` and violence-suffused `gangsta` lifestyles do not engender any sense of self-worth or belonging.
I just hope that somehow the people of Tottenham can move on.