Yesterday the Guardian and London School of Economics announced that they would be leading the 'first empirical enquiry into the riots' that will interview 100s who were present at the riots last month. Unbeknown to them 'the first enquiry' of its kind had already started days earlier on Saturday and has already interviewed over 100 young people directly and indirectly involved in last months riots.
Unlike the enquiry led by the Guardian and London School of Economics who remain outside of the communities they hope to study this enquiry is directed and lead entirely by the young people who were at the riots, live and work in Tottenham and is to be published as the first grass roots and youth led report of its kind.
The enquiry will be directed by the grass roots community organising group; Haringey Young People Empowered (HYPE) alongside the voluntary support of graduate students. It serves as an example of how grass roots communities can lead the post mortem of the riots and illuminates the importance of a bottom up collaboration between people and institutions during the formulation of public policy.
As a founder member of HYPE, I will be presenting the results of the research at Haringey Community and Police Consultative Group public meeting on September 21st 2011, which will also feature presentations by David Lammy MP, leader of Haringey Council, Cllr Clare Kober and Haringey's Borough commander.
So far the early results were more mixed than people would expect however the overwhelming crisis of trust and call for police accountability amongst young people is already clear. Accommodating the release of our consultation will need to be the public understanding that calling for accountability amongst the Metropolitan Police is not anti-police but pro-good policing.
Most innovative about the research was that it was launched and built on HYPE's annual football tournament. Held on the borders of Tottenham and Wood Green, the tournament is in its fourth year, it uses football as a vehicle to bridge the divide between youth, community and the police - a need made even more necessary following Haringey's riots.
Every aspect of our tournament had been meticulously organised by our core team of young people between the ages of 14 - 23 and led by 19 year old Erika Lopez. The tournament was founded with an initial focus on tackling postal code violence. Local boys register 5-a-side teams composed of their friends usually predominantly from one area of Haringey. When teams get knocked out they are offered a chance to re-enter by forming new teams representative of the different parts of Haringey on the spot. This is to encourage relationships and cooperation across boundaries.
The tournament location on Perth Road pitches on the borders of Wood Green and Tottenham had been purposely symbolic but its N22 post code was contentious with some boys from Tottenham who had conflicts within the area, yet only once in 4 years has there been a moment when the atmosphere was anything other than communal.
Each year the police are invited as civilians to volunteer un-uniformed and support a team each to encourage relationship building between the young people and police. In previous years we have boasted great success but the shift in relations was visceral at Wednesday's tournament briefing. The Woodside ward police sergeant, refused to allow his officers to attend as plain clothes civilians or promise to allow his officers to participate as volunteers, as was the case in previous years. Only the bargaining skills of HYPE co-founder, Janay Cochrane enabled an agreement of half being in plain clothes.
On the day, however these concerns were arrested and good spirits were maintained throughout between the officers, wider community and our young people. The tournament was built around our consultation with every young person interviewed for 10 minutes to put forward their views on the causes of riots, feelings, the government and police response and proposed directions and solutions for change.
Throughout the day the DJ played music beside the pitch, BBQ chicken was served and the day was enjoyed. The day closed with over 100 young people engaging in a succinct session on stop and search legislation led by the 'Urban Lawyer'; a barrister who equips young people with an understanding of themselves and the law as well as our consultation.
In the aftermath of Tottenham's burning ensuring our grass roots and young people are part of the policy debate and creating a safe space for community and police dialogue is imperative. The HYPE tournament is not only central to this but is becoming a modern Tottenham tradition contributing to the momentum being built in the borough. In Tottenham our grass roots are not only growing they are green with youth.