Excuses for Riots

A large number of our politicians are showing that they are not much better than the Rioters them selves, as rather than just condemning the riots they try and twist them to their own political ends.

Link to Guardian

The original Riot in Tottenham may have started out from a legitimate protest (the full results from the IPCC has not been released yet), but no riot is excusable - and the spread of the riots was just Thuggery.

Various left wing social commentators are finding excuses for the Rioters, despite them committing inexcusable offences against their communities. They had no placards, they gave no protest and half of the ones who have been interviewed cant come up with a coherent excuse.

"We did it to show that we had no money today

"We did it to show the police we can do what we want"

when they pointed out the police wernt hurt but it was the shop keepers

"We did it to show the rich we can do what we want"

didn't they notice that most of the shops hit were small locally owned businesses.

We have brought up a generation with a large number of people that think that the rules do not apply to them, that there are no consequences and that they can do what they want. When looking at the causes of the riots we need to look at that as well, not only the current situation that led to the riots but also the failings of our society that led them to feel it was OK to do it.

There has been a bright side to all this though - the communities coming together to condemn the rioters and to clean up and rebuild. Both young and old coming out and helping each other and giving shining examples of true British spirit that haven't been seen in years.

Now if we can just build on the positive, maybe there is hope for our society yet.

London Riots spread country wide.

The side effects of the policy allowing young people to run riot has brought riots to the entire country.

For years we have pandered to our kids, allowed them to ignore the police and teachers and attacked authority figures that have stood up to them. Punishments have been reduced to meaningless in schools so our youth feel there are no consequences to their actions. The result is Riots, Mass looting and the death toll to several communities.

They are about to learn there are consequences, when no jobs or businesses return to their communities for fear it happens again. The scars will remain as no one comes to repair the damage, and the number of jobless and impoverished families will grow.

We need to stem the tide now, the government needs announce that they will name and shame those guilty, so they face the wrath of their friends and family. Any over the age of 14 need to be treated as adults in the face of the law with the consequences that come with it. We need to announce the punishments now to prevent further spread.

More importantly we need to take a long look at our society. We need to show our children that there are consequences when the consequences are minor, long before they get to this stage. Discipline needs to come back in to schools and respect for the police needs to be rebuilt. 

We need a society where common sense wins, rather than instant reaction. Where when a parent hears that their child is in trouble - they find out why rather than immediately believing either side. Then stand up for the side that is in the right. In 'The good old days' parents immediately believed the Teacher or Police - now they immediately believe the child. 

Neither is right, but it is the lack of consequences caused by the latter that have enabled the current problems to arise. Our society has had a habit of jumping from one extreme to the other, where the middle ground is needed, and hopefully after the dust has cleared and the rebuilding commences we will not see more knee jerk reactions but a constructive dialogue to rebuild a safer, fairer and stronger society.