Sorry I'm Black

A veritable library has been written about what possible causes could have led to the British riots, so what I'm blogging about shouldn't be new to those keeping their finger on the pulse.

There's no doubt that various ingredients have amalgamated to form a disastrous recipe of violence, and in my opinion there's two main factors involved; poverty and racism.

The spark for this latest widespread mayhem occurred when the Police shot dead a young black father of four after surrounding his minivan en masse. Police say he opened fire on them but his family is adamant Mark Duggan had no weapons.

The police watchdog said there was no evidence Mark Duggan had fired at police. Forensics also showed that the bullet lodged in a police radio was police issue, meaning that Mark Duggan was probably murdered and the peaceful march that occurred was completely justified.

The people wanted answers from the police, but the only answer was further violence when they beat up a young female protester. The blame for what eventuated after that can be placed on years of police harassment and grinding poverty due to austerity measures, which created a tinderbox of resentment. I’m not condoning the crimes the rioters undertook, just pointing out an underlying motivation that resulted in wide spread rioting.

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Unrest in this area is nothing new. In the 80's there was a serious riot after police killed a black woman during a search of her home; that led to the killing of a police officer and a major explosion of violence under Margaret Thatcher's iron fist. That's just one example of police misconduct causing a negative reaction.

A basic cause of criminal behaviour is to throw somebody in the gutter and hit them with a stick for who they are. If the Imperial government wants somebody to blame, in my opinion they should go no further than to take a look in the mirror.

Increased harassment by the police of predominantly black people escalated after the stop and search policy was reintroduced recently because of the so called war on terror and a supposed crackdown on gun and knife crime. It had previously been identified as a cause of historical rioting and halted.

Just like New Zealand’s impoverished communities, the police are viewed as the enemy. Racist attitudes and the resulting heavy-handed approach that ensures a disproportionate amount of indigenous people are under the hammer, gives rise to resentments that are difficult to remedy.

But they also give rise to other social conditions such as depression and suicide in those who are affected by such repression. If you needed any proof that youth and ethnic minorities are demoralized and persecuted by the police and white supremacists in Great Britain, this video is it: