Rebels without a cause?

Volume 2, Issue 32- August 12-18, 2011

International Tribune

To riot or not to riot, that is the question among young Britons today.  They are smashing windows, burning cars, looting stores and vandalizing properties all across the country.    Youth of different backgrounds have all joined together on a vengeance venting their anger and frustration against Britain’s social establishment in the streets.  Some even say that demonstrators appeared to be as young as twelve years old, who were simply “joining in on the fun” because it has caught so much attention.   Is this genuine social discontent or are they rebels without a cause? 

Angry and frustrated from the killing of a young black man, a father of four, and an alleged gangster by the police, mobsters took advantage of the situation and wreaked havoc that began in the streets of Tottenham in North London.   Prime Minister Cameron’s Tuscan summer holiday was quickly interrupted calling the event ‘sickening’ and has vowed to stop the unrest and gave all law enforcements a full-pledge capacity to quell the violence.   The riots have been tamed down but copycats quickly staged the scene in other parts of England using social networks sites to gather their sympathizers.  

The London riots were described the worst in decades.  Approximately 12,000 people have been arrested within 5 days by the authorities.  The turn of events quickly got out of hand on what started out to be a demonstration by disenfranchised and unemployed youth who were rallying for the government to do something about job opportunities, rising tuition, police corruption, and other issues vital to their day-to-day existence.  With the unchallenged power of social network sites on the internet to quickly assemble its followers, in a matter of hours, the demonstrations became a convulsion of violence spreading all over the city.  Mobsters dressed in hoods came prepared with baseball bats hitting policemen or just about anyone who got in their way.  

Felonious acts of arson took over the psyche of youngsters thereby smashing windows, vandalizing stores, and setting things on fire.   They were left virtually unchallenged in several neighborhoods.  Private citizen also witnessed that when the police did arrive in certain scene, the looters often were able to flee quickly and regroup. It was an opportunistic moment and the delinquents really took advantage of the chaos.   “When we see children as young as 12 and 13 looting and laughing, when we see the disgusting sight of an injured young man with people pretending to help him while they are robbing him, it is clear there are things that are badly wrong in our society.  The riots underscored as much a moral problem as a political one.  There are pockets of our society that are not only broken, but plainly sick,” Cameron said during his interview.

On the other hand, the former mayor of London, Ken Livingston described the events as pent-up resentment over the economy, unemployment and sweeping budget cuts. The budget cuts had starved community centers in poor neighborhoods of cash, forcing them to shut down and leaving unemployed youths with little to do except indulge in drugs, crime and anti-social behaviors.  Can we really blame governments as the cause and effect of such chaos?  Or is this merely a sign of social decay that today’s younger generation places a different value on education and hard work?

Discontents come in every season.  Paris had its ‘banlieu’ riots in the fall of 2005.  And five years later, came the Arab Spring.  Now London experienced its juvenile delinquent summer of 2011 – but this time, they are equipped with Facebook, iPads and iPhones.  Now these days, feeling above the law seems to be a trend.  Peaceful demonstration is no longer chic.  Those days are over.  With all this said, it does not seem far-fetched to say, indeed that the devil wears Prada.