Reading through tehgrauniad’s riots deep-dive, the impression that I get is that the whole “riots as an insurgency” idea wasn’t that far off. I’ve been indisciplined in that I took notes but didn’t keep links (a problem with paying for and reading the actual newspaper), so you’ll have to trust me on this. Obviously, blaming the whole thing on “criminality” is about as useful as blaming rain on “water falling from the sky”.
The first common factor that struck me was that pretty much everyone they interviewed had a grudge against the police. Not in any broad theoretical sense, but a grudge – a specific and personal memory of perceived injustice and especially incivility, cherished over time. Now, it’s in the nature of policing as a public service that nobody enjoys it. If you’re interacting with policemen on duty, it’s either because they suspect you of being a criminal, or because something bad has happened to you. Generally, everybody would quite like to minimise their lifetime consumption of policing.
There is something that motivates people to put up with it, though, and that something is legitimacy.
The second common factor was the attitude towards property. Quite a lot of the people the Guardian spoke to reported looting goods from shops, and then giving them away, or witnessing others doing so. Stealing goods is one thing, but immediately giving them away is rather different and very much a political act. So much so that there is a word for it (and I’m not the only one to notice this).
Of course, police legitimacy comes in a very large degree from their role as protectors of property, so this was a way of directly challenging their claim to provide security and to employ legitimate force.
Eyewitnesses often described a tactical, practical implementation of this – small groups of rioters harassing the police, in a sort of screening or covering operation, while many more looted or destroyed property. It’s very interesting that this could all happen so quickly.
If by “riots as an insurgency” you mean that the rioters didn’t actually need what they were looting, then pretty nearly every UK riot in the last 70 years was an insurgency. I’m not sure it’s a helpful descriptor, and it tends to ignore one large elephant – that rioting is tremendous fun if you’re not the one being kicked to death or having home/shop torched. It’s because it’s such fun that we have to have strict laws against it.
I’d note 3 salient points
Demographic change – back in the 50s day you had Notting Hill. By the 80s Brixton, Tottenham, St Pauls, Toxteth and a fair few more. Now places like Ealing, Croydon, Bexley Heath – which were once stereotypically safe suburban places.
The dogs that didn’t bark – Bradford, Burnley, Blackburn, Oldham.
The impact of a million-odd Eastern Europeans, many pretty bright cookies, on the job prospects for those people, of every race, who aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer.
“Quite a lot of the people the Guardian spoke to reported looting goods from shops, and then giving them away, or witnessing others doing so.”
I can confirm similar behaviour in the Bristol 1980 riots … not that I was there, your honour, honest.
The impact of a million-odd Eastern Europeans, many pretty bright cookies, on the job prospects
It is amazing but not surprising to find you blaming everything on immigrants in 2012 as you were in 2004, apparently in serene ignorance of the massive economic crisis that happened in the meantime (and incidentally induced about half of them to return home).
“blaming everything on immigrants in 2012 as you were in 2004”
a) I’m not blaming immigrants for current unemployment. They’re acting rationally and are no more to be blamed than, say, a Brit working in Germany or Oz. I’m blaming immigration, which is an artefact of UK government policy and which impacts the supply of labour, which in its turn impacts both unemployment and the terms and conditions of the employed. Remember the Home Office estimate of around 13,000 A8 migrants ?
b) given that I’m not blaming immigrants in 2012, what wasn’t I blaming them for in 2004 ?
Laban