England, Whose England?

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

In recent days, kids have run riot in London. Not just black kids, but white kids too. Not just poor kids - one girl was driving a car when stopped by the cops and had a load of looted gear on board. In court it turns out that her parents came from a million pound mansion in Kent. She has her own tennis court at home, and was out looting with friends.

Yes, our society has relative poverty and social deprivation. But this was not a food riot like you see in Eastern Europe and the developing world. We had a Nike Trainers riot, a flat screen TV riot.

Poverty in England is about moral and spiritual poverty. poverty of ideals and aspirations. the kids in a poor area who wants to belong to something greater than their own family have nothing much to look at beyond the gang on the corner of the street.

The Churches do not meet their needs or speak their language any more. The cops, the schools and the local firms are in no sense ' theirs', they belong to other people and work against them , not for them. And often , their parents will say the same.

We in Britain need to do an assessment of what is going on. When our police cannot protect our homes and shops from rioters, we have to remember that these shops and homes belong to us. If the State cannot furnish the means to keep them safe, we must look to our own selves.

The law says that a citizen can make an arrest if s/he sees an arrestable offence being committed. I know this because I wear a public service uniform myself and make it my business to find out. And police are telling me that if I see a gang of youths, or even a single pickpocket in action, that I should report it, but not intervene personally. And the Union is telling me that if my co worker gets attacked, I have to "stand back and assess, then call for assistance". Ok, and what if I get called to assist? Well, I must call the police if need be. I must not 'put myself at risk'.

Even on the street, our Neighbourhood Watch is told to "report crime, but do not confront anyone, wait for the police to deal with it".

Well, we in England did as we were told this week. like good children, we stood back for three days and watched as the clueless coppers and all the other 'grown ups' failed to save shops and homes from being destroyed. The image of a woman jumping from the first floor window of her blazing home was flashed around the world.

But then, first in London and then elsewhere, some of us stood up, grabbed the nearest weapon and took back our streets own from the feral rat boys who were pillaging our land. Men in their 50s, with little in the way of training or equipment, stood shoulder to shoulder with adult sons and grandsons and chased away the rioters and the looters who had run rings around a gallant but politically hobbled police force, who had orders from on high to 'stand back and observe'.

Ok, the dawn raids of Thursday and Friday produced a slew of court cases - but will the woman in Croydon get her home back? will the shopkeepers of Tottenham be able to stay in business?

It is shameful that a firm that went on trading during the Great Depression, and withstood the Blitz of London by Nazi Germany, was put out of business and burned to the ground by yobs in hoodies while the police stood back.

The people of Britain are not stupid, but we are complacent. We build the Trade Unions that build the Labour Party that built the Welfare State. But we who are Socialists have cast those pearls before swine and raised a generation of youths who do not appreciate the sacrifices that were made on their behalf, and who think nothing of burning, looting and mugging their fellow citizens.

What is needed is not an American style 'Second Amendment'. What we need is a Citizens Movement that will give us back our laws and our public bodies. Not only must parliament and police be accountable to us, but the Law itself has got to start treating us like Adults - like Citizens, and not Subjects.

Citizens should have the right to form Local Citizens Committees, electing its own officers in the manner of a Trade Union branch. We should also have the right to form self defence associations, like the Guardian Angels, free from police harassment and interference.

Local Citizen Volunteers Associations should be free to organise, train and and equip their members to do traffic control, first aid, fire fighting and flood prevention drills, as well as law enforcement - and the police and politicians should sit down , shut up an let them get on with it. The nanny State has failed to look after us, and it is time we stood up and took back the right and the ability to look after ourselves.

Comments

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Now that's way better of an introspect than the recent calls for the creation of volunteer vigilante brigades that we saw here in the last days.

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

Well, I think it was me who made that one.
In the immediate emergency situation , some people took action , but we need to consider the long term implications here. next summer, the same kids will be wandering the street with nothing to do but join a gang, and the police will be telling local people "We will look after you- just stay home and watch TV."

Yeah - right!

The immediate concern is safeguarding lives and property. The long term issues are giving the kids something to do, and giving the local community something better than an ASBO to use against the local hooligans.

The ASBO has not worked. We want our streets back and it's time we started looking at how we can win them back long term.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know it was you put I was trying to be polite. :)

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

Not just black kids?

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

Nope. I should not have to point this out, but the assumption runs that 'it's them ( insert racial/national/ class stereotype here ) that always cause the trouble.

No, sorry people. It isn't that we have to deport immigrants, or throw money at the 'socially deprived'. Face it , England, there were rich white kids out there, torching working class communities and stealing from their shops.

Maybe you thought that this shocks me, but I went to school with rich kids although I had a blue collar back ground. Long story, but the short ending goes that I have worked alongside a fair cross section of the community and I say that I have met good and bad in most places. I am not surprised at seeing rich kids run riot, I saw it regularly in Bournemouth , over 30 years ago.

We need to start giving these kids - all kids , of every class , creed and colour - something to do and something they can believe in again. Paying them for doing public services, like we already pay the TA in Britain doesn't seem a bad idea.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

A regular Sturmabteilungen, eh?

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

But they're SO cute!

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

Well, we either get kids involved in the community through things like the SJAB, the Army Cadet Corps and the Boy Scouts, or we let them join the street gangs and push crack.

I know what I prefer.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Because there's never a middle ground.

Tell me, would those boyscouts chant "Yes! We! Can" like those after Obama's election? It sounded kinda cool.

Being British...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Rather than wearing brown shirts, they will wear lime green tops with pink bottoms.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

I don't think you should try to portray all the looters one way because of this rich jerk though. There are always people who try to take advantage, but I don't think they really describe the main people out mobbing, they're just the parasites, but they wouldn't be out there creating the situation if it wasn't already created.

One still needs to figure out the cause, and this rich kid isn't it.

I believe...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Minto was pointing out the fact that it is not only poor kids who are in on the antics.

Re: I believe...

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

And my point is that people who are "in on the antics" may not be the entire picture. There are always people willing to be "in on the antics" but that doesn't mean that's the cause.

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

I am not portraying them all one way - but many Lefties are !
"they are all black , all immigrants, all poor people "!
No - wrong ! They come from all walks of life, every social class.

They all need a lesson in social responsibility.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

[editing...]

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

You sound as silly as Dan Quayle. "What we are suffering from is a poverty of values..."

Yea sure.

[notmrgarrison.livejournal.com]

You mean Bill Clinton?

Or did you forget all his "family values" talk after he became president.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

No I mean Dan Quayle, in response to the LA riots.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Remember when none of the London Bobby's didn't carry guns? It wasn't all that long ago.

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

Hey, when I was seven years old, my mum took me up to London , and we walked up to the Prim Minister's door at #10 , Downing Street.

I chatted to a very friendly copper who gave me sixpence for an ice cream. And I look back and thing on iit. he was wearing a short sleeved shirt. No body armour, no riot gear - and he was in front of Number 10.

The killing of three London policemen by Harry Roberts in '66 was what put an end to the the police going unarmed, but even now, the regular police do not have guns. Instead, there are Armed Response Units who are trained marksmen.

I see no need to issue firearms to Citizen's Volunteer Groups, though. Although some may be needed on occassion , I hope that we could still hold the streets they way we did in the final stages of the riots.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

But we who are Socialists have cast those pearls before swine and raised a generation of youths who do not appreciate the sacrifices that were made on their behalf, and who think nothing of burning, looting and mugging their fellow citizens.

It was inevitable. That's what socialism produces.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily.

Historically, riots existed well before Socialism. For example, the Gordon Riots happened at a time when London was a Libertarian paradise.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

That's nice, but doesn't logically contradict what I said.

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

It is what socialism has produced, but Christianity has also produced the Inquisition. Neither of these outcomes is inevitable, though.

I have been a Christian Socialist for many years - decades even, and somehow have not got round to looting and arson yet.

I would agree that being middle class exposes one the the danger of naivety in what goes on in the world, and some middle class people seem to think that poverty and deprivation will automatically trun people criminal, so all we have to do is make people richer and all will be well.

this seems to be the problem in the UK right now - kids know their rights, but not their responsibilities.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Just because you don't do something doesn't mean it's not encouraging the group to do something.