Censor looming around the UK corner?

UK Riots and consequences

Cause

While Tottenham businesses hit by the summer riots have been given support to improve trade over the Christmas period by Haringey Council‘s “I Love Tottenham” campaign aiming to encourage people to shop locally, to help firms recover from the devastation caused by looters, the government looked into the problem and thinks to have found a solution to avoid such uprising again. It looked as if the youngsters had found some uprising ideas in the methods of the Arabic Awakening, using the social networks to get more adherents.

The unrest began after a protest over the fatal shooting by police of 29-year-old Mark Duggan in Tottenham, north London, on Thursday 6 August. Speculation that Mark Duggan was ‘assassinated’ in an execution style involving a number of shots to the head are categorically untrue according the Police investigations IPCC Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne. Following the formal identification of the body Mr Duggan’s family know that this is not the case.

Riot police in Piccadilly Gardens - Taken during the rioting in Manchester city centre on the night of 10.08.2011.

 Riots broke out in London, Tottenham, and spread to other parts of London and to English cities.

A friend of Mr Duggan, who gave her name as Niki, 53, said marchers had wanted “justice for the family” and “something had to be done”. She said some of them lay in the road to make their point. “They’re making their presence known because people are not happy,” she added. “This guy was not violent. Yes, he was involved in things but he was not an aggressive person. He had never hurt anyone.”

Vanessa Robinson said she had joined the original protest outside the police station and it had begun peacefully. She said the situation had then turned into “absolute chaos”.

Analysis of the Riots

The British government tried to analyse the riots. When they compare the last riots with those of the 1980s and the 2001 disorder in northern English towns they notice  that it were mainly youths not as much protesting but more looting. In the previous assaults the target has been the police or other groups, typically leading to lots of convictions for violence-related crimes. This time around, many of those out on the streets were out shopping with a crowbar. While there was still some very serious violence, the charges so far broadly reflect what we all watched live on TV.

Riot police during riots in Manchester

A good thing is that the courts are not treating defendants just as ordinary burglars – they are taking into account the aggravating circumstances of the riots.On the late afternoon of 9th August 2011, the shopping centre at Salford Precinct came under sustained attack from groups of those determined to enter them and make off with their stock, and with their money. Later the same day, large numbers set about the same exercise within Manchester City Centre. The disorder lasted in Salford from 5.00 pm, and in Manchesterfrom about 6.00 pm. It lasted to 4.00 am in both cases.

Substantial numbers of persons of both sexes were involved in criminality. Gangs of youths and others rampaged through both centres, many wearing balaclavas and armed with baseball bats and other weapons. Some were teenagers and children. 155 fires were started overall. The fires included those in shops set on fire after being looted. One – the Lidl store in Salford – was burned down. Firefighters in Salford came under sustained attack, as did police officers. In Manchester fire was also used.

Greater Manchester Police officers in Piccadilly Gardens (Manchester, England)

The kinds of shops which came under attack were wideranging: premises attacked included small convenience stores, newsagents, off licences, specialist electrical goods retailers, jewellers, musical instruments specialists, supermarkets and clothing stores at all parts of the price spectrum. Other premises were also attacked, including coffee shops and a Probation Office No fewer than 147 properties, mostly business premises, were damaged.

The crimes left the shopping heart of Manchester between Deansgate and Piccadilly with large numbers of looted shops and smashed shop fronts. Salford Precinct suffered just as badly.

In Manchester 900 police officers had to be deployed, including some from 10 outsuide forces. 20 police officers were injured.

Reactions

Some people  found the actions of the youngsters justified because, according to them the  rioters are economically deprived. Others say the government did not listen or did not see previous signals. A lot of people rightly point at the poverty. And is we are not going to handle that problem of growing poverty, we shall have to face more problems in the future.

Britain faces similar problems as Belgium where the gap between the rich and the poor becomes bigger and the greed of some have ruined a lot of others. The greed of the rich in Britain means that most people cannot get a decent life in Britain. The poor cannot tighten their belts any more than they already have. Parliamentarians asking more efforts from the people but not doing anything to save in the parliament or on their own pensions are aggravating the people. Britain is, like Belgium has become, a country of exploitation – and that eventually leads to civil unrest.

Someone in power needs to do something about the extremes of poverty and wealth in Britain or in Belgium.

But people should realize that the government cannot provide everything for them. Everybody has to work and earn their living and status. But by education and possible ways to get up the ladder at work people should find means to become better off.

Some do find it unrealistic to say that anyone can become wealthy in Britain – there just are not enough opportunities in Britain and small businesses cannot compete with the multi-national companies.  The rich forget that they are rich because the poor are kept poor by the employers.

But some folks do seam to expect Government to regularly supply them with electronic gadgets, designer clothes (or whatever items they stole at the riots), along with other benefits.

Shutting down Ideas, Media and Social Networks

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On the other hand police nor politicians may generalise the youth either. They pointing out to the danger of the media sets off a dangerous precedent. They would like to shut down the social media Facebook and Twitter and prohibit the media giving more information when riots start. To me this looks like censorship.

In Belgium we encounter that already a lot, and it does no good to the community. Instead it does a lot of harm to the country and undermines it further.

Before the 80ies you could call Belgium a good democratic country where every body could live fairly well and where political paries got seats according to the amount of votes they got at elections. It had got the golden sixties but had later on to face the problems of the socialist overspending and the huge amount of expenses been made.

Flag used by the now-defunct political party Vlaams Blok = Flemish Block in Belgium.

Beginning October 1991 the Volksunie took discharge from the Government-Martens VIII after a particular violent communautaire confrontation over the export of weapons to the Middle-East.  By the Belgian general elections of 24 November 1991 for the Belgian Chamber of Representatives and Belgian Senate the results represented a big loss for the majority parties (Christian democrats and Socialists). The Flemish Block Vlaams Blokon the other hand had a very big gain. Normally they should have got more power, but the other parties decided to form a ‘cordon sanitaire’.

Because of that first large profit booking of the Flemish Block during these elections that electionday was called ‘Black Sunday’ in the years afterwards.

Striking was well that by the next elections, after Martens IX, all the other parties took  proposed agenda points of the Flemish Block in their leaflets.  Taking over those ideas of the Flemish Block was for them a possibility to get back a little more popularity. But they were mistaken.

The combined success of Flemish Block and ROSSEM elicited from leaders of more traditional parties the comment, that the ‘anti-politic’ heydays came fourth.  Strangely enough they either did not listen carefully or did  not understand that signal of the voters.

With the upcoming of mediatic Jean-Pierre Van Rossem one could see that people started getting enough of the media circus of the politics but also that they wanted some action about the economical situation. The voters wanted to show their dissatisfaction.

Vlaams Blok and Rossem were pushed in the corner and were put to silence. This took away the confidence of lots of voters. More people became apathetic to the politics. Having less credibility did not seem to matter a lot of politicians who became more interested to keep their seat in parliament or Senate. With the population they did not play open card any more  and negotiated with several enterprises who rejected their employees.

Finally when this degenerated in an economic chaos with enormous share losses and bank difficulties, the population became by the politicians soothed, while on the other hand the media brought men panic by spreading more negative news in the world.

N-VA Logo

The next political landslide came over Belgium on Sunday 13 June 2010 on which the Flemish-nationalistic party New Flemish Alliance Party  N-VA of Bart De Wever in Flanders got 27.8% of the votes and with this became the biggest party of Flanders and Belgium.  This was the first time in which a non-traditional political party dominated the outcome of a Belgian election. In the French-speaking country part, the socialist  PS  became posted the largest party with 37.6% while the most other parties had to face a loss.

The main objective of the party is to work on great institutional reforms by gradually obtaining more powers for both Belgian regions separately. But not many seem to want to step in the same boat and once more the minority groups thought to have found the solution and excluded the New Flemish Alliance.

Following a continued lack of agreement over how to resolve the conflict over the electoral arrondissement of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV) plus the intense effort of the acting party members to assure a post in the government brought Belgium in its worst political crisis of its history.

Meanwhile was there also an enormous financial crisis in the country and in Europe by which the government could miss further riots as toothache.  Therefore they took care that particular events got not in the news or in the media.  It is quite clear that as, especially after the respectless incident at the VUB of the Indignados and of the Occupy Movement, that these also lost further credibility by the press and were exiled into oblivion.

Credibility

In Occupy Movement Verzwegen in de media it is pointed out how a political, European and financial crisis makes many Belgians fearfully.  Fearful for the collapse of the secure wealthy system. In the article it is mentioned that in Flanders they also got the Occupy Movement that came on course with the Indignados and at first got attention but after that blurred fast, when there happened a few unworthy things. In Verontwaardigd over Indignados you can see how much damage was been caused by the protesters who were given some refuge. Everywhere one could find the walls full with graffiti.  Food remnants were everywhere around, but also human excrements could be found everywhere where it should not be.  Water-closets pulled out of the ground. Even the sanctified library was demolished by the so called indignant people who demanded respect  but did not act as schooled men that have themselves respect.

After the incidents at the University buildings readers could not find many articles any more in the national newspapers and nothing at all was mentioned again on television.

The media took care that the populace could not get contaminated.

By omitting several happenings it is taking care that the public is not well enough informed. By doing that they are going to form their own conclusions taking into account that it is perhaps only the top of the iceberg which is not being told, to hide what is under water, and even more dangerous.

Kashmiri protesters use these graffites on their profile pages of Gmail, Facebook, twitter etc

The Arabic Awakening could grow from the called up persons reacting on the messages on their cell phones, Facebook and Twitter. It is true those social  networks contributed a lot to the success of that revolution, but it could also help to let something bad grow. But it is better to keep it open and let them give the opportunity to bring some changes. Precensorship and censuring at the moment of the actions is not going to help the causes.

By looking for ways to censor Great-Britain brings itself in the danger-zone going to become such an undemocratic country as Belgium with the possibility in the long end to end up in total chaos and destruction of the country itself.

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1. View the BBC Video: Tottenham shops respond to scheme for riot-hit firms
2. London riots: Most wanted suspect CCTV images released
3. Verontwaardigd over Indignados
4. Occupy Movement Verzwegen in de media
5. Occuppy Acties en Sociaal Engagement

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