Riots: having time to reflect

My first post about the London riots was a knee jerk reaction fuelled by fear and anger. It was also written without any understanding of who these rioters were or the situation they live in and therefore i could only think of them within the frame of reference I am familiar with. I am not familiar with how they live and the struggle they have.

If I was writing that post now, I would write it differently but I am going to leave it up as showing the shock and anger felt at the time is important, but now, having discussed it and listened to other people's experiences I felt the need to follow it up with a more reasoned and informed response.

I read an excellent article in The Sunday Times today (News Review section) by Harriet Sergeant, who has spent years communicating with gang members including those who were involved in the riots this past week. Her insight into their lives and struggles is something that every other journalist and politician can learn from. She has good ideas about how we can solve this social problem by helping the kids involved.

Conversely, the headline on the front page of the main paper was about Government making life hell for these gangs. I think it's interesting that the paper ran with such opposing views. I think it's also starkly obvious that Sergeant's view is far more likely to rebuild this broken generation and prevent further revolts, than the Government's approach of harassing them daily for any minor offence including littering.

Do they not see that this will increase the divide between the two groups; that it will alienate this section of our society even more; that it will anger them and their response will be to fight back harder. They are already gang members, until recently they have been fighting each other. We don't need to make the police force another gang for them to fight.

Of course there are those who are hardened criminals with no desire to change and the only way to deal with them maybe to lock them up. But what I learnt from Sergeant's article is that there are many that want to be a part of this society; they want to work, they want to be accepted, they want to contribute. At the moment, we aren't letting them and so they feel they have little other choice than to act as they did.

I'm still angry for the devastation they caused, the homes and lives they have destroyed forever. But the correct response is to try and heal the wound rather than put a bigger, tighter bandage on it.

In Sergeant's experience these kids invariably have young single mothers who don't know how to raise them; the fathers are not involved; teachers don't discipline them; they are bored at school and rebel; without qualifications they leave school early but can't get jobs; they go on benefits; they have nothing to do; they get involved in gangs as the only form of community they can find; they don't go beyond the boundaries of their gang's territory; they have no hope of ever getting out of this unguarded prison of a life.

So when an opportunity presents itself to have the run of the city to get things they could never afford to buy to break free of the ties of the gang culture for a night, they grab it and fully exploit it.

But a lot of them don't want to be criminals, they want jobs, if they were given any motivation at all they would work hard for a meaningful wage that would allow them a half way comfortable existence by lawful means. But they aren't given this; the job centres tell them not to bother going for jobs, they'd be better off staying on benefits. It doesn't help that many immigrants come in prepared to work very hard for long hours and little pay, because it buys them so much more back home than it does here.

So, we have failed this section of our society. And it is our society and so we need to fix this.

Single women were encouraged to have children by the last government, as their benefits increased massively, but these women were then not equipped to raise their children properly. The children were brought up without a moral framework without role models to guide them, without direction and aspiration.

Then we don't educate these children properly, so they fail school and can't get jobs. They go on benefits, they join gangs, they steal to fund a lifestyle they aspire to as seen on TV.

We are in danger of this damage being unrepairable, it might already be the case for some. But, if we can engage them in school, give them something to strive for; give them job opportunities that they want and they will work hard for then we can engage with them and make this society inclusive. So we don't have to fear each other, or live our lives within boundaries. We can share this country and take pride in it and everyone in it.

We just need the Government to listen to what the kids need, what they don't have, what it would take to integrate them properly rather than alienating them further.

I would beg David Cameron to sit down with Harriet Sergeant and the stories she has directly from the children who were burning our streets last week. And find out how we can make the most of this last chance to save our society.