Rioting. ACTUAL rioting. WTF.

So this is where we live

I have always known it wasn't a 'nice' area. I mean it's London right so if you aren't rich you can't afford to live in a 'nice' area. And we want to live in London. And we aren't rich. So we live in Tottenham. Which was fine, until last night. Sure, you pass someone on every street smoking weed but surely that happens in everywhere? And it doesn't hurt anyone. Every now and then someone gets shot or stabbed but that stuff seemed avoidable. Gang culture that if you weren't part of you could easily pretend didn't go on. It doesn't hurt me or my family. And so when Mark Duggan got shot on Thursday night I figured it wouldn't really affect us. But he got shot by a police officer. Not by another gangster. So, apparently this changes things. This requires a more elaborate revenge that your average gang shooting. One that does hurt me and my family and hundreds of other innocent people and shopkeepers. This revenge was big.

And I totally get it. I totally get that when you are annoyed with a situation, angry about a death, needing to act out, the best way to do that is to ruin EVERYONE ELSE'S lives. And I'm sure that's what Mark Duggan's family wanted - for the local carpet shop to be looted, the local charity shop, the local supermarket. For an entire street to be burned down. For peoples homes to be destroyed. For people to fear for their lives just walking home from the pub. Because when you lose a son, a brother, a family member, nothing dulls the pain like a nice new (if slightly charred) carpet, a second had tea pot or a stolen packet of biscuits. Knowing that someone else is hurting too. Making sure everyone else suffers with you. I am sure they are all sat at home this morning feeling much, much better about Mark's death.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU??????

That's not how you make a point. That's not how you get justice. That's not how you live life you complete IDIOTS.

As you can probably tell I'm angry. I don't feel sad. I don't feel scared. I don't feel concerned. I feel really bloody angry. How selfish of you. How painfully, horribly, disgustingly selfish. What point were you making when you stole that TV from Curry's? How were you achieving justice for Mark by burning down someones business? Someones HOME? Someone who ISN'T a police officer, ISN'T a gangster, DOESN'T own a gun. IS NOT INVOLVED but will now have years and years of hardship trying to rebuild their life.

During my psychology degree I studied 'crowd culture' and the violence that goes with it. So I understand. I know that the 'anonymity complex' kicks in. That in a crowd you don't feel like you are an individual, you feel like you belong to the crowd and because of that there are no consequences. You believe that you cannot be punished because there is no 'you', there is just the greater cause. So I understand the science.

What I don't understand is how it becomes a 'crowd culture'. Whose idea what it to make a petrol bomb? Who throws the first punch? Who smashed the first window? Who burns down a bloody bus?!

And do you know what, I don't want to know. I don't want to understand. Because all there is to it is stupidity. Selfish stupidity. Last night's riots were nothing but mindless vandalism. No retribution was served for Mark Duggan's death. NOTHING WAS ACHIEVED. Apart from even more heartache and pain for even more people that live in Tottenham. Well done.

Well done you absolute twats.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14435251