London, Salford, Manchester, Nottingham, Leeds, Bristol, Liverpool and Birmingham are currently experiencing a level of violence which has not been seen for decades. Shops have been looted and buildings have been burnt to the ground.

Nobody really knows the true cause of this violence, though as I have repeated many times over the past several days, to discuss and debate is not to condone. We can look for causes and potential solutions, whilst also condemning the terrible acts of violence, looting and property damage taking place against innocent people. The two actions are not mutually exclusive.

The media – as expected – has rushed to find a culprit. The Daily Mail, for example said it was immoral and cynical to blame government cuts for the violence, yet then went on to blame Facebook, Twitter and the video game Grand Theft Auto in the absurd tabloid fashion to which we have become accustomed.

However, rather than looking at why people commit acts of looting, perhaps you should flip the debate on its head and look at why you yourself are not out there looting your local branch of Currys this evening. In my own case I would surely lose my job, my freedom and the respect of my friends and family. I find it hard to imagine a situation in which I would be unconcerned by any of those consequences, but I can only presume it would be a fairly frightening existence.

Overwhelmingly those with a stake in society, those with an education, job prospects and a community they feel a member of, do not participate in this kind of rioting and lawlessness.

Months of conjecture will follow these riots. Already, the internet is teeming with racist vitriol and wild speculation. The truth is that very few people know why this is happening. They don’t know, because they were not watching these communities. Nobody has been watching Tottenham since the television cameras drifted away after the Broadwater Farm riots of 1985. Most of the people who will be writing, speaking and pontificating about the disorder this weekend have absolutely no idea what it is like to grow up in a community where there are no jobs, no space to live or move, and the police are on the streets stopping-and-searching you as you come home from school. The people who do will be waking up this week in the sure and certain knowledge that after decades of being ignored and marginalised and harassed by the police, after months of seeing any conceivable hope of a better future confiscated, they are finally on the news.

Laurie Penny – Panic on the streets of London

As despicable as the rioting is, it has undeniably succeeded in shining an uncomfortable light on issues which have been ignored by the mainstream press up to now, as Penny points out:

In one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved anything:

“Yes,” said the young man. “You wouldn’t be talking to me now if we didn’t riot, would you?”

“Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you.”

Social policy, policing and increasing inequality can all be implicated in this wave of violence and these are certainly amongst the handful of potential reasons quoted by those on the streets with the coherence to make them. The true reasons will only emerge over time, as inquiries and investigations take place and it is unrealistic to pontificate on a definitive cause as the violence continues to take place.

The Establishment Reaction

Reaction from politicians has become a crude competition based who can condemn the riots in the strongest terms, with bonus points given for the most idiotic solution proposed. The latest of which has been to suggest that social housing tenants involved in violence could be evicted. This comes on the back of a knee-jerk, poorly written e-petition, which suggested that rioters should loose [author's spelling mistake] their benefits if convicted. My own views on these forms of punishment are simple: anyone who believes that throwing people out on the streets and denying them access to all forms of financial support is going to cause LESS rioting needs to have a long hard think about what they’re proposing, then try again.

As far as policing is concerned, the force has been doing an excellent job in Manchester (near to where I live) in keeping the disorder under control, but they are now coming under some heavy criticism. Aside from entirely valid concerns on how the original shooting incident was handled, which the Met have since apologised for, many claim the police reaction has been ineffective and that we need to stop being soft with those who are causing trouble on the streets. To some extent I agree. We have only to look towards the recent student demonstrations to see the tactics available to the police which are not currently being utilised.

However, we must be incredibly careful not to drift into a fantasy land where the discussion of riot-control methods is concerned.

The reaction of the general public has been approximate to my expectations. In a YouGov poll for the Sun: 90% said police should be able to use water cannon on rioters. 65% say yes to plastic bullets. Astoundingly 33% suggested the use of live rounds, mirroring the reaction to the recent discussion on the reintroduction of the death penalty, with many expressing the misguided view that two wrongs somehow do make a right .

The British army are not trained or equipped to deal with the general public and we have only to look to Northern Ireland to see the terrible effects of military force on innocent civilians using these very same military tactics.

David Cameron has today proposed the use of a water cannon on rioters, with no consideration whatsoever to the potentially lethal consequences of this device. The pressure involved in a blast from a water cannon is strong enough to rupture spleens and break bones. In an incident in 2010, which is not well known about in the UK, a German pensioner had both his eyes blown out of their sockets when he was struck in his face by the stream. His story can be read here [Warning, graphic content].

Aside from the potential dangers, use of a water cannon would be completely ineffective. The cannon is designed for use on static crowds in wide open spaces. The riot seen in Manchester last night involved a constantly moving crowd, who regularly moved into side streets in an effort to evade the police. A water cannon would be next to useless and Cameron’s posturing only serves to reinforce the perceived virtue of pandering to tabloid-manufactured hysteria, as opposed to investigating more feasible solutions.

Despite the terrible scenes we have witnessed over the past few days, the Twitter-organised clean up operations have been truly inspiring, demonstrating the capacity of the public to get out on the streets and show love and solidarity with their community. If only the media and politicians could organise their responses in the same mature, reasoned fashion, we may very well emerge on the other side of these troubles as a thoroughly improved nation.

[Article image credit: toddgeasland on Flickr]