In August 2011, the streets of Northern London where hit by riots and vandalism caused by angry youngsters. Young people had burned cars and buildings, looted stores and fought with the police. The rioting spread to cities like Manchester and Birmingham, and The Prime Minister, David Cameron, went home from his vacation, to restore law and order in Britain’s streets.
The riots were not only based on political or economic demands, since so many people were willing to take part in the lootings. The riots broke out shortly after the police killing of a young Afro-Caribbean man. The citizens of London thought it was a backlash from the huge unemployment and slow economic recovery, but it came clear that it was not just the financial crisis. But what did underlie the riots?
Young people, especially those who lived in the poor areas of London, had a tendency of having too much time. The youngsters got bored and started making crimes, because they had nothing else to do. They were looting just to loot. They had no reason, they were not fighting for anything, but they did it because they wanted to and you can sort of say that they did it for fun. The riots were in particular concentrated in certain areas with a large African and Caribbean population – areas that the police normally kept an eye on. The people that live in these areas often have less education, more unemployment and higher crime rates than other Britons. This makes the rioting have a racial dimension, because the people who looted partly consisted of immigrants. Geography Professor Chris Hamnett says that it does not have anything to do with a racial oppression, but it is about their position in the class system and their lack of wealth.
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