Stokes Croft Riot
stokes croft riot
a personal view
This has been written off the cuff, and I may rework it. I may read it later and wonder what the hell I was thinking. We are all fallible.
I witnessed the events of last night, and I think I saw as much as any individual possibly could of the events, from about 10pm through to 3am. Throughout this time I was reflecting on what I was witnessing, and this morning the news and comment I’ve picked up has forced me to reflect more
This is not a simple issue. It is not about squatters, petrol bombs, vandalism, nor Tesco.
Of course the behaviour of a small element of the public was wrong, and it should be condemned as such. But when I hear people draw a line under the matter at this, it concerns me greatly. When my children do wrong things I challenge them, and even punish them. But I would be a bad parent if I didn’t ask myself why they did these things. To be confident in challenging the behaviour of others, we must look to ourselves critically, and ask what the drivers are for this behaviour. We may learn about far more important things in the process.
I observed different groups with a myriad of motives for what they were doing. For my part, I live in this area, I care passionately about it, and I value its richness. I have chosen to bring up my children here. I will not lie in bed while these events unfold, no more than I will simply pay my taxes and expect others to make my life tidy and comfortable. I will witness the reality, and I will engage with things that it might be nicer not to have in society. We must engage.
I saw people of all ages and genders drunk, and looking to make a statement verbally, and I saw those that simply wanted to fight for the sake of fighting. I saw others who fought because of more deeply held convictions - a moral sense of the need to resist, which is of course an essential human quality. I saw people there to be entertained by these actions, and many more who wanted to be simply visible, to say, “We are here, this is where we live, this matters to us.”
Under the circumstances, I feel I saw professional, if forceful, behaviour from individual police officers. It is not always nice, and it will provoke some people, but once they are put in the line, they have a tough job to do. It will never be perfect.
I also think I saw those officers execute the tactics as they were directed pretty well. They seemed to be well trained and very good at working effectively in holding a line or clearing a street.
But my oh my, I could not understand the strategy behind this. The result seemed to be a gross fragmentation of the disorder - not a dispersal, creating running battles through residential streets on several different fronts. Ultimately the police lost control.
But I know nothing of the theory of crowd control. Once this event started, it was to become harder and harder to manage. I do not know what the experts would consider a “job well done”. But ultimately it didn’t look well done to me.
Let us assume that the police have found petrol bombs in the house opposite Tesco, intended for use. Was this the best way to prevent their use - on a weekend, knowing the streets would be full of hundreds of drunken people as the night wore on? With hindsight, might there have been another way? Quite possibly.
But let us go back further. The council could not legally prevent the opening of Tesco. Did Tesco act illegally in acquiring and opening the shop? No. But, morally? Questionable. Sensibly? Definitely not. Tesco is not acting maturely, or responsibly.
As for the accusation that it is “a minority of unemployed wasters” that are opposed to the opening of the store, or corporate globalism. This is wholly wrong. Every well-to-do, middle-class, individual I know in this area is opposed. We would not take up arms, but we are opposed. We largely agree with the moral standpoint of the younger, “less empowered” members of our community. We want what they want, at least in this small respect. Show me a more diverse community that is more cohesive than this one. It is incredibly diverse, and yet there is a broad acceptance of each other. It faces a huge range of stresses and challenges, and yet there is incredible patience and tolerance. It is a community to be hugely proud of.
Last night, this community certainly felt a sense of invasion (be that corporate power, physical control, the presence of a huge number of heavily equipped police, many from outside the area) and it’s patience failed. For some that resulted in violent action, for others simply standing by. Enough people, had enough (albeit different) reasons.
What I think I witnessed last night was a venting of anger. Anger at our political leaders, at those who make money after the economic destruction they caused, and the social destruction that is now beginning. It is the least empowered who will pay the greatest price for this. For those that feel little power, it is a sad truth that the police are the only tangible means by which they can connect with the source of their frustrations, and the windows of Tesco of course.
Some behaviour is wrong. Those that stand in judgement must nevertheless step up and ask what their part has been. That includes me, and you, and you in your comfortable suburb, not just the great power-brokers.
I will take the risk of making just one sweeping statement: Whatever the scale of vandalism that took place last night, it is nothing in comparison to the vandalism inflicted upon this community by the owners of Westmoreland House and The Carriage Works over the past decades, and the political leaders who failed to deal with it.
Written the day after the first riot in April
Permalink 