I took usual overground service from Sydenham to West Croydon. The train was very quiet this morning, considering rush hour. Not many Metro papers scattered on seats, few silent passengers, gloomy weather behind windows. When I got out in Croydon the first thing that stuck me was sweet burning smell. I got out of the station and that’s when the scale of damage really hit me. Ruskin Street sealed of by police, debris scattered everywhere, police helicopter, people gathering around, speaking in rush on mobile phones. And the burning I can smell, even when I am inside the office building now.
The sense of anxiety is real and it gets to you - believe me.
It is obvious that riots in London have striking resemblance to those in France (2005 and 2007) and Greece (2008). In all those cases, police accidentally killed teenager(s). In all those cases the riot started in a large population city - Paris, Athens, London. In all previous cases it was a long (around 3 weeks), persistent and extremely violent event, with hundreds of people arrested, hundreds of vehicles burned, billions lost by businesses. In all cases there was a ‘domino effect’ - riots spread to other major cities in the country.
London is in day three now. It looks bad.
Many things work against quick fix of the situation.
The first and major - population and city size. You hear those numbers in media - “100, 150, 200 thugs demolished supermarket”. If it happens in a few points of the city, it is pretty hard problem for police to tackle. Large groups also lead to ‘lemming crowd effect’ - sense of social ‘rightness’, power and complete lack of personal responsibility.
Second - Twitter effect. Information spreads like virus, infecting others to join the madness. Social networks are very effective in organising large groups of people. It was great for Middle East political riots, or Iran protests, but it is a big challenge and problem for London crisis.
Third - police powers. Due to strong political correctness and high respect for individual’s well-being, police is using very ‘soft’ methods to deal with rioters. Police doesn’t use some very effective options like water cannons, tear gas or baton rounds, because those were criticised as being too drastic. It ends up with police in a very difficult situation between people who judge them for either not enough or too much force used with rioters. Mind you, police powers and force are very important psychological factors. If police is not sufficiently threatening to hostile rioters, the rioters will gradually grow in power and loose any respect for authority...
Four - media reality show. It gets to you, especially when you live in London. People around you are talking constantly about it. You see it on every channel, every newspaper. Then, when you watch the actual place where it happened (like Croydon) the anxiety suddenly gets to you. Media play a massive role in public awareness and attitude towards situation. Public anxiety feeds the confidence of hostile rioters. Media also make police very self-aware, holding them from using more force, which is sometimes good, but not necessary in case of London riots, as mentioned.
Let's hope it won't get worse...
From Croydon,
Geek On Acid
