Causes of the London Riots
In this essay I am going to determine whether the London riots were caused by government cuts or other factors. The London riots started in August 2011 in Tottenham, after the shooting of a black man called Mark Duggan. What was meant to be a peaceful protest outside the police station for justice has since evolved into disorder and riotous violence, caused mostly by foolish teenagers and young adults. The riots spread rapidly from London to Leeds, Bristol, Liverpool and Birmingham.
There are many different reasons why the riots were started. The main factors were: weak policing, rise of gang culture, opportunism, and technology and welfare dependency. These are all factors I will be exploring in my essay.
Main factors in the riots were the police, or rather a lack of police. Due to government cuts the numbers of policemen on duty were restricted to normal numbers and certainly nowhere near what it should have been. Initially the police were also reluctant to take robust action against protestors due to a fear of backlash against them, given some recent riot cases where police were heavily criticised for their actions.
Due to recent cut backs by the present government the people in these areas have felt that they have been badly treated by the state. The high unemployment and dependency on welfare benefits had its part to play as well. Towns like Tottenham and Haringey suffers from a significant unemployment rate of 8.8 percent which is nearly double the national average. Hackney, which was also affected by the riots, is already one of the most deprived areas of the country has one of the highest national rates of child poverty, with 67 percent of children in low- income families. It's this kind of deprivation which might have driven people to riot as they might have felt that their expectations have not been fulfilled. These people might have felt that they were owed something by the government.
Ken Livingstone, former mayor of London, has linked the riots to
There are many different reasons why the riots were started. The main factors were: weak policing, rise of gang culture, opportunism, and technology and welfare dependency. These are all factors I will be exploring in my essay.
Main factors in the riots were the police, or rather a lack of police. Due to government cuts the numbers of policemen on duty were restricted to normal numbers and certainly nowhere near what it should have been. Initially the police were also reluctant to take robust action against protestors due to a fear of backlash against them, given some recent riot cases where police were heavily criticised for their actions.
Due to recent cut backs by the present government the people in these areas have felt that they have been badly treated by the state. The high unemployment and dependency on welfare benefits had its part to play as well. Towns like Tottenham and Haringey suffers from a significant unemployment rate of 8.8 percent which is nearly double the national average. Hackney, which was also affected by the riots, is already one of the most deprived areas of the country has one of the highest national rates of child poverty, with 67 percent of children in low- income families. It's this kind of deprivation which might have driven people to riot as they might have felt that their expectations have not been fulfilled. These people might have felt that they were owed something by the government.
Ken Livingstone, former mayor of London, has linked the riots to