Riot Rant: This Is NOT a Protest



So it has been a few days since London and other cities are plagued by riots and looting, and the media and social response has been seriously getting under my skin. An alleged drug dealer is shot dead while confronting law enforcement with a firearm. Fine. His family and other members of his community hold a peaceful protest march. Also Fine. What should have followed: investigation, trial of offending officers if they acted unlawfully, end of story. What happens, though, is that when night falls, a bunch of opportunistic thugs come out and start trashing their own community, looting their neighbors’ life-earning stores and burning people’s homes. This continues for several nights, while the police do little to nothing.


There are so many things to be pissed at in this situation it’s hard to know where to start. One of the things that annoyed me the most was the excuse-making, and the presentation of these riots as “protests”, going so far as to compare them to the Arab Spring protests. Seriously, WTF? On the one hand you have people living in an oppressive dictatorship that unite, despite the very real danger of being killed, in broad daylight, with clear demands: more democracy, better social service, etc. On the other, groups of thieves and hooligans busting shit up just for the sake of it, ruining lives (and even running over three of them), using today’s communication technology to spread hate, incite violence and better organize the looting.


And don’t try calling it race or even class riots, just look at the makeup of those who were caught; all colors, classes and creeds. If there had been even the slightest notion of legitimate claims being made, heck, if they had targeted banks and empty office buildings of big corporations, or waved signs with what they wanted, maybe there would be a mitigating factor. But no, it is the same mindless violence that is displayed by the numbskulled hooligans after a match, with a side-helping of thieving; because it isn’t enough that the law abiding citizen’s taxes (be they rich or poor, black, white or yellow) pays for their education/housing/healthcare/etc, society also owes these spoiled brats the latest in sports shoes and flat screen TVs.


Society is the extension of what used to be the familial tribe, and the government acts as the parents. When they are too strict or too lenient, the kids turn out rotten. Here we have a clear case of spoiled shites who think society owes them everything and then some. The representatives of authority in Western Europe, be they teachers, law-enforcement, doctors etc, cower before the almighty citizen who can ruin their lives in a pinch, with the help of public opinion that almost always sides with them. Here in Switzerland prisons are hotels, but even then there’s little chance you’ll ever end up in one. Recent case: two young people who resisted arrest and sued the cops for abuse of force were proven to have lied about everything, but despite dragging the integrity of the cops in the gutter for two years of court, they got off with less than a tap on the fingers (i.e. paying a tiny percentage of the legal fees), while the large court fees bill went straight to… you guessed it, the all-gullible, law-abiding citizen taxpayer. In another recent case, a pair of car thieves who had endangered hundreds speeding down the highway was shot at in an attempt to stop them from running down a police blockade, which would have seriously endangered the lives of the policemen behind it. The co-pilot was accidentally killed, and public opinion went all up in arms… against the cops, and they are still being sued by the family of the gangsters… whose list of crimes in their home country (France) was exceptionally long for their young age.


But I digress: the point is, our society seems more interested in protecting criminals than in protecting the large majority of non-criminal citizens, and I make no distinction between immigrants and nationals. Unfortunately, the only people to call out the justice system’s laxity are the xenophobic right wing, in their twisted anti-immigration way, while the left bend themselves over backwards for the sake of political correctness.


No matter how justified the anger of poor/undereducated/jobless/whatever citizens, NOTHING justifies the behavior we’ve been witnessing. That is not protesting, that is plain old criminal opportunism and mindless destructivity . The Arabs of Northern Africa suffered under true oppression, but did they go bust their neighbour’s shop and steal the latest in entertainment technology? No, that’s for spoiled shits who think they’re oppressed because they get questioned by cops while wearing baggy clothing and hoodies in a neighborhood known for drug and gang crime.


And what about the police, where were they? Sure, the whole riot thing could have been shut down in one night with the proper use of force and numbers (and by force I mean non-lethal: water hoses, rubber bullets, heck, even tear gas). But you can bet your bottom dollar that such action would have been depicted and decried as “oppression” and cries of “police state” would ring throughout the media. Who cares about all those people who would not now be homeless, penniless or lifeless? Who cares that protecting the community also means cracking down on criminals? No, the key-word is “oppression”; don’t mess with my rights (but don’t tell me I also have responsibilities).


I have no simple solution to this problem. I know some will call for “guns guns GUNZ!” (see the YT comments under most of the London riot vids… it’s pathetic; why have only four deaths when you can have dozens, yay!). Others blame the molly coddling state, or on the contrary say the state isn’t doing enough. All sides of the political spectrum are fitting this into their agendas and worldviews, over-simplifying on the right, over-complexifying on the left, etc. All I can do is state my frustration at what I perceive to be spoilt children of an excessively lenient society, which lets its biggest criminals continue to get paid in gigantic bonuses and tax cuts, some of its serious criminals get by with mere taps on the fingers, and its petty criminals coddled into thinking that they can get away with anything.


/rant. Let the *controversy begin