The riots in England uncovered - The True Story

Now that the dust has settled on the riots in England, it is appropriate to tell the story that the British media does not want to tell and the REAL reasons for the riots in several English cities.

As someone who was raised, educated, lived and worked at the highest level in the UK and understand the complexities of that society I think that I have a deeper and proper understanding of why the riots in England happened.

Many people are naïve to think that what happened in England was a shock because they do not fully understand the social, racial political and economic spectrum of what is happening in England and many English people themselves especially the White upper middle classes are far removed from what is happening in urban England.

There are three key reasons why the riots in England happened and this special feature will seek to inform the readership of these keys facets which will enable them to have a deeper understanding of why the riots occurred. The three main reasons why the riots took place in England last week are as follows.

They are Racism, Social exclusion and Economics.
RACISM:
This is the main reason why the disturbances in England happened and this is what the UK/English media, politicians and public alike want to dodge. The shooting of a young Afrikan man, Mark Duggan in Tottenham and the violation by the police of a 16 year old Afrikan girl following peaceful protests in to Mr. Duggan's death were the catalyst for the scenes in Tottenham that led to the wider riots.

The shooting by the English police of Mr. Duggan can be best described as racist and worst as an assassination. Although Mr. Duggan had an unsavory character, his blatant killing by the police leaves a lot of questions rather than answers.

However, the readership, especially here in Ghana must be reliably informed that the English police has a terrible track record of murdering Afrikan/Black people. For example since 1990 more than 300 Afrikan/Black people have been murdered by the English police especially London's Metropolitan police in very suspicious circumstances and NOT EVEN ONE white police officer has been brought to book for these racist anti-Afrikan killings.

Coupled with this is the policy of stop and search that is regularly undertaken by the English police in a measure to reduce certain crimes in England. Although stop and search is a good policy, this policy has been abused by unscrupulous police who for their perverse racist anti-Afrikan agenda seem to stop more Afrikan people than any other community and the statistics by the UK Home Office and other bodies bear witness to this.

By the way the Afrikan community in England although sizable in London is still a very small minority of the overall population of England.

The disproportionate numbers of Afrikan people stopped and searched by the English police with no proper rationale cannot be justified and its continued use targeted mainly at Afrikan young people is unacceptable and targeting a specific group of people and it is this draconian policy of stop and search and its use is what many young Afrikan people find offensive, unjustified and totally unacceptable.

In actual fact many prominent Afrikan people such as former 100m Olympic Champion, Linford Christie, former football great, Ian Wright and even Lord Paul Boateng have ALL been unjustifiably being stopped and searched by the racist anti-Afrikan English metropolitan police force.

Despite numerous reports into the English polices' policing of Afrikan communities such as the Scarman report and the groundbreaking Lord Macpherson report into the racist anti-Afrikan murder of Afrikan teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993, the English police especially London's metropolitan police force still polices the Afrikan community in the UK in a very unacceptable and uncivilized way and what is more staggering is that the murder of Mark Duggan represents a new if somewhat strong arm tactic in the police's attitude in dealing with young Afrikan men they suspect of crime in that they have a shoot to kill policy which in itself is very disturbing.

It is this racist element of the riots that the English/British media have conveniently left out because they are ashamed of this state of affairs and what is more disturbing is that they are reluctant to discuss this issue let alone find real solutions to the problems of racist anti-Afrikan policing in the UK especially in London.

Unless this issue of police racism is addressed, then many more incidents like what happened in Tottenham will continue to happen.

SOCIAL EXCLUSION:
Social exclusion is another big factor in the case of the riots in England and again is an issue the English/UK media would rather not talk about. It is no coincidence to have found out that a significant number of those who were rioting were under the age of 18.

This is because many of these young people especially Afrikan young people have been first and foremost excluded from school and denied their basic right of their entitlement to an education. Again the disproportionate numbers of Afrikan children being excluded from English schools is very unacceptable and this leaves them vulnerable to a life of crime.

The problem with school expulsions particularly of Afrikan children was highlighted as far back as 1994 in a report by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) entitled Outcast England: how UK schools exclude Black children.

The report illustrates the insidious way white teachers treat Afrikan children, the disdain they have for them and some of the ways in how white teachers racist anti-Afrikan attitudes lead to many Afrikan young people especially young Afrikan boys being excluded form school.

As someone who went to school in the UK, I am aware of white teachers' innately racist attitudes to Afrikan children.

However despite this and many other studies into the issue, Afrikan children continue to be permanently excluded from school for in many instances quite benign reasons. The same is true for White working class children and again studies have been undertaken to examine why this is the case.

As a result of this social exclusion from school, these children cannot get further education or training which they need to enhance their chances of securing employment and as such are on the margins of British society and are enticed into criminal activity such as what we saw on our TV screens.

Despite tens of millions of UK pounds being pumped into deprived communities under Tony Blair's New Labour government like New Deal for Communities and certain regeneration projects, the fundamental issues to do with school exclusion were never tackled and as such a generation of under class in the UK/England has been created that will take some time to reverse.

This social exclusion is a major problem in the UK as a whole and unless fundamental, concrete steps are taken by the UK authorities to address the situation then what happened across England the other week will happen in the future.

ECONOMICS:
Economics was again a major factor of the riots in the UK. Because of the social exclusion mentioned above that affects Afrikan, Asian and White working class and some White lower middle class communities, coupled with the system in the UK especially the welfare system, there now appears to be a large swathe of people from the above communities suffering from economic elusion/apartheid.

Many people because of this economic apartheid have become resentful because they feel that they have been left out of the mainstream of British society and therefore see no hope but a life of crime.

To rub insult to injury the current UK coalition government is embarking on a policy of severe economic cuts to cut the massive UK debt. These austerity measures including some of the social welfare programmes and benefits will have a big effect on these communities that will only make the economic exclusion gap wider.

Those living on the margins saw the riots as an excuse to attain the material trinkets that they believe have been denied them as a result of this economic apartheid.

Unless fundamental steps are taken to narrow the gap between the wealthy and the less affluent then the t UK/England will continue to remain an unequal society and opportunists will seek any given opportunity to exact revenge as they see it on those who have denied them access to England's wealth.

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