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ACADEMIC VIEWPOINT
The London Riots: Could It Happen Here?
by Richard C. Hollinger, Ph.D.
Dr. hollinger is a professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Society at the university of florida, gainesville. he is also director of the Security research project, which annually conducts the national retail Security Survey (www.crim.ufl.edu/srp/srp.htm). Dr. hollinger can be reached at rhollin@ufl.edu or 352-392-0265 x230. © 2011 richard C. hollinger
This past August, large-scale rioting took place in London and other United Kingdom cities. Looting of stores, setting fires, and major acts of civil disobedience were all precipitated by the shooting of a black man named Mark Duggan by the London police.
On August 6th, during a peaceful march protesting the Duggan shooting, a heavy-handed police response to the march triggered serious arson, thefts, and aggravated shoplifting. Rioting with arson soon spread to various London boroughs and then other English cities. The most severe disturbances outside London occurred in Bristol and cities in the Midlands and the northwest of England. Related outbreaks also occurred in many smaller towns and cities in England. The participants were most commonly unemployed minority youths who wore black hoodies, scarves, and ski masks to hide their identities from the police and authorities.
By August 15th about 3,100 people had been arrested, of whom more than 1,000 were formally charged. Five people died and at least sixteen others were injured as a direct result of related violent acts. An estimated £200 million worth of property damage was incurred, and local economic activity was significantly compromised.
Police action was blamed for the initial riot, and the subsequent police reaction was heavily criticized as being neither appropriate nor sufficiently effective. In England and elsewhere these riots have generated significant ongoing debate among political, social, and academic figures about the causes for and context in which they happened.
Conditions in America
While we in America watched the large-scale devastation of this major world city from afar, it produced a number of different reactions.
First, one would hope that our police forces would have responded faster and in greater numbers, so this situation never would have expanded to the level seen in London and various other large U.K. cities.
Second, many believe that the social conditions in the U.S. are not as bad as in the U.K. and, therefore, are not conducive to generating this level or scope of civil disobedience. I would like to argue that.
While the first of these statements is hopefully correct, the second statement is clearly wrong. America is sitting on a powder keg of inequity that could, under the right conditions, explode into the type of serious rioting, looting, and arson seen in London. Here are some relevant social and economic facts to consider.
Currently in the United States, our levels of poverty, unemployment, and incarceration, especially among youth and people of color, are at unprecedented numbers. Recent data has shown that the economic downturn in our society is hurting minorities at a much greater level than the largely white middle and upper classes. The unemployment rate for African Americans has always been higher than the national average. Unfortunately, the problem has gotten worse.
In June 2011 CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reported that black unemployment now is at Depression-era levels. The most recent figures show African-American joblessness at 16.2 percent. For black males, it’s 17.5 percent, and for black teens, it’s nearly 41 percent.
Moreover, tensions between the police and the poor, especially among racial minorities, in most cities continue to be a significant problem. While “to serve and protect” is the typical police department motto, many people living
in our inner cities believe that the police are there “to oppress and control.” Recent civil and criminal court cases proving police corruption and abuse like those found in New York and post-Katrina New Orleans are not just limited to those two locations.
Impact of Poverty
Poverty in the U.S. has always been and continues to be the primary fuel for urban unrest. The Pew Research Center recently issued a report that concludes that the ongoing recession has led to the largest wealth disparity in twenty-five years for minorities as compared to whites. The median wealth of white households is 18 times greater than the median net worth of Hispanic households and 20 times that of black households.
Based upon 2009 Census data, this study also states that from 2005 to 2009, the share of households with zero or negative net worth rose from 23 to 31 percent for Hispanics, 29 to 35 percent for blacks, 12 to 19 percent for Asians, and 11 to 15 percent for whites.
These statistics indicate that we have some desperately poor people in America, especially in the ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods of our larger urban centers. These are people who are getting poorer by the day, as they see the rich in America getting richer. Readers of this column know that retail sales for the very richest have not dropped significantly.
If a triggering event occurs that brings desperate people to the streets, such as a racially biased incident, cities in the U.S. might be burning too. Remember this has happened in America a number of times in recent decades. On April 29, 1992, a jury acquitted white police officers for the video-taped beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles. Later in the Los Angeles Watts neighborhood during 1965, and again in 1997 in the slums of Detroit, harsh police tactics or violence against suspects brought thousands to the streets to riot, steal, vandalize, and burn.
Those involved often are people who feel disenfranchised from the “American Dream.” Unfortunately, there are more and more people in our country each day who find themselves in this predicament. We should not be surprised if they take action and go into the streets to protest the economic and social crisis in which they now find themselves. Many criminologists and sociologists privately wonder why this has not yet happened in our country given the level of economic adversity.
Obviously, the solution to this problem is a better economy with more jobs. Encouraging people to again feel that a better future lies ahead should be our nation’s and industry’s primary goal. Preventing losses to our stores will no doubt be a corollary benefit.
If you want to read a good book on this subject, I strongly recommend, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice by Jeffrey Reiman and Paul Leighton (Allyn & Bacon, 2009).
