Policing Large Scale Disorder: Lessons from the disturbances of ...

Ev w52 Home Affairs Committee: Evidence
Moreover, the looting spree appeared well organised where young people, utilising social networking sites
such as twitter and Blackberry phone messenger, were turning up at various high street locations and engaging
in an orgy of looting, arson and general mayhem.
The high jacking of the peaceful demonstration in Tottenham by what can only be described as opportunistic
and criminal elements is highly condemnable and unacceptable where young people deliberately targeted small
businesses and property in their own community singling them out for destruction. However, we readily
recognise that there must be a reason or a combination of reasons as to why these young people went on
rampage.
The courts, as we know, have already started dealing with those that have appeared before it and are already
applying appropriate sanctions. But no punishment, no matter how severe, will deal with the underlining issues
that may have been festering under the surface before the riots.
Who We Are
The National Association of Seadogs (NAS) is non-politically affiliated, non-religious, detribalized body. It
was formed in 1952 at the then University College, Ibadan, Nigeria, with the primary aim of upholding human
dignity and the promotion of a just, humane and progressive society, where no one is a victim of colour, race,
sex, tribe, or beliefs. It is an international organization with Branches in Europe, Asia, North America and
South Africa and remains dedicated to charitable and humanitarian endeavours in whatever society in which
its members find themselves. Since inception, we have continued our quest to fight societal ills and, since the
riots occurred in our own communities where we live, we felt motivated to participate in this process in a bid
to finding lasting solutions to this current problem.
The membership of our organization can be found in various aspects of societal life and its willingness to
help society reconstruct and to build is, and remains, an asset which society can and should freely continue
to exploit.
In the United Kingdom, we have all manner of professionals who work in fields such as the criminal justice
system, where our members practice as Barristers and solicitors, teaching profession, civil service, social
services, writers, accountancy etc. Above all, we are family people and have children of our own and we live
in the communities that were directly affected by the disturbances.
Consequently, we held a seminar internally amongst our members to discuss and analyse these issues
confronting society. What are the lessons that may be ascertained from the riots? We, as an organisation have
identified, based on personal, empirical and anecdotal evidence the following issues as root causes of the
violence. Some of the issues stand alone, but in reality the combined effect of one or more of the issues that
we have identified led to the riots.
We do not support any political party or seek to attack or alienate any particular political opinion or view.
Our views as expressed in this submission are to examine the issues dispassionately in order to find a lasting
solution to a prevailing problem.
The Issues
We identified the following issues as the root causes of the riots. We readily concede that the evidence that
we present is purely subjective and is based on the personal and professional experience of our members.
However, this document represents our collective opinion that we hope the Committee will find useful in
formulating public policy.
The impending budgetary cuts, we found was irrelevant and not a direct cause of the riots. However, the
government may want to review some of the proposed budgetary cuts in line with more pressing issues of
social inequalities, deep-seated resentment arising from socio-economic factors such as financial downturn and
attendant unemployment that were smouldering under the surface that the recent riots glaringly exposed.
Nevertheless, our discussion raised the following:
— Issues of Stop and Search and long-standing resentment of police by young people.
— Underlining Social issues that are complex and requires multi-dimensional approach.
— Lack of proper policing or lack of clear and proper guidance to the police as to what amount of
force is acceptable or reasonable in a riot situation.
— Lack of proper clarity of the law so far as issues or proper definition of reasonable chastisement or
restraint in the schools.
— Lack of morality, not on a religious basis, in society.
— Incapacity of police, parents and teacher.
IPCC-delayed response to public clamouring for information.