Recently the UK has seen successive nights of violent throughout the cities of England. There has been widespread looting, arson attacks, mugging, wreckless acts of vandalism, and a sustained attack on police and innocent members of the public.
The unrest started on the Saturday night after a peaceful protest turned into violence. Protesters were angry after a young black man, Mark Duggan, was shot dead by police, after police thought he opened fire on them. It now appears, Duggan did not fire a gun at police, and some in the black community saw his death as evidence of institutional racism within the police force. The fact that Duggan was a notorious local criminal, with a history of violence and gun crime seems to be incidental, as he has now been painted as a “good father and respected member of the community”, who just happened to “live by the gun!”
What then happened no one could have foreseen. After a night of rioting, supposedly, because of this man death, riots broke out all over London on Sunday night, then again on Monday night.
Monday and Tuesday night saw rioting spread to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, and many other major towns and cities in central England. Every criminal and many young people jumped on the band wagon, and every political grievance the rioter may have felt they had, has been lost in complete abandon with lawlessness and looting- criminals and yobs who just looked to cause as much damage and steal as much as they could.
Areas worst affected were those with high ethnic populations, although race was not the only factor in these riots. We are witnessing the manifestation of many of the deep social problems in British society caused by the break down of family, poor educational achievement, and ingrained victim mentality, and generational welfare dependance. Sadly black families in impoverished areas have a high percentage of all these problems.
The socialist left in Britain has been quick to lay the blame on the Conservative government, for cuts the benefit system. However, their polices have facilitated generations of families to live on state benefits, to such an extent the world of work is beyond the comprehension of many young people in Britain today.
Looters told reporters, as they stole thousands of pounds worth of goods from electrical stores, “we’re entitled to this”.
What has happened to a society where people think they are “entitled” to a big flat screen television- like some kind of divine birth right? And if they are not supplied one, they should be allowed to steal one, and wreck the shop and destroy local businesses in the process!
The British government are trying to bring about change that will make work pay for everyone, so no longer will people make more money on benefits than they do going out to work.
Another problem with the British benefit system is it “pays” for a woman to have children with no father, leading to mass fatherlessness within the society. One truly shocking aspect for the riots has been the young age of those involved. The youngest so far to be charged was an eleven year old boy. Fatherlessness is an even greater problem within the black community. Where young boys lives are blighted by having no father figure around.
The consequences all to often are failure at school and rebellious behavior; when they grow up the chances are these boys too will father children they will never raise. And the fatherless daughters have a far greater chance of becoming teenage mothers, without qualifications, requiring state assistance.
To help such communities these deep social problems have to be addressed. Many changes have to happen from within the communities themselves. The black community needs to overcome the victim mentality – not helped by the liberal media, constantly feeding the perception to youths of these communities, that they are victims of racism and poverty. The welfare system needs to continue to be changed, to break the dependancy culture.
Finally, hardest of all, families need to be healed, and children need their fathers. All these problems are deeply rooted within these communities, and have been so for generations; it is naive to think the politicians can magic them away.
Many of the issues need spiritual answers, which requires the church to rise up in England and restore these communities, by demonstrating the love of our heavenly Father to bring honor and respect for property and people to the community.