Healing our broken society.....

So, the majority of the country was quiet last night after four nights of looting and civil disobedience. There will be all sorts of claims as to what has calmed the situation, vigilante groups claiming they scared off the looters, police numbers increased and police orders changed will be claimed too, as will the weather, and the difficulties of sustaining civil unrest of this type beyond four days. The wider community will claim that it was the calls for calm, and the religious types will claim that it was the power of prayer. Whatever the cause, and it will almost certainly have been a combination of effects, I welcome this peace with open arms, and trust and hope that it will continue. Walking through Birmingham city centre this morning I saw so many shops and pubs damaged and boarded up, so many businesses large and small that will be paying the price of the troubles, so many lives negatively affected, not just financially at this difficult time, but also in terms of confidence and a sense of security.

I feel that it will take some time to come back from these events, but what we have to look to is why this happened in the first place. As we look at the types of people involved we see not only the usual subjects of blame, the disaffected youth, the unemployed, the bored, thugs, but also young people who have jobs, who are building careers, who may have just been caught up in the moment, but it could also be the case that the disatisfaction with society goes deeper than people believe. We are seeing a primary school teaching assistant, a graphic designer, students people that you wouldn't necessarily expect to be involved. My gut instinct is that there was a tremendous amount of opportunistic looting going on, and that it was almost certainly organised at some level. I think that the purported reason of a young man in London being shot, whilst it may have been part of the catalyst was only a small part, the remainder being made up of people seeing an opportunity for mayhem and disorder.

These people are known to their local communities and one of the key ways that we can work together to deal with this situation is by being strong enough within our communities to address these people and to interact with the police to deal with them. In many communities affected this will present issues because trust and faith in the police has been systemically eroded over a number of years, but in order to make progress olive branches must be offered and trust re-established. This can only be achieved slowly and with the help of respected community leaders building bridges and taking their communities with them. It will also require the police being more open and confronting the failings within their own ranks and with the broken links to local communities. By working together, all of us, we can rebuild our society stronger and better than before, and be in a much better position to face the challenges that are coming over the next few years.....