This Is My Rifle: London & The World Are On Fire

Every now and then, with the right amount of pressure, the pot will boil over.

And that’s exactly what happened this past Saturday, August 6th 2011, in parts of London, England. In case you’re unaware of the recent series of events that eventually lead to much of the city erupting in a big ball of flames, allow me to re-cap it for you. On Thursday, August 4th a 29-year-old father of four by the name of Mark Duggan was pulled over in a taxicab in Tottenham, a majority Black, low-income section of London. It’s not too clear what happened once the cab was stopped but according to police, Duggan was found in possession of a loaded pistol and attempted to resist arrest. Although he never fired a single shot from his gun, police responded by shooting him twice, killing him. On Saturday, August 7th 2011, what began as a peaceful demonstration to protest the police’s actions and demand that Duggan’s murderers be brought to justice, spiraled out of control and turned into a full-scale riot.

Within hours the young citizens of Tottenham, Brixton and other parts of London set the city ablaze in a fit of outward defiance. Looting, vandalism and virtually every form of violence imaginable took control of the impoverished regions and shook London to its core. By Sunday afternoon most of these already dilapidated neighborhoods were reduced to a pile of ash.



Sound familiar?

As always, the media has gotten a hold of this story and spun it in every direction except the truthful one. I’ve heard all sorts of ridiculous stories; some news outlets have insinuated that the riots are of Islamic influence, others have said that it’s nothing more than a bunch of kids looking for a reason to loot clothing and electronics stores.

While the latter theory may have some truth to it, let’s not ignore what’s really going on here. These riots, much like the ones in Chicago, Los Angeles, Cairo and countless other cities around the world, is the outcome of racial oppression and rampant poverty. This is what happens when people have nowhere left to hide and nothing left in them but pure hatred for their oppressors. This is what happens when their backs are so far into the corner that they have no other choice but to come out swinging.

Do I think that every single person partaking in the chaos had Mark Duggan in mind when they were burning their own neighborhoods to the ground? Probably not. But what the murder of Mark Duggan did was light the wick to a powder keg that had been sitting for years. And when the bullets ripped through his body and ended his young life, it confirmed to every other poor Black resident of London that their life was indeed worthless.

Consequently, all of those buried emotions from years of being ignored, fucked and forgotten came pouring out and splashed the streets of London with anarchy. Rage, hatred and contempt brought to life and clawing it’s way through the city with violence and fire. It was this moment that society’s ills came out from under the rug and reared it’s ugly face. The people of London could no longer turn their heads and ignore the sickness that they left untreated, now it was a massive glowing cancerous tumor.

The sickness that I speak of is poverty. That horrible problem that we just can’t seem to solve because doing so means that we might have to give up some of what we have in order to fix it, and who wants to do that? I mean, feeling bad for that guy who’s searching through the garbage looking for empty bottles is one thing, but actually buying him a meal? You gotta be fucking kidding me. What if his poor-ness rubs off onto me? What if I see him again and he asks me for money every time I see him? That would fuck up my whole day for like 5 minutes.

I’ve heard it a million times and I’ve been on both ends of it. As a young man growing up I was the one from the single mother home who never had the same privileges as the other kids, who was sometimes referred to as “poor” or “welfare”. And then as an adult, and after years of hustling to pull myself into a better financial position, I was the one who found myself amongst the “fortunate ones”. But no matter how well I do or how far up that social ladder I go, I will never forget the feeling of intense hopelessness that overwhelmed me as I sat at the very bottom looking up.

And so I understand the sentiment when people have had enough and lash out on the rest of the world. As long as there is social and racial inequality, it’s imminent. Our society, capitalist and consumerist to the highest degree, breeds it and violence is the only foreseeable result. Just think of all of the brands and products that we’ve been brainwashed into believing that we need to own in order to be valued as a human being. Now imagine your only opportunity to attain that level of esteem is to smash a window and take it. You’re goddamn right you’d loot.

Events like the one that happened in London on Saturday night aren’t random acts of mayhem perpetuated by uneducated people, it’s the monster the world created waking up, biting it’s nose off and spitting it back in it’s face.

As ugly as it may seem, sometimes it’s the most beautiful sight one could behold.

(Jason James is an artist, freelance columnist and writer for RefinedHype.com. You can listen/download his most recent album, "Marvelous World Of Color", here and you can contact him here and here.)