...MANUSCRIPT Hello everyone, my name is Nikolaj Bisgaard and I am an 18-year-old student from London. I have been invited to this conference to talk about riots. I want to talk about the reasons for the riots, which found place in London, and come with suggestions to prevent similar situations. The reason to the riots The reason to the riots in Tottenham were because of that an Afro-Caribbean man was killed by police, and the cops didn’t notify his family or provide a particularly convincing version of his death, but the riots in London had no link to the Tottenham riots, they just wanted to smash something and they just waited for an excuse. And they got their excuse, and they smashed a lot of buildings and stores. For underprivileged young people in Britain today, “there’s a sense of hopelessness,” says David Lammy, the M.P. from Tottenham, who was sounding the alarm about violent unrest months before the riots. “At the same time this happened in Tottenham, we got the best [school test] results that we’ve ever had. Those young people, they need to know that they can make it. The jobs need to be there. The prospect of going to university needs to be there.” I understand David Lammy, because the youngsters are forced to go to school, especially by their parents. And the young people want to know that it is good for the future and that it will help them get a good payed job. What can be done to prevent similar situations in the future? So what can be done to prevent similar...
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...London Riots The London Riots occurred in 2011. It first started on Saturday August 6 and ended on Thursday August 11. Thousands of people rioted in several London boroughs and in cities and towns all over England. The riots are sometimes referred to as the "BlackBerry riots" because of the use of mobile phones and social medias to organize them. The riot first began in Tottenham, North London after the death of Mark Duggan. 29-year-old Mark Duggan was shot by the police in Tottenham on August 4, 2011. He was shot in the chest because the police had suspicion that he had a weapon and was planning an attack. This event wouldn't have turned to much if Mark was not dark skinned. No one would have given it a second thought, but he was. There was always tension between black people and the police since 1985 the Broadwater Farm riot. Since 1985 there was progress in the relationship but the shooting raised the tension once again. According to David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, Duggan's death was part of "a history in Tottenham that involves deaths in the police custody". Claudia Webbe the chairperson of Operation Trident, asserted that many black people saw Dugan's shooting as "yet another unjust death in custody" and that young people in Tottenham are "still six, seven eight times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts". One of the reasons I think the riots occurred and turned to more than just a protest was because of what Claudia Webbe said. Black...
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...London riots Manuscript Hello! My name is (...). I am very pleased to be here tonight, to talk to all of you. I am going to talk about the riots that are still going on just outside of these doors from my point of view, and hopefully help solving some of challenges that the nation is right now facing. After three days of fire, violence and looting in England, countless analyses are trickling in the media, each with their take on the cause of this sudden riot. Everyone wants to know how peaceful demonstrations in North London, unexpectedly turned into riots, that just as unexpectedly, has spread like wildfire over London and the UK and has created global debate. And I am pretty sure we are all left with the same question, because; what makes people set fire to small, family-run businesses, and why would someone beat up a random by-passer or rob somebody who has already been beaten up? But what creates the greatest schism in the analytical reverberates among experts, politicians and basically everyone with a twitter profile, are the lootings. Why do all these young people from poor areas, wade into smashed shops, take the goods and then just leave with a grin on their face, absolutely careless of whose watching? With the conservatism dominating this country, many people will think that a bunch of thugs who thoughtlessly commit criminal acts, do not deserve an explanation for their unacceptable behaviour, and supporters of the liberalistic mind will shake their...
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...the police shot Mark Duggan, a black man living in Tottenham – a borough in Greater London. The event created a strong reaction form the local youth. After a march on Tottenham Police station to protest the death of the man, the demonstration turned into a series of violent acts in the streets that quickly developed and spread across London and other cities all over England. A major debate arose about the inner causes of the insurrections and the media and politicians promptly pointed out several hypothesis. The August 2011 events have been primarily interpreted, especially amongst the political class, through a lens that emphasises criminality. ,one prominent argument advocates that the cause of the unrest was the moral decay of ‘a feral underclass’ (Scrambler; Grover 2011) However, many of such explanations tend to be mostly speculative and they often fail to provide a consistent account of the causes of the riots based on solid evidence (the LSE/theguardian, 2011, Solomos, 2011). Against this background this essay attempts to disentangle the motives of the London 2011 riots, by focusing on the relations of causality between factors and events that led to the burst of the unrest. It argues that urban social inequalities as well as uneven processes of exclusion and inclusion of a marginalised class are the main factor underlying the disturbances. Yet this essay claims that these riots need also to be analysed in the very specific context in which they have arisen: the...
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...Big brother isn’t watching you A riot mostly occurs in reaction to a perceived grievance or simply out of dissent. Void and community spirit has since forever been in an everlasting fight because of the human mind and its diversity. When rioters act it is due to a feeling of being mistreated in a divided society where an inability to provide success for all human beings is valid. But instead of labelling rioters as mindless, we need to ask ourselves why they are led to the conclusion that starting a riot is the only way of gaining attention. That is why Russell Brand, English comedian, actor, radio host, author and activist, who now lives in Los Angeles, California, commentates on English riots and why they occur. His commentary is posted in the British newspaper called “The Guardian”, where he also tries to explain the rioters’ motive for the 2011 UK riots. First Brand starts of by explaining how he no longer lives in London and how some may find it bizarre for him to comment on matters in his homeland. However, Brand feels strongly connected to native country and finds it necessary to comment on the 2011 UK riots, as he himself feels deeply afflicted by them. In addition to his attachment to his homeland and therefore the rioters, he initiates his commentary with an explanation of how he never actually had interest in the fictitious theatrics in reality TV. Expect when he was working for Big Brother, a reality game show, where contestants are continuously monitored...
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...in 2011 and it is about the riot in London, 2011. I London there was a violent crowd of young people, who looted stores destroyed cars, had huge fights with the police, and vandalized buildings. Brand starts in the text with the fact he doesn’t live in Great Britain anymore, but he still has the national feeling of an Englishman. “I feel proud to be English, proud to be a Londoner (all right, an Essex boy), never more so than since being in exile, and I naturally began wonder what would make young people destroy their communities” by that he feels that it is okay to talk about the riots in his home country even though he doesn’t live there anymore. He also thinks it is okay to talk about it, because he had lived in the areas which have been offers to the riots. When he was young and lived in London, he was one of those youth who demonstrated and had the feeling of being ignored by the government. The politicians are criticized by Brand, because they do not give enough attention to the youth, but instead they are “sleeping” with the big companies. “A lack of direction, a sense that I was not invested in the dominant culture, that government existed not to look after the interests of the people it was elected to represent but the big businesses that they were in bed with.” Russel Brand views the media as a part of the blame, because they covered the riots with an attitude like when Brand was in “Big Brother”, a kind of reality cover of the riots. We know that Brand is a...
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...Introduction Between the 6th and 10th of August 2011, English cities experienced serious civil disorder after the shooting of a young black man (Lea, 2013). Now referred to as the English riots, they are regarded by many as the most serious disturbances in the UK since the Brixton riots of the early 1980s (Barentsen, 2013). The Criminal Justice System (CJS) rapidly dispensed over 3,000 arrests upon those who participated (Ashe, 2014). Through local media outlets, authorities such as the CJS and the government gave their explanation as to the causes of this uproar (Pieri, 2014). However, there was little information from the point of view of those arrested and it is arguable that the CJS has provided a clear and concise exploration of the...
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...UK RIOTS 2011 Between the 6th and 11th of August 2011 thousands of people rioted in cities across England participating in looting, arson and vandalism. The rioting occurred after a peaceful demonstration on the 4th of August in Tottenham over the death of local 29-year-old father of four Mark Duggan who was a victim of a still-unresolved shooting by the police. 1. Text 1 “Experts Cite Underlying Causes for UK Riots” is a news report by Al Pessin published on Voice of America website the 10th of August 2011. The report consists of people giving an estimate of the causes for the UK riots. The inhabitants of London believe at first sight the riots are a response in reaction to lack of jobs and cuts in government services following a feeling of despondency and hopelessness. First hand witnesses reports that such is not the case. Chris Hamnett works as a geography professor at King’s College London. He explains the hectic restlessness in London by saying the inhabitants of African and Caribbean origin are more likely to participate in demonstrations than other Britons judged by their economic -, social – and cultural capital. He points out the connection between these ethnic groups and their criminal records. Hamnett partly agrees with Basani Mabyalane neighboring and Erika Lopez, who is a member of HYPE. They are convinced, that the looting is a result of boredom and poor empowering of young people. Prime Minister David Cameron blames the involved and cites the schools and...
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...Big brother isn’t watching you The persons who join these riots are often people who the society forgot or gave up on; people who need to get a kick in their lives. In fact they need to face the consequences of their actions and their destructive behavior. The English writer, Russell Brand explains the rioter’s motive for the 2011 UK riots. Russell Brand lived in the London before he moved to Los Angeles. In fact he explains the riots as if he has been a part of the happening among these people. Through the text Russell Brand describes how he felt and how he was affected by these people and their destructions. In his article on the Guardian website, he’s attitude is very sarcastic to underline his dissatisfaction to the UK government. In fact his text has an overload of sarcasm and irony to describe his position on the riots. His approach to the 2011 UK riots is the fact that it has been a common problem, which must be solved together. Russell Brand is very astonished by the fact that the rioters are being describes as “mindless”, unacceptable”, “unjustifiable” and disconnected from the cities they live in. This indicate that it is very strong words which is used against these riots, they are placed outside the community. Russell Brand agrees on the fact that it is unacceptable the things that these riots have done. But his opinion is not to focus on all the unacceptable things that these riots have done, instead the government should but in their interests why these people...
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...Big Brother isn’t Watching You The famous phrase “Big brother is watching you” is from the legendary book “1984” by George Orwell. It’s written in 1949, but yet it’s still magnificent. Many years later in 2011 a famous actor named Russell Brand wrote, “Big brother isn’t watching you”. It’s a commentary published on The Guardian’s webpage, and it’s about the UK riots. Brand used to live in London, and he is British. He is commenting on the big riots in London. You can also see in the text that Brand is a British lad. He speaks with a British accent, when he uses the words “mate” and so on. But he’s also speaken from his heart, when he uses the words “shit” and “fucking”. He’s a famous actor, but also a comedian. So that could a stunt in the text, that symbolise Brand’s comment is written with a conscious use of a relaxed language – this is a clear tendency throughout the text. For instance he often uses contractions of words – even in the title. Furthermore he uses slang: “…and have a row with the Old Bill.” (L. 69) Brand is, as before mentioned, a comedian and he writes in a serious but also entertaining and relaxed tone: He is able getting through with his message even though he uses irony and swear words as shit and fucking. These words help underlining his opinion and purpose of the commentary, as they seem quite heated. Brand’s profession is reflected in his choice of words. It would be possible imagining people who would be offended or would have a lack of understanding...
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...which he was born and raised, because of their lack of understanding towards the young people on the margins of society. Based on the recent events, where several riots have taken place in suburban London, he is asking the only legitimately question, he can: “Why is this happening?”. Throughout the commentary he endeavours this specific question. This includes reflections of his own childhood and growing up as a young adult, lacking direction and better things to do. And because of his lack of political insight, he is not trying to find a concrete solution, but either way finds, that the solution is concerning spirituality, as he quotes Gandhi: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” He therefore draws the conclusion, that if ‘we want to live in a society where people feel included, we must include them’. Right from the beginning we sense a critical style of writing. The writer, Russell Brand, is especially critical towards the politicians, such as the Prime Minister David Cameron and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who had to return from their beloved holidays when things back in London got heated: “I mean even David Cameron came back from his holiday. Eventually.” (line 25–26) The critical element here is the fact, that David Cameron did not break off his holiday sooner when the riots in London broke out in August 2011. Furthermore, he is, through his ironic way of writing, critical towards the Home Secretary, Theresa May, because of her stating,...
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...novel 1984. The novel, which was published in 1949, gave a very frightening point of view on the so-called Big Brother society, where the surveillance on society would be huge. The British comedian Russell Brand has changed the phrase to: “Big Brother isn’t watching you” in comment of the then recent UK riots, where he thinks that there clearly is no one, who is watching or controlling the riots. Russell Brand, married to the world famous Katy Perry, is especially known for his role in Get him to the Greek, where his very distinctive British accent brought a smile to every viewer. His comment on the riots is definately in a different genre, where he, with some serious and some sarcastical statements, is trying to define why these riots are occurring. Russell is starting his comment by telling a bit about himself. When he was in his early twenties, he had been participating in various protest. This means that even though he is no longer in the “economic class”, he can still relate to the riots, since he has been part of other riots. This experience from his early life is making him come up with what the reason of the riot could be. When he lived back in London and took part in riots, it was because he felt he was in need for some meaning in his life. Some goal he could go for, or like a direction, he could follow. He is sure that most of the rioting people are having the same problems as he had. However, some of the people rioting were doing it because they were deprived in a materialistic...
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...What are pressure groups A pressure group can be described as an organised group that does not put up candidates for election, but seeks to influence government policy or legislation. They can also be described as ‘interest groups’, ‘lobby groups’ or ‘protest groups’. Some people avoid using the term ‘pressure group’ as it can inadvertently be interpreted as meaning the groups use actual pressure to achieve their aims, which does not necessarily happen. In Britain, the number of political parties is very small, whereas the number of pressure groups runs into thousands; as the membership of political parties has fallen, that of pressure groups has increased. The term pressure group is a very wide definition that does not clearly distinguish between the groups that fall under the term. For example, a pressure group can be a huge organisation like the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), which represents 150,000 businesses, and it can also be a single-issue locally based organisation like CLARA (Central Area Leamington Resident’s Association), which represents less than 300 households campaigning to preserve and improve the town of Leamington Spa. The definition also does not distinguish between the more extreme pressure groups such as the Animal Liberation Front, whose campaigns include the illegal activities such as planting bombs, and the pressure groups such as the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), which have links to the Labour government and regular contact...
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...You Russell Edward Brand has been known for a lot of controversy throughout his career. As a famous 38-year-old comedian, actor and a great author, ‘Big Brother is Watching You’ is yet another commentary where Russell Brand clears up his mind, with what he allegedly considers a righteous statement. Of English origin, Russell Brand wrote ‘Big Brother is Watching You’ to express his thoughts about the 2011 England riots, which were taking place on the 6th to 11th September in London, along with several other cities in England. Russell Brand’s main point of the statement is to criticize the British Home Secretary, Theresa May, with her ways of handling the riots. He rebukes her and brings his own point of view to the public, as he has a strong disapprobation of the way that Theresa May deemed the protesters actions and behavior. His commentary was publicized on 11th August on the final day of protesting on the British national daily newspaper The Guardian, on the same day after Theresa May had given her speech. As Russell Brand is a former citizen of London (though born in Essex), he sits across the globe, after being transplanted to Los Angeles, and expresses his thoughts about why the inhabitants would protest and be nothing but troublemakers for the authority with their “mindless” actions in his homeland. All this while harshly involving a great amount of sarcasm to implicitly articulate his disapproval. To exemplify; “Wow! Thanks guys! What a wonderful use of planet’s...
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...1. Give an outline of the views on what caused the UK riots presented in texts 1 and 2 Text 1, a news report from the “Voice of America” website written by Al Pessin, is generally reporting how the UK riots in August happened and why the Londoners thought the riots broke out. Many of them initially assumed that the violence was a backlash from chronic unemployment, slow economic recovery and cuts to public service (site 2, line 12 - 15). They thought that the riot was triggered by a still-unresolved shooting by the police, which cost a young man’s life. But it was just the spark which lighted the fuel. The young people had enough. They begin to loot stores and smash up cars to show their dissatisfaction. But Chris Hamnett lives not far from some of the worst rioting. He said that the rioting is for fun and profit, not for expressing their anger against an oppressive state. He says that the neighborhood where the riots were concentrated had large African and Caribbean populations. He said they generally have less education, more unemployment and higher crime rates. Some people living in the riot-plagued neighborhoods said that they are just looting for loot, with no reason. Also it was in their opinions that the government had to listen to these young people, who just had nothing else to do. But the British primeminister did not do as so. Instead he promised tougher police tactics and more severe punishments. Text 2, an article from “The independent” website written by Camila...
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