Wednesday, 10 August 2011

The anatomy of the street thugs:




Welcome to day 26.  Wow, halfway through my 50 day challenge and yesterday I got two comments, yippee.  Thank you very much – you know who you are – you made my day and spurred me on.  In honour of you and also because it is what most occupies our thinking at the moment, I shall continue my thoughts on the riots.

The anatomy of the street thugs:
Not all rioters are made the same. As I see it, there are four distinct categories: 

Type A
The young, under 13 years old who thinks it is "exciting and a laugh". Their parents don't know where they are at the moment because they tried too hard to be their friend. Consequently their parents failed to set any boundaries and so have very little authority over them. 

They aren't quite "feral" they can be made to comply, however it takes a lot of effort, usually involves depriving them of money and technology. So most of the time their parents don't bother because they are either too busy, too stress, or too tired trying to make ends meet.  Once their parents find out where they were, they will be shocked, but they won't ask them to give back the stuff they may have stolen as it will incriminate them.  They will be grounded for a week and have their phone taken away.

Type B
The kids that are looking for "free stuff".  Somehow these individuals have got the idea that if you can take “stuff” and not get caught, then it is "free" and you are entitled to it.  These kids are simply taking advantage of the opportunity to get "free stuff".  Why shouldn't they?  It’s not every day you get the opportunity to lay your hands on so much "free stuff".   

Getting caught isn't really an issue, partly because they believe it to be unlikely to happen – how many people have actually been arrested compared to how many people are out there? – AND even if they are caught they'll get community service because the prison system can't cope with the numbers.  AND even if they go to prison, “so what – it ain't that bad – my mate was in prison and he had a PlayStation and a TV in his room and he got more spending money than I get.”

Type C
The adults who are just plain stupid and think no one is watching, therefore, they can't be identified; which means they can turn up and load up.  They know it is "wrong", however, they don't see themselves as criminals because they don't "rob" every day.  They just take advantage of opportunities to get stuff cheaply or free when they come along.

Type D
The gangs:  The children and young adults who have for years been honing their tactics.  They are the “happy slappers”, the BMX muggers; they’ve steamed trains and buses, snatched phones, purses and bags from innocent bystanders.  They walk in packs and normally get moved out of town centres buy security guards and police.  They are armed with knives and guns.  They draw their strength and identity from their "fam” short for family and their family is their gang.  Their gang sets the rules, gives them status and belonging.  Criminality does not come into it. This is how they live life.  

They understand that the community cannot function in chaos.  So creating chaos as a smokescreen to line their pockets is old school.  This is just on a much bigger scale.  What an opportunity to get rich, to show the police they really aren’t afraid of them; that if they wanted to, they could own the streets.  In most cases they do own the streets in the areas the police don't care about.  Now they are able to operate in other territory where there are richer pickings.


Unfortunately it seems that the politicians have already decided to treat all categories of street thug the same. Tempting I know, however I do have a lot of sympathy with the people who allowed the moment to overtake their common sense. 

No one makes decisions believing them to be foolish. They always make perfect sense in the moment. You use your logic to convince yourself that you are acting in your best interest in that moment.  If only we could always tap into the power of hindsight.  It's a real shame it is only available after the fact.  

It is possible, however,  to use foresight, i.e. stepping back and asking yourself: what else can I do?, how does this serve me?, do I want to be right or do I want peace?. All powerful foresight questions that I have learned to use to expand my options and therefore my choices in any situation.  The more choices you have the more empowered you are to make decisions.  It's akin to a 360° audit of your thinking.  I.e. you’ve looked at it from all angles.

It is difficult to show compassion and understanding to those who have, in the moment, shown none to others.  However, perhaps we as a community also need to ask ourselves do we want to be right or do we want peace?  When apartheid came to an end in South Africa or when the killings stopped in Rwanda the community had to ask these same questions.  Closer to home, we have the example of Northern Ireland.  In each case, decisions had to be made about how much forgiveness should be extended to the perpetrators of crimes in order for the community to move forward. 
 
Perhaps a good starting point would be to look closely at the anatomy of the street thug and move forward from there.

Do you want to be right or do you want peace? Please share your thoughts; I look forward to reading them.


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