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Riots – an affect of multiculturalism? - Referat
Riots - An effect of multiculturalism?
Content
1. Riots in general- What is a riot?
2. Control of a riot
3. Riots in different places
Ø Riots in London, its causes and consequences
Ø Riots in Birmingham, its causes and consequences
4. Riots in comparison
5. Riots as an effect of multiculturalism
6. Sources
1. Riots in general- What is a riot?
Riots describe a form of a civil protest, usually carried out in streets, where a group of hooligans rebel against properties, authorities and certain kind of people. Such rebellions are always connected with violence, destruction of public as well as private property, mostly including shops, cars, restaurants, state-owned institutions, and religious buildings. Their objectives depend on the involved people and their attitudes to the event.
“There are different kinds of riots, but almost all riots can be described in general terms as being like a fire. For a fire to start, two things are needed: fuel and a spark.” http://www.howstuffworks.com/riot-control.htm
The fuel for a riot builds up over a longer or shorter period of time, in where racial prejudices grow or the unfair treatment of the poor gets stronger. If people do not see any chance to deal with their problems or how to change the situation, anger and frustration increases and just a little spark finally leads to a riot.
2. Control of a riot
Riots are always controlled by the police, whereas the methods differ from country to country. The well- armed police is constantly improving their tactics to take action against the rioters, to prevent terrible injuries, due to their different sorts of weapons, including attack dogs, water cannons, plastic bullets or pepper spray. In general they have developed a specific system to control the riots as good as possible by a fixed unit which is very mobile and can adapt to quick changes quite easily. The police threatens the rioters with prison arrests to decrease the numbers of people joining the riots.
3. Riots in different places
3.1 Riot in London
The riot in London’s borough Tottenham which spread to other districts of London by the time took place after the death of Mark Duggan who was shot by the police, because he was suspicious to have planned an attack and was in possession of a handgun. This circumstance led to riots of people thinking him to be killed by the police was inappropriate, racist and just because he was dark skinned. They demanded justice by protesting outside of the police station, which was the actual beginning of the riot. After the ‘calm’ demonstration in front of the police office, the brutal part followed just a few hours after. When two patrol cars were set on fire, shops were plundered and they kept on setting busses and cars on fire. This state of emergency last three nights in total, with the aim of the mostly young participants to gain the attention of the society they were always looking for, no matter if they destroy their own home or the ones of others. Businesses and homes burnt down and all the police could have done was to watch them rebelling, wait for a political decision and try their best to calm them by arresting them. In comparison to other cities, in which riots take place regularly, the citizens do not support such actions, like there is no community support of the involved rioters. They rather help rebuilding the damaged houses or shops and try to identify and publish the offender in different ways.
3.2 Riots in Birmingham (GB)
“Riots erupt in Birmingham: Police make 130 arrests”
“Thirteen people out of 28 injured on Monday night seen by crews went to hospitals, the ambulance service said.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-14452468
While the riots in London still went on, they also spread to Birmingham, where mainly young people of the working class, who were ignored most of the time and would have caused trouble anywhere they go, crashed into the police, by attacking them with broken shop windows, damaged cars and properties, set big parts of the city on fire and looted crockery shops. Moreover they stole stuff in various places, not only in the city centre of Birmingham. The police presence got more massive, as they tried to avoid any further damages after the first day of rioting in their city. The target of these rioters here was to attack the rich ones, because most of the rioters were poor and suppressed by the society and this was, in their opinion, the only opportunity to quit this inequality between classes and races. One man who lost his son in the riots said that they all live in the same community, so why do they have to kill one after the other? He requested them to calm down and leave, in care of protecting all the other kids.
4. Different riots- various causes, places and effects
Police riot
Describes the form of riot in which the police fights faulty and illegal against a calm group or they even originate them into violence. During the Vietnam War you could found such riots, when anti-war demonstrators bang together with the police who possessed tear gas.
Prison riot
Prisoners rebel against the staff of the prison, as a trial to escape or in hope to change the daily routine in prison. Like in Venezuela, 2013, where 54 prisoners died and 90 were injured.
Race riot
Race riots are based on race or ethnicities which cause a rebellion between members of majority racial groups and people belonging to other ethnic groups or races. The Battle of Manners Street in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, is one example for a race riot. In this conflict American servicemen were fighting against New Zealand ones outside the Allied Services Club.
Religious riot
The hooligans attack people of a certain religious group or those believed to belong to them. Example: 31 people were killed in India, due to a riot between Muslims and Hindus.
Student riot
Students rebelling against political issues, after sport events or suppressed demonstrations, they are taking part at, can be a cause for student riots. As in France in 1968, where hundreds of universities and factories stroke, with the result of a total breakdown of the French economy and the almost fall of the president, because they are unsatisfied either with their occupancy or the possibility to find a good job, fitting to their attitudes.
Urban riot
These riots are predicated on the damage of cities, released and intensified by discrimination, the high rate of unemployed workers, with the effect of faulty living conditions, poor public institutions such as schools or hospitals, what brings the poor healthcare along and police cruels. Urban riots are closely related with race and police riots.
Sports riot
Winning or losing of a certain team can be the release of such a riot. Five main reasons for sports riots are:
· teams struggling for a championship
·a long series of matches
· a meeting point for many fans
·the presence of young men
·scores that hardly differ
Sports are the most common cause of riots in the United States. Almost half of all championship games or series are served by riots. Players are rarely involved in them, because only their fans may fight with each others on the margin of the field or in the streets. The latest event was the Port Said Stadium disaster in Egypt, where fans attacked and killed the ones of the opposing side with several weapons, after a football match.
Food and bread riot
Food and bread riots are often a cause of bad harvests, inappropriate food storage, poisoned food or as a few weeks ago the effect of a natural disaster, like the one on the Philippines, where the people attack shops, farms or other properties to gain bread or other food to be stapled, i.e.: grain, salt or sugar, because they have no groceries at all to survive on their own.
5. Riots as an effect of multiculturalism
First of all you cannot generalize all immigrants to put down a rebellion, because most of them came to England, for example, to work. But now there is a problem of too less jobs in the country and the ones, who have no job get mad on the ones, who have one. By facing this fact it is obviously, that the gap between classes and races gets bigger and bigger. Referring to the riots in London and surroundings lately, you can see how much the immigrants feel suppressed by the British citizens, because they think they are treated not as well as the British or do not experience the acceptance of the society, so they start rioting to show this inconvenience.
à George Gordon, a retired civil servant and black activist, said that these riots in summer 2011 were not the result of multiculturalism, more the effect of the most extreme right- wing government they have ever had.
I personally think, that it is not possible at all to answer the question, if riots are an effect of multiculturalism, either with yes or no, because riots are caused by different aspects, of which multiculturalism is not the most important one, rather than family problems or peer pressure. Of course multiculturalism is one of these aspects, but I think it is more likely the fault of the right- wing government whose task it is to unite all cultures and races in one unified country, in which they should create and look for a nice and appropriate atmosphere which would again avoid riots.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot
http://www.harpyness.com/2011/08/09/the-london-riots-explained-a-guest-post-by-gherkinfiend/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots#Riots
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_riot#Vietnam_War_protests
http://listverse.com/2011/09/04/top-10-worst-riots/
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2008/05/may1-m28.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_control
http://www.howstuffworks.com/riot-control.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14434552
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-14452468
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/all-about/birmingham%20riots
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-riots--one-year-on-birminghams-fight-to-escape-a-summer-of-violence-7973451.html
http://www.economist.com/node/691163
http://nottspolitics.org/2011/09/05/the-impact-of-the-riots-people-feel-more-threatened-and-prejudiced/
Handout: Riots- an effect of multiculturalism?
1. What is a riot?
Riots describe a form of a civil protest, usually carried out in streets, where a group of hooligans rebel against properties, authorities and certain kind of people by causing a lot of damages and trouble. Their targets depend on the involved people and their attitudes to the event.
2. Control of a riot
Riots are always controlled by the police, whereas the methods differ from country to country. They try to defend their selves and to protect the others with the help of attack dogs, water cannons, plastic bullets or pepper spray. In general they have developed a fixed unit which is very flexible and can adapt to quick changes quite easily. The police threatens the rioters with prison arrests do decrease the numbers of people joining the riots.
3. Riots in different places
3.1 London
The riot in London’s borough Tottenham was caused by the death of Mark Duggan who was shot by the police, because he was suspicious to have planned an attack and was in possession of a handgun. After some people demanded justice by protesting outside of the police station, which was the actual beginning of the riot, because they noticed that police reacted inappropriate.
Damages:
Two patrol cars were set on fire
shops were plundered
set busses and cars on fire
The aim of the mostly young participants was to gain the attention of the society they were always looking for, no matter if they destroy their own home or the ones of others. All the police could have done to control the riots was to arrest the hooligans.
3.2 Birmingham
While the riots in London still went on, they also spread to Birmingham, where mainly young people of the working class, crashed into the police, by attacking them with broken shop windows, damaged cars and properties, set big parts of the city on fire, looted crockery shops and stole stuff in various places. The target of these rioters here was to attack the rich ones, because most of the rioters were poor and suppressed by the society and this was, in their opinion, the only opportunity to quit this inequality between classes and races.
4. Riots as an effect of multiculturalism
Most of the immigrants came to England for work.
àTerrible job occupancy
àGap between classes and races gets bigger and bigger
àImmigrants feel suppressed and do not experience any acceptance of the British
But it is not possible to see the multiculturalism as the only effect of riots, because the government does also play a big role!!!
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