Sikh men gather outside the Sri Guru Singh Sabha temple in Southall, south London, in an effort to protect the area from looters.
A number of people have suggested that the Tottenham riots are the fault of ‘multiculturalism’ (read: brown-skinned people). The facts on the ground tell a much different tale, and suggest that while rioting and looting may be equal opportunity acts of violence, so too are the forces of order and compassion:
In Enfield, where a gang on Monday night torched a Sony warehouse, residents declared a ‘looter free zone.’
Nick Davidson, 27, a computer shop owner said: "Everybody supports the police but we can see their hands are tied. We're good people but we're not having this."
In Southall, west London, hundreds of Sikh men stood guard outside their temple and mounted street patrols, armed with baseball bats.
In Eltham, south east London, a crowd of 200 men gathered in the streets, promising to protect their neighbourhood from looters and arsonists following rioting in nearby Lewisham and Woolwich.
“We won't stand for it. If anyone wants to come down here and start looting tonight, let them try - we'll be ready for them,” said one.
"We're here to protect the town. What went on last night was a disgrace. It shouldn't be allowed. We're taking a stand."
On Monday night, the Turkish business owners in Stoke Newington, North London, chased a gang of rioters out of the area and last night men stood guard with baseball bats and fire extinguishers. In Whitechapel groups of Muslim men gathered outside the East London mosque to defend it and repelled looters from a bank.
So much for the ‘the poisonous fake idealism of “human rights” and “sensitivity,”’ as John Derbyshire would have it – so much for the ‘happy-clappy multicultural groveling and sick, weak, deracinated moral universalism’ — so much for the ‘rotten fruit of a debased, sentimentalized Christianity’. The Muslims and Sikhs are standing against the rioters.
Multiculturalism is going to be hard mind you. Of course it is. But Derbyshire sees ghosts where none exist. He tells himself a comforting story about the riots, one that fits his worldview, and that’s enough. No evidence to the contrary matters.
These riots are not about the “plague” of multiculturalism. They’re not about brown-skinned people and immigrants sullying the greatness of the long-dead British empire. They’re about perceptions of unfair treatment at the hands of the police. Even if many of the rioters don’t realize it, these riots are about the violent and inherently chaotic War on Drugs.
When the state sews chaos, what can we expect in return? Law and order is not just about keeping things orderly any more than it is just about writing laws. It’s about justice. And when justice is absent from law and order, should it come as any surprise when all hell breaks loose?
9 comments