London on fire

"What gets into you all? We study the problem and we've been studying it for damn well near a century, yes, but we get no further with our studies. You've got a good home here, good loving parents, you've got not too bad of a brain. Is it some devil that crawls inside you?"


A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess

I quote my favourite writer again. This post is of course about the recent riots.I cannot help but think about the 2008 riots in Montreal, also triggered by the death of a man by police officers, albeit the situation in this country is much more serious. When it happened in Montreal, I took the side of the police. I still do now.  I do it in this case too.

I have no sympathy at all for the rioters now either. Cowards, savages, scumbags, pick your word, I think it. Using the death of a man to hurt a whole society, to put lives in danger and wantonly ruin lives is beyond disgusting. There is no excuse for those pathetic, vulgar anarchists. And I am an immigrant here too, so those scumbags cannot accuse me of racism. This evening I heard a young adult in the train speaking loudly in his mobile phone, saying that the killing of Mark Duggan was a murder conspiracy done by the Met, because he had information about them that Duggan wanted to make public and they silenced him... I wanted to scream: "How can you be so bloody stupid?" A conspirationist, sympathetic to the rioters, in a train going to a quiet English town. I found this idea both depressing and disturbing.

I recently said that I was wondering if I was still a city dweller. With what is happening in London and elsewhere, I think I could settle for a quieter place. That said, that guy on the train reminds me that there is madness and cruelty everywhere. One cannot be completely safe from those flames. I wouldn't be in Montreal, where "pacific" manifestations against police brutality always bring their hot heads who decide to break things. I was afraid after the Norway massacre a contagion. The disease that is devouring this country right now is obviously more contagious and on long term more hurtful. It is difficult to fight the darkness when it is fed by the smoke of so many bonfires. And sadly, I see no solution but a an armed response, the blunt, relentless hits of uniformed men against the wild bunch. Maybe that's what depresses me the most.