Posted on 03/27/2012 8:55:45 PM PDT by Steelfish
Verdict On UK Riots: People Need A 'Stake in Society', Says Report Panel concludes that riots were fuelled by a lack of opportunities for young people, poor parenting and suspicion of the police
27 March 2012
Riots panel concluded that the riots were fuelled by a wide range of factors including a lack of opportunities for young people. Photograph: Ray Tang /Rex Features
An independent panel set up by the government to study the causes of last summer's riots calls for more people to be given "a stake in society" to help prevent a repeat of the disturbances.
The report, by the Riots Communities and Victims Panel, concludes that the riots were fuelled by a range of factors including a lack of opportunities for young people, poor parenting, a failure of the justice system to rehabilitate offenders, materialism and suspicion of the police.
"When people don't feel they have a reason to stay out of trouble, the consequences for communities can be devastating as we saw last August," said Darra Singh, chair of the panel.
The report, released on Wednesday, says: "The key to avoiding future riots is to have communities that work." Recommendations include fines for schools that fail to teach children to read properly; earlier and better support for troubled families; a "youth job promise" to get more young people into work; and primary and secondary schools to "undertake regular assessments of pupils' strength of character".
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
So their answer is... midnight basketball?
They were as much about ‘being out of work’ as the occupy protestors are.
Socialism insures NO One has a stake in society.
>> riots were fuelled by a lack of opportunities for young people, poor parenting and suspicion of the police<<
“You were born and the world owes you, starting with the gummint” goes beyond “poor parenting.” It is child abuse.
Interesting to see the same phenomenon across the pond as in Inner City, USA.
A truism if I heard one.
Exactly.
Why would anyone have ambition if they can be on the dole?
Fails everywhere it’s been tried!
Or in the Brits' case, Midnight Footy.
BUMP
The Discourse of Victimhood: how to become a proponent in three easy steps
First principle: Play down human choice and self-responsibility by talking as if human actions are “caused” by their circumstance. Emphasize how everyone is to be understood as the victim of their environment, the class system, the economic system, the education system and so on and so forth which “causes” their action . Talk about human beings as if they were merely natural objects subject to cause and effect rather than moral agents who choose their actions and responses. Accordingly, since criminals are to be theorized and treated as “victims” (or even patients) advocate the softening up of the criminal justice system which must be all about care for the criminal as the “victim of society”. Remember that the purpose of the language of causality - “what causes crime?” etc. - is to distract attention from the fact that actions are free moral choices and therefore cannot be necessitated. That way responsibility - and therefore blame - can be shifted on to those things, people, and institutions that we've already decided must be to blame anyway.
Second principle: If anyone objects to the illogicality of this, make sure to carefully label them - they must be “ring-wing-reactionaries”, “hangers and floggers”, “Daily Mail nutters”, the “blue rinse brigade”, “neo-liberals” and so on. That will distract attention from the content of what they have to say and help you to ignore it - which may be useful if they have important points to make or counter-factual evidence etc., which you certainly won't want to hear.
Third principle: Put forward as the solution to the “causes” of bad behaviour/criminality etc., the idea that the state must do everything for us (investment is needed! and ever more investment - there can never be enough!) - this will reinforce the first principle in helping to undermine self-responsibility and create a sense of psychological passivity whereby people palm off responsibility for their actions to others. Why hasn't the government provided everything on a plate for them? Why isn't the government blowing their noses and wiping their bottoms for them? Now people start to think of themselves even more as victims whose rights are undermined by the wicked society of which they are members - therefore they start to think and act accordingly. Thus the theory begins to “come true”...
Now see what happens...
The “entitlements and excuses culture”, the palming off of responsibility to others, leads to more crime, more anti-social behaviour, more reckless destruction, more feckless irresponsibility etc. This “proves” that society is wicked and causes crime! Now you have even more opportunity to advocate even less discipline, less deterrent in the criminal justice system etc., and more focus on treating the criminal as victim. Punishment is hopeless! The “system” has failed them - it has made them “bad”!
Boom-time for “progressive” intellectuals and academics, journalists, sociologists, psychologists, youth offender workers etc. - diagnosing the “causes” and “treatment” for the strange anti-social behaviour. More opportunities to propagate the thesis that it is our wicked society that causes crime, anti-social behaviour etc. The government is to blame! the wicked system - and so on and so forth. Victims are “found” and “discovered” everywhere - in the minorities, on the council estates, in the streets, behind bushes etc. More work, more studies, more jobs - more money needed! - for progressive intellectuals “explaining” the causes!
Victimhood spreads everywhere! A man fails to watch where he is going and falls over in the street. What has happened? The government has failed! Questions abound: what has happened to this man's rights? Why has he been disenfranchised? Why has the government failed to arrange things so that it is impossible for him to harm himself through his own stupidity? Now everyone starts to think of themselves as victim. Ultimately even the “evil” capitalists must be brought to understand that they are the victims of their own evil system (perhaps then they can confess to the “progressive intellectuals” who can “forgive them their sins”).
Zenith of Victimhood: Now everyone becomes a victim, depressed and unable to cope (prescribe those pills!). Morbid oversensitivity spreads everywhere - everything cuts too deep, hurts too much! Now we are all victims in dire need of a therapist to hold our hand before we get out of bed in the morning and assure us that the world isn't too dangerous (although in some places it is more dangerous because the thugs and criminals have nothing to fear and the “progressive intellectuals” are chasing round after them apologizing for them and justifying their actions)
Daybreak - we wake up and rub our eyes. What has happened? We have become victims of the discourse of victimhood.
The welfare state reaches its logical conclusion.
Good post-thanks
Oprah needs to have it bring on her forehead.
The welfare entitlement is exactly what took their stake away from them.
Are you sure it wasn’t because of lack of self esteem?
Conclusional FAIL.
Great post, you’ve pretty much given me material for the next page of my story.
ping
No, the answer is what they are trying in parts of Newark, NJ: make the permanently-dependent homeowners by making them buy their housing instead of just living as a lifetime tenant in government housing. Some housing in Newark was built with gov’t. money, then sold (at a reduced price) to local residents. They are the among the few residential units in bad neighborhoods that aren’t covered with graffiti and garbage; the subsidized “owners” keep them clean - they have a “stake in society” now.
I’m not for the whole subsidy thing, but without it the city is a zoo of permanent dependents.
How about if they go make their own society?
bump
“People Need A ‘Stake in Society’.”
EARN IT.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.