Thread by @OliverHBishop

(LONG THREAD) This year marks a decade since the 2011 London Riots. Despite the event being almost entirely unremembered by British society, there are clear & haunting parallels between the response to #BLM, this policing & crime bill, & what we saw occur in the aftermath of 2011

The link between 2011 and 2021 is vital yet entirely unexplored. This is a shame as there is one constant between all that has happened in this painful and increasingly divisive decade and that is our current Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the then Mayor of London.

The 2011 Riots kicked off after Mark Duggan, a young black man was shot dead by the Met Police. The shooting was all too familiar to a black community in Tottenham who had witnessed their fair share of police violence. Despite reports, the initial protests were peaceful.

Newspapers, relying solely on police sources, wrongly reported that Duggan was armed. He was also reported to be a drug dealer & gangster who planned on exacting revenge for a cousin's death. Claims all denied by his family. He died with no criminal record.theguardian.com/media/greensla…

The media were eager to position the Riots as that of yet another 'black violent protest' for racism that didn't exist (sound familiar?). They even claimed that Darcus Howe, a member of the celebrated Mangrove 9 (who they called Marcus Dowe) was a rioter.

Then, without waiting for any evidence or data to substantiate claims, Cameron’s Govt blamed a rise in gangs for the Riots. ”Gangs were at the heart of the protests & have been behind the coordinated attacks,” he told MPs. Flawed logic pointing crosshairs at black communities.

This mythical revelation, that somehow gangs were responsible for the rioting, & not a young, black man being shot by the police, was echoed by the Mayor & Met. They created the Gang Matrix, a little-known database comprised of 80% young black boys, the youngest being just 12 y.o

The Matrix was draconian & damaging, ignoring that only 27% of kids involved in youth violence were black - less than 1% of the young black pop. in Ldn. The Met didn’t care that 35% of those in the Matrix had no intelligence linking them to gangs & was never charged with a crime.

It suggested that the way to make white ppl feel safe was to invade blk kids privacy, dismantle human rights & breach data protection regs. You'd be forgiven for forgetting that the Riots kicked off as a black man was shot dead by the Met not a desire to throw black kids in jail.

Meanwhile, our Mayor, Johnson, attempted to procure water cannons to use on future protestors not knowing they were, obviously, an illegal weapon. Water cannons being famous, of course, for the images of US police using them on black children in the 60s theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/n…

It is fitting, poetic almost, that as we approach 10 years on from the riots we find ourselves in yet another inescapable moment where the painful realities of Britain’s relationship with racism, misogyny & police brutality is forcibly laid bare.

The parallels between 2011 and 2021 are haunting. Again, protests over black human rights became co-opted by perverse narratives. This time it was about 'thuggery' as Boris called it. And the disrespecting of sacred 'British' culture - ie the statues of eugenicists and slavers.

But this time Boris learned from his 2011 mistakes. It wasn't cannons he needed, but hearts & minds. He began internally with every appointment to a public body tasked with tackling racism now filled with those who share in his hostility towards the principles of anti-racism.

These appointments were deliberate signals from the Govt who elected to, not-so-discreetly, weaponise racism as a means of reinforcing their values to a populist base - by demonstrating their unwillingness to play ball with an equalities agenda. huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-jo…

Boris promised an inquiry into racism, yet a year later and there's no evidence it has even begun. This is reminiscent of 2011 where @DavidLammy wrote a comprehensive report into what led to the Riots (spoiler: not black thugs) but the report collects dust.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

This Policing and Crime Bill is just another aggressive black voices - to show 'the public' that the 'thuggery' of black protest wouldn't be tolerated. That there won't be another 2011. But racism has a powerful gravitational pull drawing unintended consequences for the Govt.

The tragic case of Sarah Everard, & the police response at her vigil, turned what was to be a non-headline, marginal Bill, only to be fought by human rights groups and activists, into one of international interest.

But this Bill is just one of the numerous tactics being deployed by Boris, his Govt & the Met. It sits alongside continued support for racialised stop & search, use of force, illegal databases, voter suppression, anti-immigration policies, & mythical wars on drugs & gangs.

Given what we know of the past decade & the perpetual translation of social grievances, such as inequality & racism, into 'culture wars' or black 'thuggery', these actions represent a perpetuation of systemic & institutional racism that is not happenstance but entirely conscious.

The London Riots & #BLM sit alongside Brexit and the many other tools used to splinter public opinion along arbitrary battle lines & to present black & foreign faces as the catalysts of the UK’s inevitable social & economic decline. The question is, what will you do about it?