Who really benefits?

Recently, the UK government announced that members of the public could submit an e-petition on almost any subject and when that petition reaches 100,000 signatures then parliament has to debate it.

Well a few days ago the first petition crossed that 100,000 signatures mark and as of now it’s at over 180,000.

“Convicted London rioters should loose all benefits.”

Now, let’s firstly put this into context.

• (Part of) The reason that so many of the riots happened is due to disaffection with community, the police, the government and a lack of opportunity through jobs, community and young centres etc.
• Benefits are tiny. Anyone who tells you that they have a luxury life style whilst on benefits is lying. So many people in the UK are on benefits, the majority not by choice, but due to jobs often it’s the only way to get by and often they will struggle just to get by.

Let’s say for the sake of argument that all of the rioters are on benefits. Now from the programs I’ve watched and the things I’ve read, these people on the whole are going to be struggling to get by on their money, so imagine that they all get their benefits taken away. What the government will have done is push over 1,000 people further down the poverty line, those in council housing will be made homeless and given that this has all happened because of a lack of respect towards the police surely this is a massive coalition own goal?

If we’re looking at the problem as a generation of young people feeing let down by their government, then taking away the tiny amount of support that they already have is just going to make things worse. Now don’t get me wrong, I think what’s happened is a deplorable and outrageous act that has seen communities destroyed. I think these people should get the sentences that they deserve, but as ever with punishment, prison can’t be the only thing. Sure, putting some young people in prison may help them see the error of their ways, but for others, who just don’t care about the criminal justice system it will do nothing but alienate them. Of course people will cry out and say that these people should pay for the things that they have done to their community, and they should, but they should also be part of the solution, of bringing the community back together again.

The main point of this whole situation is this; the only way our justice system works, is if it’s fair. Imagine entering court tomorrow and there’s two of you in the dock, you’re both there for looting exactly the same things except you chose to follow the crowds and your dock mate decided to do it a week earlier than you and on his own. You both receive the same sentence, which we’ll say is not a prison sentence, say 100 hours community service. You both get sentenced but you leave the court room and you find yourself with no home, no support, no money but the other guy does get some of that help, and does get some of that support that we all need whether we’re criminals or not.

The stupidest thing that we can do right now is make a act hastily and stupidly and then come to regret it. We need to look at what caused these horrendous actions, and what we can all do to help create communities that support each other.

Yes, these people should be punished, yes they should feel sorry for what they’ve done, but if we shove them in prison and then let them go back into our communities feeling even worse, even more out of place in society then who benefits? We might feel better because we feel that justice has been done, but give it a week, a month, a year, a decade, all of this will happen again and all because we made a bad decision.

What do you think should happen? How do you think we can rebuild our society? How do you think the rioters should be punished?

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