Summer Trouble In London Again?

On Tuesday, the 18th of July, we saw what looks like the start of summer trouble.

Hyde Park, 2016

Tuesday's escapades at Hyde Park saw over 4000 youngsters - who had showed up to a pre-planned water fight and what the media are calling "A Bashment Music Festival" - caused mayhem and turned against each other and the police. Five people were stabbed including a police officer - "a video is circulating on the web showing a young man being chased through traffic by three youths, and then allegedly being stabbed."

This isn't the first time we've seen scenes like this in London - although this time it was a little milder.

In the Summer of 2011, following the police shooting death of Mark Duggan, after what started as a peaceful protest, turned into complete mayhem, people became opportunist and used this time to make some sort of statement rather than focusing on what the real issue was.

London, 2011

Cars and businesses were left engulfed in flames, people were barricaded in their homes, shops like JD Sports and Curry's were raided and bags of rice was stolen.

"Yes, I saw a guy running with a large bag of rice clutched in his arms."

London Riots

Is this is what you use this opportunity for, settling old scores and trying to make some irrelevant point?

Hyde Park

"But some would ask, did the police come on a little strong, were they a little forceful, especially with the Hyde Park incident?"

Some may say "Yes".

'UK Black Activist', Lee Jasper put out a tweet, which some believed was putting blame on the police, "It seems as though the police got jumpy seeing so many black youth and swarmed the area with police in an (sic) panic..."

What with everything that happened in 2011, what do you expect?

You set up an illegal "festival", all with a sound system in a public park and expect there to be no police attendance.

Hyde Park has an "official" '4/20' gathering every year, and no trouble is seen. Why is this?

"Because everyone goes there on a mature level, all with the same agenda."

"Well what the fuq do you expect when foolishness like this happens?"

After watching the video above, some of these people are lucky the UK police don't have the same mentality some of the cops in America have 'cause they would of been dead long time.

Speaking of America, during the stand-off with police, a group of people were heard chanting "Black Lives Matter".

Well all I need to say to this is: "Shut up with all that BS, this has nothing to do with 'Black Lives Matter', this has to do, with some of the youth of today being to damn unruly."

It's easy to blame the police for what happened on Tuesday, but is it really conducive to your cause
to rile the black youth and encourage their hatred for the police.

I've come across a few police officers who are very good at using their uniform and their badge as bully tactics. They'll interrogate and harass black youths more than any other race, and we all know that is a problem that definitely needs to be spoken about, but when people try to use this as an excuse for what happened on Tuesday and the summer of 2011, the initial cause gets ignored and the mayhem becomes the story.

This type of action doesn't work in the UK.

I don't have all the answers, but I do know that if you have a platform, you should use it to help the people you say you are here to represent rather than encouraging bad behaviour on Twitter.

Amen.