{"id":43641,"date":"2024-08-23T13:47:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T12:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=43641"},"modified":"2024-08-23T14:47:32","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T13:47:32","slug":"rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Rewriting the riots, from 2011 to today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The racist and Islamophobic violence that swept across England and Northern Ireland in August has been called \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/24497438.bbc-slated-framing-english-riots-pro-british\/\">pro-British protest<\/a>\u2019, \u2018demonstration\u2019, \u2018disorder\u2019 and \u2018riots\u2019. Calls for their recognition in more critical terms \u2013 as <a href=\"https:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/article\/uk-immigration-race-riot-far-right-white-nationalist\">pogroms<\/a> or right-wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icct.nl\/publication\/british-disorder-why-we-need-take-far-right-violence-more-seriously\">terrorism<\/a> \u2013 are convincing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The language of riots and disorder has inevitably drawn<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/article\/2024\/aug\/07\/uk-riots-how-does-the-violence-compare-with-unrest-in-august-2011\"> comparison<\/a> with events in England almost exactly 13 years ago. On 4 August 2011, Metropolitan police officers brutally killed 29-year old <a href=\"https:\/\/forensic-architecture.org\/investigation\/the-killing-of-mark-duggan\">Mark Duggan<\/a> in Tottenham, North London, sparking disturbances in towns and cities across England over four nights \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2021\/jul\/30\/2011-uk-riots-mark-duggan\">the most serious civil unrest in a generation<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Q9xWX4M2hr8\">important differences <\/a>between the two periods, looking back to 2011 offers crucial lessons about how the government might respond now, what issues will likely remain unspoken or unattended to, and what needs to be done over the coming weeks and months.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Embedding narratives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The meanings that come to settle around these riots will be powerful in shaping and justifying the politics of this Labour administration. As in 2011, the days and weeks following riots are crucially important in setting the scene for the political agendas that follow. The government now needs to set out its longer-term policy responses to the 2024 riots. Politicians, journalists, commentators and academics will offer competing diagnoses for the unrest, identify different actors to blame, and prescribe varied solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This summer\u2019s disorder has not been on the same scale as 2011, when the ten police forces arrested <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/an-overview-of-recorded-crimes-and-arrests-resulting-from-disorder-events-in-august-2011\">3,960 people <\/a>within a month of the unrest. Nor are sentences handed down so far as inflated as those given in the wake of the 2011 riots, which were on average <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/statistics\/statistical-bulletin-on-the-public-disorder-of-6th-9th-august-2011--2#:~:text=Of%20those%20sentenced%2C%201%2C405%20(66,England%20and%20Wales%20in%202010.\">four times longer<\/a> than usual and \u2013 in line with<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/lammy-review-final-report\"> broader patterns<\/a> in criminal justice \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/219665\/august-public-disorder-stats-bulletin-130912.pdf\">disproportionately<\/a> targeted<a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/219665\/august-public-disorder-stats-bulletin-130912.pdf\"> <\/a>working-class and racially minoritised young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nevertheless, the Labour party\u2019s contemporary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/article\/2024\/aug\/10\/the-justice-system-is-rising-to-challenge-of-uk-riots-despite-dire-tory-legacy\">law-and-order rhetoric<\/a> carries distinct echoes of the Coalition government in 2011, with Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood stating that \u2018crimes must lead, unerringly, to punishment\u2019 and that the courts \u2018will continue to deliver justice, until the last offender languishes in one of our jails\u2019. Despite the ongoing crisis in the criminal justice system and in the prison system, a fortnight after this summer\u2019s riots began, more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/uk\/more-than-1000-arrested-following-uk-riots-police-say-2024-08-13\/\">1000 people<\/a> had been arrested and 575 charged, and more than<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/article\/2024\/aug\/17\/fresh-uk-prisons-crisis-as-riots-lead-to-fears-of-overcrowding\"> 300 were in prison<\/a> on remand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center rp-full-width rp-quote has-grey-color has-pale-1-background-color has-text-color has-background has-antonio-font-family\" style=\"padding-top:2%;padding-right:2%;padding-bottom:2%;padding-left:2%;font-size:clamp(1.743rem, 1.743rem + ((1vw - 0.2rem) * 1.571), 3rem);\">While Starmer credited the police and the courts with preventing further attacks, mobilisations to defend communities under threat received much less recognition<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While prime minister Keir Starmer has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/article\/2024\/aug\/08\/far-right-rioters-deterred-swift-justice-policing-minister\">credited<\/a> the police and the courts with preventing further attacks, large mobilisations of diverse communities and anti-fascist and anti-racist organisations to defend local organisations and show solidarity with communities under threat has received much less recognition.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2011 riots were a response to Duggan\u2019s death and to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.socresonline.org.uk\/16\/4\/24.html\">long history<\/a> of police brutality against Britain\u2019s black communities. They also followed the wake of the 2008 financial crash, and within a year of the new Coalition government\u2019s brutal austerity agenda slashing public services and deepening inequality.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet David Cameron and his Conservative Party<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/speeches\/pms-speech-on-the-fightback-after-the-riots\"> insisted<\/a> that the riots were \u2018not about race\u2019, \u2018not about government cuts\u2019 and \u2018not about poverty\u2019. Separating the unrest from structural issues of racism, discriminatory police practices or the ravages of neoliberal austerity, the finger was instead pointed at individual and cultural problems, most notably gangs and gang culture, welfare dependency and inadequate parenting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pushing agendas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The government\u2019s diagnosis of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/speeches\/pms-speech-on-the-fightback-after-the-riots\">\u2018broken society\u2019<\/a> reinforced other efforts to reframe economic and political issues like child poverty and youth unemployment as the result of individual choices, effectively positioning the poor as deserving of their disadvantage. Media responses to the disturbances also coalesced around dehumanising and shockingly stigmatising language of \u2018scum\u2019, \u2018ferality\u2019 and \u2018vermin\u2019.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Lamble <a href=\"https:\/\/eprints.bbk.ac.uk\/id\/eprint\/7623\/1\/7623.pdf\">notes<\/a> that, once the riots had been framed as decisively non-political, they were \u2018easily reduced to a consequence of poor choices and failed morals, which thus warranted punishment\u2019. This punishment came not only in the form of the state\u2019s startlingly harsh criminal justice reaction but a raft of vengeful social policy projects that were already planned.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Troubled Families Programme, launched in 2012 apparently in response to the previous summer\u2019s unrest and designed to \u2018turn around\u2019 the lives of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.poverty.ac.uk\/system\/files\/WP%20Policy%20Response%20No.3-%20%20'Trouble'%20ahead%20(Levitas%20Final%2021April2012).pdf\"> 120,000<\/a> of the most \u2018troubled\u2019 families in England, had been on the agenda <a href=\"https:\/\/openaccess.city.ac.uk\/id\/eprint\/26641\/11\/the-problems-with-troubled-families-rethinking-the-analysis-behind-the-120000-troubled-families-statistic.pdf\">since 2010<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center rp-full-width rp-quote has-grey-color has-pale-1-background-color has-text-color has-background has-antonio-font-family\" style=\"padding-top:2%;padding-right:2%;padding-bottom:2%;padding-left:2%;font-size:clamp(1.743rem, 1.743rem + ((1vw - 0.2rem) * 1.571), 3rem);\">Once the riots had been framed as non-political, they were \u2018easily reduced to a consequence of poor choices and failed morals, which warranted punishment&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The riots lent urgency and funding to the project: \u00a3448 million in central government funding was invested to tackle purportedly intergenerational issues of \u2018worklessness\u2019, antisocial behaviour, criminality, educational exclusion and welfare dependency. Drawing on old ideas of an underclass and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mamsie.bbk.ac.uk\/article\/id\/4155\/\"> shifting responsibility<\/a> away from the state and onto working-class mothers, programme success has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transformingsociety.co.uk\/2020\/01\/20\/why-the-troubled-families-programme-should-trouble-us-all\/\">questionable at best.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite research finding that gangs played a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radstats.org.uk\/no106\/BallDrury106.pdf\">negligible role<\/a> in the 2011 riots, the government also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org.uk\/files\/reports\/Trapped%20in%20the%20Matrix%20Amnesty%20report.pdf\">declared<\/a> \u2018all-out war on gangs and gang culture\u2019, leading to the introduction of the Gangs Violence Matrix, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org.uk\/files\/reports\/Trapped%20in%20the%20Matrix%20Amnesty%20report.pdf\">criticised<\/a> for its overwhelming targeting of black young people. The disturbances were leveraged to argue for urgent urban <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opendemocracy.net\/en\/opensecurity\/territorial-stigma-and-regeneration-in-tottenham\/\">\u2018regeneration\u2019<\/a>. Sweeping change to local areas \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.london.gov.uk\/programmes-strategies\/shaping-local-places\/regeneration-project-tottenham#:~:text=Immediately%20after%20the%20riots%2C%20the,of%20their%20investigation%20and%20analysis.\">scarred by the riots<\/a>\u2019 only accelerated widespread <a href=\"https:\/\/haringeycommunitypress.co.uk\/2023\/11\/17\/displaced-residents-share-anger-over-high-road-west-compulsory-purchases\/\">dispossession and displacement <\/a>of residents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system and wider inequalities \u2013 the deeper causes of the unrest \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2021\/jul\/30\/conditions-2011-uk-riots-still-exist-today-experts-warn\">continued to worsen<\/a> while the Conservative government doggedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/aug\/12\/ten-years-english-riots-government-denial-racism-protest-black-communities\">denied<\/a> the existence of systemic and structural racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Labour government\u2019s response to this summer\u2019s violence has similarly focused on punishing those arrested on the streets and avoiding structural issues. Attempts to explain the disorder, not simply condemn it, have centred on social media, with consequent calls to tighten up the already contentious Online Safety Act. As Alberto Toscano <a href=\"https:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/article\/uk-immigration-race-riot-far-right-white-nationalist\">notes<\/a>: \u2018to reduce the cause of these events to disinformation and hooliganism is an exercise in historical amnesia and whitewashing\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fuel from Labour<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Little has been said by politicians and commentators about the entrenched Islamophobia, xenophobia and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/article\/2024\/aug\/10\/there-can-be-no-excuses-the-uk-riots-were-violent-racism-fomented-by-populism?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other\">racism <\/a>fomented by the last government, supported by swathes of the media, rightwing thinktanks and academics. Labour has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newarab.com\/opinion\/stop-gaslighting-us-there-racist-rot-heart-uk\">not challenged<\/a> the violently racist logic that has underpinned politics for decades; they have echoed and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/article\/2024\/aug\/19\/riots-keir-starmer-racist-anti-immigration-narratives-truth\">amplified<\/a> it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just weeks after rioters attempted to burn down hotels housing people seeking asylum, the government has already returned to their <a href=\"https:\/\/labour.org.uk\/change\/strong-foundations\/\">manifesto promises<\/a> to \u2018toughen\u2019 border security and create a \u2018swift and firm\u2019 asylum system that &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/politics\/2024\/08\/21\/yvette-cooper-labour-lock-up-more-migrants\/\">fastracks&#8217; removals<\/a> of unsuccessful applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center rp-full-width rp-quote has-grey-color has-pale-1-background-color has-text-color has-background has-antonio-font-family\" style=\"padding-top:2%;padding-right:2%;padding-bottom:2%;padding-left:2%;font-size:clamp(1.743rem, 1.743rem + ((1vw - 0.2rem) * 1.571), 3rem);\">The Labour government has already returned to manifesto promises to \u2018toughen\u2019 border security and &#8216;fastrack&#8217; removals<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The riots are however being presented as a moment of redemption for the police \u2013 silencing urgent conversations about institutionally racist culture and practices, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inquest.org.uk\/bame-deaths-in-police-custody\">deaths during police contact<\/a>, the racism embedded in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.itv.com\/news\/2023-09-27\/unacceptably-high-levels-of-racism-revealed-in-largest-survey-of-black-britons\">profiling<\/a> potential offenders and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-61167875\">Stop and Search<\/a>. Coming soon after protests over an officer appearing to stamp on the head of a Muslim man at Manchester<a href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/news\/greater-manchester-news\/live-men-shown-violent-gmp-29611410\"> airport<\/a>, the same forces are being presented as saviours, with the Labour Home Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/news\/politics\/yvette-cooper-home-secretary-police-respect-riots-keir-starmer-b1175935.html\">calling for<\/a> unconditional respect for the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Holding to account<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It is vital that we pay sustained attention to the complex and multifaceted causes of the riots, which the government currently seems unwilling to do. Calls are being made <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.lse.ac.uk\/politicsandpolicy\/reading-the-2024-riots\/\">for an official inquiry<\/a> into the riots, but that alone is no guarantee of meaningful engagement with, or resolution for, victimised communities. Whatever the mechanism, we will need to look closely at racist and Islamphobic attitudes, to communities\u2019 experiences of the recent violence, and to the worsening deprivation across society.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This scrutiny must not scapegoat \u2018the white working class\u2019, but hold the parties really responsible to account. In stark contrast to the <a href=\"https:\/\/inews.co.uk\/news\/who-alledged-rioters-list-charged-court-appearances-3212851?srsltid=AfmBOorPR1yt0KXXZRC4MD5fh-C0A97TBwPTTU3LNVNtjI9SGrN6pOjr\">rogues\u2019 gallery<\/a> of rioters\u2019 faces on TV screens, complicit elites \u2013 including former PMs and government ministers \u2013 using<a href=\"https:\/\/inews.co.uk\/news\/who-alledged-rioters-list-charged-court-appearances-3212851?srsltid=AfmBOorPR1yt0KXXZRC4MD5fh-C0A97TBwPTTU3LNVNtjI9SGrN6pOjr\"> racist rhetoric <\/a>to push punitive immigration policies and hatred and mistrust of Asian communities appear to have impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After 2011, the most nuanced insights into the roots of unrest came not from the ministers or academics, but from the filmmakers behind <a href=\"https:\/\/player.bfi.org.uk\/rentals\/film\/watch-the-hard-stop-2016-online\"><em>The Hard Stop<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cinemapolitica.org\/film\/riots-reframed\/\"><em>Riots Reframed<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensocietyfoundations.org\/voices\/riot-wrong-youth-media-and-violence\"><em>Riot from Wrong<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2021\/aug\/06\/the-uk-riots-10-years-on-young-people-were-watching-their-futures-disappear-before-their-eyes\">artists<\/a>, playwrights, grime and hip-hop artists such as Lowkey and Wretch 32, and black <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ica.art\/exhibitions\/war-inna-babylon\">community organisations<\/a>\u2019 artistic and political responses. This time around, we must listen carefully to what is yet to emerge, from every social quarter \u2013 and challenge misleading narratives before they embed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the 2011 riots, the Conservative government used misleading narratives to embed its own agenda. We can\u2019t let Labour do the same now, argue Suzanne Hyde and Chloe Peacock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":43644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2587,315,2538,244],"tags":[2930,2929],"class_list":["post-43641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authoritarianism-far-right","category-labour-party","category-policing","category-race-racism","tag-chloe-peacock","tag-suzanne-hyde"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rewriting the riots, from 2011 to today - Red Pepper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Conservative government rewrote the narratives of the 2011 riots to embed its own agenda. We can\u2019t let Labour do the same now\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rewriting the riots, from 2011 to today - Red Pepper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Conservative government rewrote the narratives of the 2011 riots to embed its own agenda. We can\u2019t let Labour do the same now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Pepper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-08-23T12:47:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-23T13:47:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Southport-Riot-2024.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Siobhan McGuirk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siobhan McGuirk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Siobhan McGuirk\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c\"},\"headline\":\"Rewriting the riots, from 2011 to today\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-23T12:47:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-23T13:47:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/\"},\"wordCount\":1361,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Southport-Riot-2024.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Chloe Peacock\",\"Suzanne Hyde\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Authoritarianism and the Far Right\",\"Labour Party\",\"Policing\",\"Race and racism\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/\",\"name\":\"Rewriting the riots, from 2011 to today - Red Pepper\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Southport-Riot-2024.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-23T12:47:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-23T13:47:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c\"},\"description\":\"The Conservative government rewrote the narratives of the 2011 riots to embed its own agenda. We can\u2019t let Labour do the same now\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Southport-Riot-2024.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Southport-Riot-2024.jpeg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"Crowds film and livestream a police van on fire in Southport during the 2024 riots CREDIT: STREETMIC LIVE STREAM\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Justice\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Policing\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Rewriting the riots, from 2011 to today\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/\",\"name\":\"Red Pepper\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c\",\"name\":\"Siobhan McGuirk\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rewriting the riots, from 2011 to today - Red Pepper","description":"The Conservative government rewrote the narratives of the 2011 riots to embed its own agenda. We can\u2019t let Labour do the same now","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rewriting the riots, from 2011 to today - Red Pepper","og_description":"The Conservative government rewrote the narratives of the 2011 riots to embed its own agenda. We can\u2019t let Labour do the same now","og_url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/","og_site_name":"Red Pepper","article_published_time":"2024-08-23T12:47:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-08-23T13:47:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Southport-Riot-2024.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Siobhan McGuirk","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Siobhan McGuirk","Estimated reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/"},"author":{"name":"Siobhan McGuirk","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c"},"headline":"Rewriting the riots, from 2011 to today","datePublished":"2024-08-23T12:47:14+00:00","dateModified":"2024-08-23T13:47:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/"},"wordCount":1361,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Southport-Riot-2024.jpeg","keywords":["Chloe Peacock","Suzanne Hyde"],"articleSection":["Authoritarianism and the Far Right","Labour Party","Policing","Race and racism"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/","url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/","name":"Rewriting the riots, from 2011 to today - Red Pepper","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Southport-Riot-2024.jpeg","datePublished":"2024-08-23T12:47:14+00:00","dateModified":"2024-08-23T13:47:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c"},"description":"The Conservative government rewrote the narratives of the 2011 riots to embed its own agenda. We can\u2019t let Labour do the same now","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Southport-Riot-2024.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Southport-Riot-2024.jpeg","width":1200,"height":600,"caption":"Crowds film and livestream a police van on fire in Southport during the 2024 riots CREDIT: STREETMIC LIVE STREAM"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/rewriting-the-riots-from-2011-to-today\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Justice","item":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Policing","item":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/law-police-justice\/policing\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Rewriting the riots, from 2011 to today"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/","name":"Red Pepper","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c","name":"Siobhan McGuirk"}]}},"type_of_article":[{"ID":35474,"post_title":"Feature","post_content":"","post_excerpt":"","post_author":"50","post_date":"2023-09-14 20:08:05","post_date_gmt":"2023-09-14 19:08:05","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"feature","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2023-09-14 20:08:05","post_modified_gmt":"2023-09-14 19:08:05","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?post_type=type_of_article&#038;p=35474","menu_order":0,"post_type":"type_of_article","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","comments":false,"id":35474}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43641"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43645,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43641\/revisions\/43645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}