"PURE thuggery." That’s how the activities of those rioting in Ballymena, Larne and Portadown last week have been described. I beg to differ.
While the many incidents certainly contain thuggery, it’s not pure thuggery . There are other elements.
One is poverty. The people engaged in violence are working-class, operating out of working-class estates. I’d bet the farm on the fact that the Ballymena riots involved no doctors, no lawyers, no architects, no accountants. Ordinary people.
The elements were another element playing a part in events. While it’s not strictly a question of rain stopped play, a balmy summer’s evening can make rioting attractive, while rain (and water-cannons) dampen the fervour for attacking the PSNI and any others standing in your way.
Then there was boredom – never underestimate the attraction of violence for someone who's on the dole or in a tedious and repetitive job. Firing missiles and being among your mates, faced with the danger and thrill of violent action – short of drug-taking, few things are as absorbing or as dangerous as several hours of creating mayhem.
And then there’s the Other. Ballymena has a sizeable proportion of the Other. Once upon a time in Harryville, the Other was the Catholics, especially those who wanted to attend Mass in Harryville. That battle has been fought and won: there are few Catholics and no chapel in Harryville these days.
Stupidity is another defining feature of the mob. Because the reporting on the boys charged with rape invariably contained the fact that they had to have a Romanian-speaking translator to hear the charges. It was a straight giveaway: these people charged with rape are Romanian. That provided the white population with the excuse for seeing ALL of the ranks of the Other as filled with rapists. Young, appearing in large numbers, talking a foreign tongue. In short, a target was set up for the rioters – Romanians. The Other.
Let’s look at how some of these elements worked.
At the heart of the conflict was messaging. Thanks to smart phones, stupid people were able to spread their illogical, vicious views about ‘foreigners’ coming in and putting the settled community at risk. If, as is the case normally, the alleged racist had had a white face, only someone crazy with hatred would have urged rioters to attack white youths in general – you can see they’re all dangerous, since this one has been charged.
As for Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, yes, you’re right – he wasn’t the only one to point to Larne Leisure Centre as the place where a number of beleaguered families had sought refuge. But his voice, as a leading DUP politician, certainly amplified the message, and it would take some pretty convoluted thinking to see Mr Lyons as having done other than make a bad situation worse.
We all fear change. But is anyone seriously saying that Ballymena or Larne are such perfect localities that the addition of foreign nationals to the mix will be a stain that can only be mopped clean by thuggish violence?
Face it: last week we watched racism unchained. That happens when people who are at the bottom of the heap find a group that can make them feel superior.
