What began as resentment against the police killing of Mark Duggan during his apprehension was quickly hijacked by violent perpetrators with a preference for arson rather than peaceful demonstrations. The turmoil escalated since opportunists saw their chance to loot retail stores and take advantage of the general anarchy. Thousands of police officers have been committed to the streets of London and other cities throughout Britain in order to restore law and order. Despite their efforts the looting continues in for example some suburban areas in London and it has therefore triggered the inhabitants in some local communities to take action. Armed and ready, they have formed up groups aiming at protecting retail stores, homes and places of worship from the looters. Some consider them to be righteous protectors of life and property, auxiliaries and complement for the police force. Others see them as vigilante groups unrightfully taking the law into their own hands, sometimes under the influence of alcoholic beverages.
The existence of local militias seem to suggest a lack of trust in the police force, very much the same distrust and alienation that gave some of the arsonists and looters mandate to break the law during the general anarchy. Such distrust could very well indicate that the British state in some regard has failed to uphold its contractual obligation to its citizens. The ideas of the English 17thcentury political philosopher Thomas Hobbes have suddenly an eerie relevance to today’s situation. With the English civil war on his mind, Hobbes described the non-existence of a state as the perfect breeding ground for “the war of all against all” (bellum omnium contra omnes). In order to avoid this he propagated for states that could protect its subjects from one another and external dangers in exchange for monopolization of violence. This was to be formalized in a so called social contract and the state’s failing to uphold this agreement would give the people the right to reclaim violence as a mean to defend themselves. The recent consideration that the British state has failed to defend its citizens in some areas in British cities seem to spark such a reclaiming of violence, very much like the remilitarization of daily life in Western Europe during the collapse of the Roman Empire and its protective measures.
The formation of local militias also seems to suggest a lack of trust in British authorities, something that surely needs to be addressed once the turmoil has settled. The theories of the rise of trust are diverse and range from government institution’s efficiency to the establishing of daily life voluntary associations promoting citizenship and community pride. Whatever theoretical tradition is applicable to the situation in Britain, it seems clear that something needs to be done in order to re-establish British society’s trust in legal institutions, hope for the future and respect for life and property of other people. Otherwise, the words of French author Jules Verne will seem very hollow nowadays when he described the typical Englishman as reverent before the sanctity of law in “Around the World in Eighty Days”.
Daniel Nykvist
