Tweet Me Right

In typical knee-jerk fashion yesterday, David Cameron made the suggestion that BBM (Blackberry Messenger) and 'other social media' could, in future, be turned off in the event that services were being used to harm. Twitter is my drug of choice and I have given much thought to its role (and the role of similar instant messaging services) in the riots.

I acknowledge the role that it played in escalating the violence and focusing trouble. Throughout Tuesday there were mad rumours circulating. Some people claimed things were happening when they weren't and others said there was trouble in places where there was none. Social media undoubtedly made it easier for people who were up for it to know where to go thereby swelling the numbers of rioters, and social media also allowed the criminal element to communicate and organise. If Twitter, BBM and Facebook hadn't existed, would the riots have happened? Surely the answer is yes. Riots happened in the past, long before the invention of mobile phones, never mind internet and social media. If social media had not been available, the rioters would still have communicated, but it would have been word of mouth and by telephone, text message or email.

Furthermore, if it's important to recognise the role of social media in instigating and escalating the riots, it is also important to recognise the positive role it has played. For me, Twitter was something of a double-edged sword. On one hand it allowed me to keep up to date with what was going on but on the other hand knowing what was going on was frightening. I have wondered several times if I would have been better off without Twitter that night; if I hadn't seen the news and didn't monitor Twitter I would probably have been completely unaware of the scale of the violence. I follow a lot of local journalists and broadcasters on Twitter so I was getting a lot of updates and while the flow of information reassured me, it also worried me. On balance, however, I would much rather have information and be able to make a choice, than be cut off. In all likelihood, on Tuesday night, even without Twitter to keep me informed, I would still have been aware of what was going on and I can only imagine how much more terrifying that night would have been without a steady stream of updates.

In addition, we should also recognise how useful social media has been in the aftermath of the riots. The public clean up effort was organised almost entirely on social media. Over the past week, hundreds of people have turned up, broom and bin-bag in hand, to reclaim their media from the hoodlums and show how much they care about their cities. Let's also not forget how social media is now being use to catch the perpetrators. Greater Manchester Police have a constantly updated Flikr stream with photos of people wanted in connection with the riots and have actually been able to catch and charge people because of the information they have published on social media. Even Blackberry Messenger, which is an encrypted service, is considering handing-over details of those that have used the service to incite, organise or boast about rioting and looting. If social media had not been available during the riots, think of the wealth of evidence that would be lost to the police.

I do understand the argument that says shutting down social media would have made the task of containing and policing the situation much easier but it's a mistake to think that should take priority over the good that can come from social media and, I suspect, is a reaction based on a lack of understanding and perhaps even fear of something which is perceived by some as the province of youth. The fact is that millions of people of all ages use social media to communicate, debate and keep in touch. It is a tool and nothing more: A brick can be a lethal weapon but it doesn't stop us from building houses. Let us also be reminded about free speech. I for one do not want to start down the road that allows my government to control what I say, even via one forum. Who's to say that some time in the future a government wouldn't use these powers to stop a legitimate protest, or similar, because they simply didn't like it.

What we need now, instead of rash conclusions is a measured analysis. We need cool heads and clear thought and time to digest what has happened and we need to make sure that the steps we take now move us in the right direction, not towards a future more ominous than the present. If social media poses a problem to policing public order offenses, new tactics and new ideas are required, rather than the technological equivalent of a rubber bullet.

The Riots: A Resident's Perspective

I'm always in a hurry to get home - to see Hubby, to let the dog out, to eat, to sleep, to pee - but on Tuesday evening I came home from work in rather more of a hurry than usual. I had learned via Twitter and a text message from Hubby that it was 'kicking off at the precinct'. As far as I was concerned, the sooner I got home, the better.

Coming off the M602, I could see a mass of people gathered on Cross Lane next to RRG Toyota and my heart jumped into my throat. I have never seen that many people gathered for such a negative reason. Usually when you see a big group of people hanging about it's for a concert or some other similar event. The atmosphere is usually uplifting and positive as those gathered look forward to their dose of excitement or entertainment or pleasure. Coming off the motorway that day was a completely different atmosphere.

I have lived in Salford for almost five years. During that time I have got to know the area and the people really well and have never felt uncomfortable or uneasy walking the streets where I live, even at night on my own. On Tuesday I wasn't even walking; I was in my car and still felt unsettled.

As I turned off Albion Way onto Liverpool Street I locked my car doors and prayed that the lights at Cross Lane, where the crowd was gathered, would be on green. They were. And as I made my way down Liverpool Street towards home, although there were more people than usual milling about, there were thankfully no other signs of trouble. 

Throughout the afternoon and into the evening, we watched the TV news and monitored developments on Twitter. Salford precinct is only about half a mile from our house and there are plenty of shops and off-licences nearer than that, so we were rightly concerned. As matters got more out of hand it was easy to imagine rioters and looters driven away from the precinct by the police, only to spill out into residential streets to regroup. This was a pattern we'd seen in London on Monday night and a pattern which had resulted in homes being ransacked and torched, either deliberately or by accident.

We were prepared for trouble, half expecting a brick come through the window, or to hear our car windows being smashed. I spoke to my Mum, who lives in Scotland and had seen the precinct on the news. I told her we were fine and that the trouble was nowhere near us. I reassured her and made a few jokes even though I felt no reassurance myself; it had occurred to me that if someone decided to torch one or both of our cars we would be trapped, as the fire would block our escape route and would likely spread to the building very quickly. Afterwards I packed a bag with a change of clothes and a few of our most precious possessions that couldn't be replaced, which made me feel a bit better, and when I went to bed, the baseball bat came with me.

As it happens, we saw no trouble on our street at all. There were gangs of young lads moving about for most of the night and we could hear banging and general disturbance in the distance, but the next morning I actually felt a little embarrassed at how alarmed I'd been the night before. I took a quick drive around before I set off for work and saw a lot of damage, but nothing too extreme and the worst of it had already been cleared up.

I look back at it all now and I can be more objective. At the time everything appeared much worse than it actually was, but that's not to play down the seriousness of the situation or how it made me feel. In an article on Salford Online, Rev Hayley Matthews, the Chaplain at MediaCityUK, said this:

"as the drinking (‘free beer!’ (stolen from the aforementioned Bargain Booze)) got underway, cars screeched into the area that clearly were the organised element of the criminal culture... I watched teenagers loot an electrical good sole trader’s shop. Don’t get me wrong when I say this, but if they’d nicked the TVs and laptops I could almost understand it, but they simply brought them outside and smashed them to bits in the street. Young girls on alcopops ‘dared’ each other to go and nick something. Lads tried to break onto Lidl and set fire to it, and mothers sent small children in to fill shopping bags with food and beer because they are too young to be arrested.Suddenly a mass exodus: the precint had been compromised and there were shouts of ‘iPhones! Xboxes! Everything! You can get whatever you want!’ Hoodies went up and scarfs went over faces, in they went and more ‘respectable’ cars started arriving to collect the goods. Youths started arriving with hammers and the women and girls backed off. What appalled me most were the amount of families, and I mean kids in the back seat, involved in all of this. Like some kind of surreal supermarket sweep, winner takes all, what a larrrff! Children hung out of their car windows video-ing it all on their mobiles."


Now, looking back the whole situation makes me angry. I detest how that night made me feel. I resent that these people made me feel unsafe in my own home and that they have had their fun at the expense of my community, particularly as it becomes apparent that the perpetrators were by and large from outside the area. If I'm honest, part of me wants to take the baseball bat and wrap it around a few heads to see if I can knock sense into them. I am furious and I am outraged. I'm also worried because I don't know how to fix this and no-one else seems to know either.

In the short term, charging and prosecuting as many of offenders as possible will help to deter others but it doesn't deal with the underlying problem. These were ordinary people: someone's child, someone's mother or father, someone's brother or sister. They get up each day and carry on as normal, playing with their mates, having a pint in the local pub or going to school or work. What happened to make ordinary folk sink to such detestable behaviour?

If you were able to line up all the rioters across the whole country and ask each of them why they did it, you would get a hundred different excuses. We've all seen the news; we all know what people (rioters, observers, victims, police, Councillors and MPs) are saying and everyone seems to have a different opinion. Everything from bankers to Twitter, from police being too heavy-handed, to police being too soft, from the government cuts, to racism, is being blamed. What that says to me is that this is a riot with no Cause, a view that is further reinforced by the indiscriminate nature of the violence: A small business was just as likely a target as a major chain and a bank was no more likely to be hit than a supermarket or a post office. Businesses, offices, shops and even homes were all fair-game and the police only came under attack when they turned up to disperse the vandals and thieves. There's no ideology here except for a greed for material wealth and a lust for violence.

To my mind, the riots are a symptom of a society too rooted in consumerism, too hung up on ownership and too selfish to appreciate how well-off and lucky we all are. As individuals are charged, we can see few distinct patterns emerging; people who are middle class and relatively well off have been just as involved as council tenants who survive on benefits and the unemployed stand side-by-side with the employed in the dock. It's not about poverty (you cannot make this claim when you're on TV wearing designer gear and carrying a Blackberry and be taken seriously) or cuts. There is a deep seated attitude that has infected some individuals and sections of society. It's an attitude that wants whatever it can get for free and that says it's right if I want to do it and can get away with it and only feels remorse at getting caught. To highlight this, I use the example of the lads Hubby and I caught trying to smash a bus-shelter a couple of weeks ago, long before the riots. He picked up a concrete block and was about to use it on the shelter for no other reason than he felt like it.

We raise our children to think and behave like us, to share our beliefs and ideologies. Society moves and changes incredibly slowly and attempts to deliberately shape it have been known to back fire horribly. So how can we fix it? I don't know. I don't have an answer. And that terrifies me almost as much as the riot itself.

For now, you can make the world a better place by helping to identify those responsible. GMP have photos of their 'most wanted' here. Shop a Moron now!

One Pill. Anything's Possible.

I imagine that most people have a DVD collection similar to mine. It's a right mixture; literally next to each other on the shelf, you will find a critically acclaimed movie, like Million Dollar Baby, beside something fun and frivolous, like Minority Report. One thing is certain, though; whether it's an Oscar winner or a summer blockbuster, every DVD has earned its place on my shelf. Limitless is no different.

Hidden somewhere between stock characters that have been dusted off, given a new set of clothes and a change of name and sent on their merry way, and a camera technique that is all too reminiscent of 2002 David Fincher pic, Panic Room, you will find an entertaining and endearing heart and a premise that is intellectually intriguing. Russian gangsters, the smarmy ex-brother-in-law drug dealer (who steps right out of the 80's complete with sharp suit and minimalist bachelor pad) and the girlfriend may be unconvincing on screen but Bradley Cooper, as the lead, Eddie Morra, is charasmatic and engaging (and easy on the eye!) while Robert De Niro puts in a highly satisfying performance as the enigmatic villain. And while the digitally tinkered-with zooming camera work may be sickeningly familiar, it also serves as a stomach-churning reminder of how unbalanced and unhinged Eddie Morra's life is becoming. However, the most enchanting element of the movie, is the premise itself. The idea that taking a simple pill will allow you to unlock your full potential; that a pill can fix your life, is enchanting and I dare say there isn't a writer alive who wouldn't long for Eddie Morra's miracle drug to help them finish (or even start!) their magnum opus. But, no matter how bewitching the concept might be, there is a moral message to this movie too, and it is delivered gently with a pleasantly light touch; so light that it might be easy to miss.

Morra's use of the drug, NZT, is all too reasonable in the film. Eddie starts using on the basis that it's a one-time thing that can't possibly make his life any worse. It makes him feel good, makes him successful, so he understandably wants more. But then the side-effects start, but too late he finds that he's no longer taking it because he wants to, but because he needs to. It's a fascinating take on drug use in everyday life, whether that's medicinal drugs (I recently went on holiday and left my prescription drugs at home. By the end of the week I was feeling very unwell!) or whether it's tobacco, alcohol, cannabis or something stronger. It teaches us that it's all too easy - a series of small steps - to start down a road that leads to dependency and it can sometimes get you mixed up in things you would normally not get mixed up in.

It's far from perfection, but Limitless is a movie that has a lot going for it. Ultimately, it manages to entertain and provoke me in equal measure. That's why it will find a home in my DVD collection and why I'll also be reading the book, The Dark Fields by Alan Glyn, on which the film is based.

Limitless is released in the UK on DVD and Blu-ray on 1st August