SCUM

SCUM: (noun) "extaneous matter or impurities risen to or formed on the surface of a liquid often as a foul filmy covering"

SCUM: (adjective, urban dictionary) "possibly the worst word you can have your name associated with.  It is hard to define the word, but it is basically used to describe someone so disgraceful that they are seen as the lowest form of life.  "Worthlessness", "waste of skin", "dirt". Nothing.  Far worse than most other insults, where the victim is often just referred to as genitalia.

I have literally lost count of the number of times I have seen people I like and respect calling the looters SCUM over the last few days.  Since Monday, I have also seen huge numbers of people wanting to bring in the army on our streets for the first time in 100 years.  I've seen people calling to take away all benefits of all the looters (yeah: more poverty: whatever the complex causes that is bound to help. Further, as a retrospective measure it would have zero deterrence effect.)  Apparently 90% of those surveyed are behind calls for the use of water cannon (which can blind) and plastic bullets (that can and do kill).  Cameron indeed confirmed both could be used this morning and said he would "ignore phoney concerns about human rights".  I saw a trainee barrister saying "fuk their rights... the hospitals would have been full if I'd been in charge".  I've seen calls for soldiers to shoot people on sight, without trial.  I even actually last night saw a call from a young educated professional to "castrate looters and bring in adult euthanasia".

Watercannon at work: Stuttgart Railway Station Protests 2010

How little does it take - just four miserable days of arson and looting (in limited urban centres, directed almost exclusively at shops, not homes) in a still broadly stable, wealthy, developed country - for educated people to be calling for the use of State violence, for the suspense of the rule of law and for extra-judicial killing?  Is this the Lord of the Flies? Did William Golding actually have British society pegged so correctly?  How quickly would we be leaving in a truly authoritarian State if things were really bad? Look at history and suddenly understand how rapidily countries can descend into extremism.

I wish I could attribute the original tweeter, but what amazing words:

"Norway loses 92 children and suggests more democracy; we lose 12 JD sports and some Nandos and demand the army and rubber bullets".  

Thanks to our Prime Minister ("Hug a Hoodie Dave") there's a good chance we'll be getting the latter fulfilled, should the looting continue.  I also note the fact that the presence of a large number of Police, using traditional British policing methods, did prevent trouble in London last night without recourse to these vicious methods of dealing with people.


We have all been angry, upset, confused, perhaps terrified for our loved ones and property the last few days.  I get that, I share that.  I went to bed on Monday feeling physically sick: I've friends all over London.  But I utterly disagree with escalating the violence and using State brutality to restore "law and order".  I also totally refuse to take away someone's entire humanity because of their criminal actions and reduce them to SCUM.

For the love of God, the looters out across Britain the last four nights were criminals.  They were dangerous criminals, thoughtless criminals, reckless criminals, some maybe even murderous criminals.  They are young people taking terrible choices, the consequences of which we all hope they will face.  Deal with them according to the law as civilised societies do; don't lower yourself by adding to the existing violence by calling for our Police to become the killers and blinders of people, and by expressing your fear with the violent language of pure hate.

(While I'm on it, fellow lefties, Tories are not SCUM.  I might utterly disagree with their policies and dislike some of the personalities, but they are not SCUM.  Mrs Thatcher is not SCUM.  The Police are not SCUM, nor are they "PIGS".  Tony Blair is not SCUM whatever the debatable legality of his actions taking this country to war.)

Please think about your words and what they mean.  They can be violent, they can create a reality.  Do not diminish your own humanity by seeking to take away other people's.  Think also of what you are so casually and glibly calling for.  Think about what type of a country we want in the light of these events.  An educated person, not even directly affected, who from his armchair actually proposes genital mutilation and/or death for someone stealing a plasma screen, or even for setting fire to a building is, to me, every bit as ugly and repulsive as the people holding our country in fear the last couple of nights.

Hold up a mirror when you say "shoot young people on sight without a trial: the SCUM" and just look at what *you* are in danger of becoming.



Update: the complex debate about the various causes of the looting continues.  In the meantime this little clip from the BBC website on 3 November 2011 is just so interesting and depressing in a much wider societal sense.