Why the Duggan outcome is about more than race

Imagine you are a youth, born into a community where unemployment is high, wages low, and housing conditions almost mimic those of a developing country. Where public services are stretched to the limit, and facilities scarce. A community on the periphery, where the majority cannot or do not vote, and ways of alleviating the monotonous struggle are becoming less and less attainable. For some, there is no need to imagine – as this is the state of the UK today in many areas.

But anyone can strive to do better, the government say: work hard, and you will see the results. Regardless of colour, age, gender, or background, we can all be successful and see the fruits of our labour. And if you don’t succeed, it is not down to any external factors (such as our fractured society, the class system or distribution of wealth) but instead to folly, laziness and contempt – failure, under capitalism’s terms, lies directly at the feet of the individual. And that is what was conveyed to Mark Duggan’s family after an inquest found him to have been lawfully killed by the Metropolitan Police.

Although no words as such were likely spoken, the result was instead a symbol of what society now so furiously and relentlessly peddles to the majority of its population to ensure their disenfranchisement. You are responsible for your own choices, with no-one to blame but yourself – and you will pay for these choices. Mark Duggan, like many others who have been targeted by or died in police custody, are caught in a narrative that views them as products of themselves, a threat to society – never society’s victim. Being a thief, drug addict, or gangster, as the Daily Mail liked to portray Duggan, is a lifestyle choice that the police and authorities have to tackle or combat for the safety of others. But who is really being protected, and at whose expense?

The system in Scotland sees our relatively small country now have over 17,000 police officers under the SNP, who conducted over 520,000 stop and searches between April and December last year according to The Observer. Of course the reason given is to prevent crime before it takes place. But should we be buying this simplistic explanation? The courts are backlogged, prisons bursting at the seams, and funding for offender rehabilitation schemes being slashed. There seems to be no sign of this crime wave relenting any time soon – but blaming the individual takes the heat away from the broken system. With inequality and unemployment rising, and living standards dropping, crime will likely only increase, and it is the poor and disadvantaged who will pay the price several times over. For Mark Duggan, it was with his life.

This is about the law becoming a tool for the rich, and a weapon to weaken the poor. The legal system is fast tracking towards ‘guilty until proven innocent’ for the masses – if it even reaches the court system, and ‘innocent despite being proven guilty’ for the elites (the bankers are still being rewarded for the 2008 financial crash). This means that all branches of the law have to operate to reach this one common goal. The police, the courts, the legislature, and the prison system all have to align their communications and actions to ensure that the poor are given less and less access to justice. This, of course, has to be done whilst maintaining that the law still provides justice to all – a self-regulating higher power not dissimilar to the free market (and we know how well that has been manipulated in favour of the elites).

Of course, this makes for a scary outcome for democracy. With no legal protections offered to the majority, a reference to Hitler’s treatment of the Jews would be glib – but there is no doubt that the rule of law is being eroded, leaving many with no protections at all, never mind when faced with the barrel of a police rifle. The lines become blurred, and the slope more slippery particularly for the police who have to reach targets, endure cutbacks, and face increasing hostility – all while officially and simultaneously having to exercise their roles as protectors of the people. Decisions therefore risk being made based on deep rooted stereotypes and prejudices reinforced by the media and government, instead of evidence, cause and reasonable doubt. This is not a condoning of the behaviour of the police – in fact I find it troubling how many have criminal convictions or are facing investigation for police corruption – but this systematic targeting of certain groups in society goes beyond just the police.

Deeper and more meaningful questions have to start being asked about the state of a society that designs its institutions to dictate the difference between poverty and wealth, using then the very same institutions to disproportionately punish the people it so cruelly placed in such positions of poverty when they desperately seek some sort of escape. This isn’t down to the commitment and attributes of personal success, or to the blame of an individual’s actions, but instead down to whether you are born into the wealth and status that the law protects – at all levels. And if you are white that helps too.