London Riots: Who Picks up the Bill?

I felt like a ghoul when I stayed up until the early hours of Monday morning watching the live news coverage of the riots in London. It was almost addictive watching it as streams of breaking news rolled slowly along the bottom of the screen to reveal where the violence had spread to. The urge I had to avoid sleep to keep up to date was fueled by the hope that the next update from the terrified and bewildered reporters on the streets would be a positive one - they never were. Monday night produced pictures that will be burned into the memories of millions of people, especially the ones that were there and (more specifically) the ones that have been affected so terribly by the criminality of mindless youths. The harrowing stories that have emerged over the last few days have hit home harder than any of those pictures ever could. They provide a background to the smoldering buildings and ransacked shops and tell of the prevalent fear that London is currently awash with. Those pictures and stories, however, are not able to explain to us how things are going to be fixed. Will insurance policies provide the necessary payouts to get home and shop owners back on their feet? Do the police have a duty to compensate those who have lost so much? Can those people's lives ever be the same again?

Every form of media is currently providing news bulletins and points of view on the riots. From Facebook to the BBC, from experts to victims, there is blanket coverage everywhere you turn. I was listening to the radio yesterday morning and it was mooted by some people discussing what the future holds that the victims might not be able to make a claim on their insurance. I was slightly taken aback by the thought of a shop owner looking at their insurance policy to find out that 'civil unrest/commotion' is not covered. My next thought was that there must be some other way for these people who have lost their livelihoods to be compensated in some way. A simple Google search yielded the result that I was looking for - the Riot (Damages) Act 1886. 

Without boring you (you can do that yourself by searching for it) the basic idea is that the people that have lost their homes or businesses can sue the police for the damage caused by "any persons riotously or tumultuously assembled together". Why the local police forces, especially in this situation of (seemingly uncontrollable) copycat criminality, should have to provide compensation when they have been stretched to their limits it beyond me. We all know as well why they are stretched to their limits and now it seems as though more of their budget it going to have to go towards compensating the victims of the last few days. The legislation may well be dated and has only had very minor amendments in the last hundred years or so but it is enacted law and it's in the statute book - very little can be done about it. The thing is that it probably hasn't even been looked at more than a handful of times (the riots in the 80s being an example) since it's enactment and why would anyone feel the need to put it on the parliamentary agenda? Anyone who thinks they saw this coming has clearly been hit on the head by a flying piece of debris.

It's going to take a long while before everyone that deserves to be compensated receives that money and restitutio in integrum is achieved (if it ever can be). One thing is for sure: the scars from this week will continue to weep for a long time as politicians and the police try to aid the healing process of this septic situation that London (and other cities in England) find themselves in.

Thanks for reading,

Martin