This past week, areas of London experienced riots after a peaceful protest went horribly wrong. The looting and destruction of property lasted four days and even included the murder of a 68-year old retiree who tried to put out a fire but instead was stopped and fatally beaten by a teenager. No businesses were spared from the disaster as Apple stores, hardware stores and even comic shops such as A Place in Space and Manchester’s Forbidden Planet were forced to shutter. While there is truly no way to understand the true motives or reasoning behind the riots, cartoonist David Ziggy Greene does his best to share his thoughts via an op-ed strip.
Greene goes over his experiences post-riot as stores began boarding up or cleaning up even as the children that looted them look on. Drawings related to the cleanup can also be found on artist Tom Humberstone’s blog where he stresses nothing was “simple” or “straightforward” about what went down and that the poor were not exclusive to the destruction. Finally, Sally Jane Thompson drew up some hopeful images both during and after the event.
A week later the recovery process continues and it will continue for weeks and months to come. My best goes out to anyone who was affected by the rioting. All we can hope is that people look at what went down as a deterrent towards future transgressions.
(via Robot 6)
