Hart Van Denburg“These riots were not about poverty” — Prime Minister David Cameron.
Unequivocal statements like Cameron’s implore journalists to dig deeper.
It is striking when you look at the data to see the poverty rate of the neighborhoods in the UK where people were arrested for looting and riot-related activities.
The Guardian found:
• The majority of areas where suspects live are deprived – and 66% of them got poorer between 2007 and 2010, when the last survey was published
• 41% of suspects live in the 10% most deprived places in England
Poverty and riots are complex matters that shouldn’t be viewed through the lens of a data map alone. But interacting with the Guardian‘s data map here provides another opportunity to think deeply about what unfolded on the other side of the Atlantic last week.
