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INQUIRY DEMAND: Professor Gus John believes his ideas will help the country understand why the riots happened

LEADING ACADEMIC Gus John is urging the Government to consider creating what he’s dubbed, a ‘people’s inquiry’, to uncover the root causes of last week’s rioting.

John, an associate professor of education at the University of London, created the idea for an inquiry after the tragic murder of London teenager Yemurai Kanyangarara, in July.

According to John, this style of inquiry is more capable of finding solutions to the violence that erupted across the country because it would be led by disaffected young people themselves, providing them with the opportunity to dispel myths about the causes of youth crime.

A people’s inquiry would also involve prominent members of the community.

Professor John recently wrote to Home Secretary Theresa May in his capacity as a Government advisor on race and social inclusion, urging her to consider the idea.

“The problem with the current inquiry system is that there are too many meetings or forums where concerned adults are talking about young people, often in an undifferentiated and non-nuanced way, and too few where young people are engaging meaningfully with one another,” he said.

Although the inquiry would have an official base, the idea is for it to travel to towns and cities affected by trouble to hear opinions and gather information. There will also be a confidential help line, in order to encourage as many voices as possible and accommodate anyone with anxieties about being seen as a ‘snitch’.

“I believe that there needs to be an urgent set of interventions on these issues” said John “It seems to me that a people's inquiry with a reach into many communities and a flexibility of approach that allows for these types of conversations, especially among young people themselves, could begin to dispel some myths, remove the mystery about much of what is going down in those communities and come up with a range of short and longer term, community-initiated solutions.”