Will this be the day people remember as the point of no return? Will it go down in history like the Notting Hill Riots in 1959, as the day the veneer of social harmony caved in under the pressures of territorial entitlement..?
Probably not. Unfortunately it'll take a lot more than a mini riot on Redchurch Street for the Council, the law enforcers and - least of all - the developers to rethink their one-sided definition of regeneration.
Brick Lane, Broadway Market, Dalston, Hackney, Hoxton, Whitechapel...To so many these are the hot spots, the cool spots, the places to go, move to, be seen in...
...For others these are home. The only home they've ever had. To them, it's become a place which has been invaded by a mass of people - people who either fear them or don't see them.
In reality these places are the sites of a huge conflict - constant friction between cultures, classes and expectations.
You see flashes of it all the time - if you bother to look.
Local Asian kids getting stopped by police on Brick Lane for looking out of place, while the trendies happily buy their drugs just a few metres away, drinking beyond their limit and...pissing on street corners without any restraint, consideration or respect.
Looking at it all objectively it seems that in order for regeneration to take place it needs to be preceeded by degeneration. Bars, clubs, squats, drugs and graffiti making a deprived but otherwise relatively unassuming neighbourhood unbearable for families and unwelcoming to anyone not willing to join the party.
This is where you see the gap between the haves and the have-nots in high definition; where the entitled play while the disenfranchised struggle - and pray.
So is it any surprise that there was a riot on Redchurch Street tonight?
Sadly, no. It's bigger than the people hanging outside the gallery looking at sneaker art; it's bigger than the people gathered peacefully in the mosque opposite; and way bigger than the guy who decided to urinate outside that mosque.
It's regeneration, baby.
This is going to be an eventful summer. No doubt, no doubt, no doubt.
