Rioting in London Spreads on Second Night of Violence

By Damian Robin
August 8, 2011

Protest over shooting death by police last week degenerated into night of rampage.

For a second night running, north London was on fire in a rampage of looting and arson by youth who were largely venting anger against London’s Metropolitan Police. The violence was sparked by the fatal police shooting on Aug. 4, of Tottenham resident Mark Duggan.

The riots started Saturday night in the neighborhood of Tottenham, and by Sunday the damage to shops and attacks to police property spread to nine other neighborhoods, mostly in north London. Extra police were deployed across the city in an attempt to quell the escalating violence.

Duggan was killed after police pulled over his minicab intending to make a preplanned arrest. An exchange of gunfire ensued, during which Duggan was killed and one police officer received a bullet in his radio, which likely saved his life.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating Duggan’s death.

"Fatal shootings by the police are extremely rare and understandably raise significant community concerns,” said IPCC Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne in a statement the day after the shooting.

Residents in Tottenham, and now nine nearby communities, are angry over what they called police inaction over the killing of the 29-year-old black man.

The Met Police was criticized for its poor handling of the situation after Saturday night’s riots in Tottenham. Over 50 people were arrested in connection with the incident, and about two dozen police officers were injured, reported the Met police.

On Saturday night, protesters began marching from Broadwater Farm—the site of deadly race riots in 1984—to Tottenham Police Station on High Road. By about 8 p.m., local time, two empty police cars were set on fire 200 yards from the station. Rioting escalated into firebombs and bricks being thrown at police and buildings. A supermarket and a carpet store were also set ablaze, forcing the families who lived above the shops to flee their homes in nightclothes.

In a nearby retail park near Tottenham Hale subway station, crowds smashed shop windows. Witnesses reported that people pulled up cars and shopping carts to the vandalized shops, filling them with stolen goods.

On Sunday, a sporting goods store, a McDonald’s, and a bike shop were smashed in Brixton and in Leyton, according to the Londoner.

Member of Parliament for Tottenham, David Lammy, a native of the neighborhood, went to the High Road area on Sunday morning. In an interview with BBC News, he questioned why police had not stopped early skirmishes and mentioned that people from outside the area had joined, which escalated the violence. He also talked about the “ordinary people” who had been left homeless; the shopkeepers who lived above their burned out shops.

Answering the criticism, Met Police Commander Adrian Hanstock said the police were taken off guard by the incident Saturday night.

“There was no indication that the protest would deteriorate into the levels of criminal and violent disorder that we saw. We believe that certain elements, who were not involved with the vigil, took the opportunity to commit disorder,” he said.

The British Home Office also condemned the violence. “Such disregard for public safety and property will not be tolerated, and the Metropolitan Police have my full support in restoring order.”

Tottenham has the highest unemployment rate in London and is often a flash point for gang violence in crime. It also has a history of racial tensions, particularly between police and the sizable African-Caribbean community.

In 1984, one police officer was killed and two others were shot in the Broadwater Farm riots. Police were criticized at the time for being heavy-hand deploying 500 officers in riot gear who used tear gas on the crowds.

The fighting began after a black woman died of a heart a heart attack when police raided her home. This was during a time of high tension between the mostly black community and the 90 percent white local police force.

Brixton District in south London where rioting also spread to on Sunday night is no stranger to riots either. The multiethnic community with a strong African and Caribbean community saw major riots in 1985 and 1981. The latter riot was incited in similar circumstance to this one when the police shot Dorothy ‘Cherry’ Groce a local black woman.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/rioting-in-london-spreads-on-second-night-of-violence-60085.html.