UK - London's Burning - Tottenham Riots, August 2011

Sunday Mail coverage - explosive, pictorial, but with tabloid blinders on:

Riot blaze: North London in flames as police cars, bus and shops burn over police shooting of 'gangster'

• Twenty-six police officers hurt in clashes, with eight treated in hospital
• Scotland Yard still dealing with 'isolated pockets of crime' this morning
• Tottenham MP David Lammy appeals for calm and warns that there may be fatalities
• Mob of 500 people protest about death of father-of-four Mark Duggan who was shot by officers
• Fears that violence was fanned by Twitter as picture of burning police car was re-tweeted more than 100 times
• One eyewitness reports that trouble was ignited by police hitting a 16-year-old girl with batons
• Twenty-six police officers hurt in clashes, with eight treated in hospital
• Scotland Yard still dealing with 'isolated pockets of crime' this morning
• Tottenham MP David Lammy appeals for calm and warns that there may be fatalities
• Mob of 500 people protest about death of father-of-four Mark Duggan who was shot by officers
• Fears that violence was fanned by Twitter as picture of burning police car was re-tweeted more than 100 times
• One eyewitness reports that trouble was ignited by police hitting a 16-year-old girl with batons
• Shop looted and youths storm McDonald's and start cooking their own food
• Mail on Sunday photographers beaten and mugged by masked thugs
---
The violence last night started soon after a crowd of about 120 had begun to gather at the High Road, near Tottenham Hotspur’s football ground, from about 5.30pm.

One resident, Laurence Bailey, told the Guardian that the violence started after a 16-year-old girl 'threw something, maybe a stone, at the original riot police line'.

He added that this was met with a furious response, with around 15 riot officers pounding her with shields.

This description of events was corroborated by another local who spoke to BBC News. He said that the girl was 'set upon' by police and that the crowd surged forward in anger.
---
much more, including Sunday Mail's world class pictures, at link above
 
Riot-wise, it sounds like police sparked the damned thing by their 15-versus-1 setting-upon a 16-year-old girl.

After shooting to death the so-called "gangster," of course.
 
I am sorry - appalled, actually - that this is happening.

The morning will bring it's own sort of volitility with the markets and pressure and stress in the financial markets; with a populace already up and angry, I don't know if this will cool down...

Having lived through several riots in Los Angeles, it's scary...and it's weird. I don't know a better word for it; it's just weird to see the city you live in burning, people on the streets throwing rocks, bottles, and other, more deadly things. It creates a disjointed sort of perception, and you, as you watch, are suddenly unsure of everything and everybody...

I really am sorry this is happening.

Best-
Herding Cats
 
6.52pm: London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, has been coming under pressure to end his holiday and return to London.

However, he told BBC news in a phone interview in the past hour: "I am not going to come back at the moment because I have complete confidence n the police and I think that they are doing a very very good job."
And David Cameron's in France with his wife and his tennis tutor.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-police-duggan-live
 
According to many tweets (#enfieldtown) another riot may have broken out:

http://twitter.com/search?q=#enfieldtown


A110 Church Street / The Town Enfield Town, both ways between Chase Side and Willow Road
A110 Greater London - A110 Church Street / The Town in Enfield Town closed in both directions between the Chase Side junction and the Willow Road junction, because of civil disturbance.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/londonnorth/

7.02pm: There are reports coming in of disturbances in Enfield.

Tarah Welsh, a BBC reporter visiting her family in London, has been tweeting she has seen a number of people throwing concrete slabs through shop windows. She tweets:

I can see 15 riot vans so far, police have cordoned off high rd, most residents stuck in homes.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-police-duggan-live
 
This isn't going to set well.....

7.35pm: Initial ballistics tests on the bullet that lodged in a police officer's radio when Mark Duggan died on Thursday night show it was a police issue bullet, the Guardian understands. The Guardian's crime correspondent, Sandra Laville, reports:

The revelation will fuel the fury in tottenham about the killing of Mark Duggan by armed officers. It also undermines suggestions that there was an exchange of fire between Duggan and the police before he died.
The bullet which was found lodged in the radio of one of the officers at the scene is still undergoing forensic tests. But reliable sources have said the first ballistics examinations suggested it was a police issue bullet.

These are very distinct as the Metropolitan Police uses dum dum type hollowed out bullets designed not to pass through an object.

The early suggestion from the IPCC was that the Met officers had returned fire after someone in the minicab opened fire. But the result of the ballistics early test suggests both shots fired came from the police.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-police-duggan-live
 
I hate when horses are used. I feel bad for the horses.

Best-
Herding Cats
 
Tottenham Labour MP David Lammy writes about the 1985 Broadwater Farm riot when he was 15, and yesterday's events:

---
Beyond all this, though, there is something else we must confront. These disturbances did not take place in Kensington or Richmond, wealthy parts of London. They ignited in one of the poorest parts of the country, just as they did in Brixton and Tottenham more than two decades ago. Then, Tottenham was scarred by poverty, with unemployment levels topping 20%. Hundreds of my contemporaries grew up without without work, without prospects and without hope.

Before this violence Tottenham was a more hopeful place than it was in 1985. Yet in the week that government ministers are warning of a return to recession, there are some echoes of the 1980s. Tottenham already has the highest unemployment rate in London. People were suffering long before this riot.
---

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riot-broadwater-farm

Well worth a read.
 
Latest, from Guardian:

9.14pm: The Guardian's Paul Lewis has filed this from the scene of another outbreak of disorder in Enfield:

Around 100 mainly teenagers were stood by the station, which was being guarded by riot police. In unison they all started moving, toward Church Street.

There must have been more than 20 who smashed a jewellery store and entered. They scarpered less than a minute later, when riot police charged in. There were chaotic scenes as the crowd was charged by police striking with batons. Around 20 dog handlers were on the scene. "Get back. You'll get bitten. Get back." In the milieu I saw bystanders get hit.

Five minutes later a betting shop and pharmacy further down the road were smashed. Police horses are now in the town centre, which has a heavy police presence. In contrast to last night in Tottenham, where I saw police completely lose control, here the shere number of officers mean they are responding quicker to the violence. But the young people - mostly men - are just melting into sidestreets and then reappearing.

I've seen the first real heartfelt opposition to the disturbances too: a woman, aged about 20, in tears shouting: "What are you doing? Is this how you pay your respects to Mark? Is this what he would have wanted."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-police-duggan-live
 
Sample tweets:

Now the helicopters are hovering over my roof. what has the drug store in #Enfield got to do with the shooting in #tottenham.

More unrest in London as thugs riot. If it was happening in Syria though, the 'thugs' would be called 'Revolutionaries'. #tottenham #enfield
 

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