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

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Stay safe, badhorsie! Thank you for the reports and links.

Prayers and peace peace peace to all in London.
 
From the Guardian:

1.26pm: A Twitter user who goes by the pseudonym of InspectorWinter, who describes himself as a "law enforcement officer" in his mid 30s, has written up a detailed blog post of his experiences policing the riots in north London last night. Often it's hard to verify these anonymous accounts, but this user's feed has thousands of entries dating back months and appears authoritative.

In a long and thoughtful post he writes of trying to comfort a shop owner whose livelihood has gone up in flames:

I simply do not know what to say to him ... it's genuinely heartbreaking. I do something I find myself doing a lot over the next few hours, telling him I'm sorry and then giving him a manly hug with a pat on the back. Helmet back on and we're off somewhere else.
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He goes on to talk of his frustration at not being able to prevent the lawlessness:

I have never experienced looting of this scale, the wholesale sacking of shops is taking place, we know it is taking place and there is nothing we can do about it, a couple of the more hardcore members of my team want to "blat round and stop it", we're outnumbered, we're encumbered by protective equipment and we're drained. If we go blundering into this kind of situation we'll do more harm than good.
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And he wants to stress that most police officers understand the frustrations of the community over the shooting in Tottenham on Thursday.

The traditional, stereotypical, image of a public order police officer is that of some knuckle dragging man mountain who's main skill in life is being able to knock a door down in one hit. As I survey the people around me, none of them fit that. They're all reasonably intelligent, in the van there have been long discussions on what the cause of this is. We can understand the anger of the community over the shooting of Mark Duggan by armed police, we know that they want answers. But we also know that at times the investigative process is painfully slow, waiting for forensics to come back can take a while, the laborious process of locating witness and then taking statements, tracking down CCTV and seizing copies of it, then reviewing it. All of these things are hard enough for us, let alone the IPCC, and I have very little idea of the size of their investigative teams, but I can't imagine they are that large.
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much, much more - Guardian live coverage continues at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/london-riots-tottenham-duggan-blog

Independent Police Complaints Commission (Wiki)
 
London on Fire: Video of Tottenham anti-police riots, bus blaze (Yesterday 8-7-2011)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7H02HSip_c"]‪London on Fire: Video of Tottenham anti-police riots, bus blaze‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]
 
4.45pm: Dave Hill is on Narrow Way in Hackney, where something seems to be underway.

He says:

All kinds of chaos and lots of police. It's difficult to see what's happening, but there are a lot of police vans and a lot of police and a lot of people being stopped and a few arrests."

There's also some kind of standoff with cops, but there's been no trashing of shops as far as he can see.
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Jess Brammar, an ITV news producer, is also in Hackney where she can see rocks being thrown at police and youths jumping on a police car.

She's just tweeted this:

Cop car bring smashed with sticks, rocks, glass flying
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4.31pm: Colin Blackstock, who's on a bus, has reported a crowd throwing stones at a police van in Hackney

more at Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/london-riots-tottenham-duggan-blog
 
I see #londonriots has been taken down as, evidently, police look to see just when it was that Twitter caused the riots.
 
Via Twitter, huge upset in #Hackney, running street battles, etc.
 
The big reason the rioters appear to be running unchecked: cuts to the Met, lowering the standards of protection. Like to hear where EU puts that on its basic human rights list, the right of protection for the elderly and for the very young - and, well, for everyone.

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The sus law is back; this will only stoke anger and heighten fear:

Our correspondent Vikram Dodd reports that Scotland Yard has introduced special powers in four areas, allowing officers to stop and search suspects without reasonable suspicion. The powers are contained in section 60 of the Public Order Act. The areas are Lambeth, Haringey, Enfield and Waltham Forest. The section 60 powers were invoked around midnight on Sunday following a second night of serious disorder to hit London.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/london-riots-tottenham-duggan-blog
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Mr Clegg has been on a two-week family holiday in Spain and the south of France while Mr Cameron holidays in Tuscany and Mr Osborne in the US, where he has been seen enjoying roller-coaster rides.
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Every now and then the Mail edges toward human reason.

http://bit.ly/qLpuR5
 
5.55pm: Our reporter in Hackney, Mark Brown, says the disturbances appear to be fizzling out for the time being. There are sporadic outbreaks of stone-throwing, and the situation remains volatile, but police are now allowing traffic down Mare Street.

Meanwhile police have been dealing with disturbances in Lewisham. ITV London reporter Charlene White has posted this picture of police lines on Lewisham high street.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/london-riots-tottenham-duggan-blog
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And on it goes, to Lewisham.
 
Guardian, ten minutes ago:

6.30pm: There are developments in a number of areas around London at the moment. Two Guardian reporters have been in touch with news of a large disturbance in Peckham, south-east London. Police are blocking the main street in the area. Adam Vaughan says there are about 50 young men, some in ski masks and balaclavas on Rye Lane.

James Walsh is hearing reports of shops shutting down across the city, including those around the Angel, Islington, as well as Stoke Newington, Wood Green, and Lewisham.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/london-riots-tottenham-duggan-blog
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much more at Guardian link above
 
Peckham's burning.

Also, leaflet found telling rioters how to avoid arrest (same Guardian link above).

Sample tweets:

As @fleurdci says: 'You can't take away people's infrastructure and just f/// off to Tuscany.' #Peckham #londonriots #commodifyeverything

Do I stay or do I go? #Camberwell: riot police. #Peckham: aflame. Less than half a mile. My fear being that I live above commercial property

Sample twitpic.
 
8.02pm: Peter Walker in Catford:

Big crowd of few hundred youths here (Catford is about a mile or so from Lewisham centre) now. Police in riot gear, lots of taunts and scuffles.
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7.51pm: Helicopter pictures now showing clashes between police and protesters in Hackney. Police and rioters can be seen lining up at opposite ends of a wide street in Hackney, with the occasional missile being thrown. Police edging forward slowly. Hard to know where to report on at the moment.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/08/london-riots-third-night-live
 
Sample tweets from #birmingham:

A bit o' bother in Brum now. Doesn't constitute a riot. Yet. #birmingham

#Birmingham @BBCBreaking Riot police have been placed in B'ham. people told to leave the centre. Pubs/clubs

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8.07pm: It appears the violence may now have spread to Birmingham. Martin Wainwright reports"

The first sign of trouble spreading beyond the London area came in Birmingham where up to 200 youths confronted a police cordon in the city centre and shop windows were smashed. Eyewitnesses said that police appeared to have the situation under control and it "does not look like London." An exclusion zone was established up to half a mile round the Bullring shopping centre which closed early.

Youths wearing hoods and scarves gathered after rumours on social network sites and via texts that things were "going to kick off" in the Midlands city Bins were thrown through the windows of Jessops, LA Fitness and a McDonald's but attempts to follow this up by looting as in Tottenham and another parts of the capital were stopped by police.

The West Midlands force said that extra officers had been deployed after Tweets and other internet messages spread messages during the afternoon. A pub landlord stood on guard at his doors during a brief flurry of missile throwing but by 7.30pm the police appeared to be in control of most of the city centre, with the large Pallisades mall by New Street station also closed and cordoned off.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/08/london-riots-third-night-live
 
Scotland Yard has only acting Commissioner and acting deputy as the previous two had to resign in the wake of the phone hacking affair. What a mess, jeez

Boris Johnson is on his way back, where is David Cameron?
 
Remember when you see terraced shops alight, people live above those shops. It is a wonder there are no fatalities
 
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