Badges - Re: London riots
- From: "D. MOORE" <dmortex@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "badges@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <badges@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2011 18:19:29 -0700 (PDT)
Well-written in typical British style, but I get so very tired of newspeople
saying the perp/vic was "gunned down" as if the officer did a drive by on a
random passerby. Of course the Brits are probably still getting used to their
officers being armed. I guess they have always been OK with their thugs being
armed. This has all the markings of some kind of set-up where the poor burn
down their own village and then steal from the very shop-owners who have
invested in their neighborhood. Then later they squawk because there are no
shops in their area and thus no jobs. Keep us advised Gator
________________________________
From: Charles Rahn <c.t.rahn@xxxxxxxx>
To: Badges 1Badge <badges@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, August 7, 2011 11:05 AM
Subject: Badges - London riots
Londoners protesting police shooting set fire to shops, cars
Clashes erupt at Tottenham station, where demonstrators were rallying after the
death of a local man shot by police.
From the Associated Press
10:10 a.m. EDT, August 7, 2011
LONDON— The riot that tore through parts of north London's deprived Tottenham
neighborhood has cast a pall over Britain's capital, echoing an earlier era of
racial unrest, while spreading malaise through a city preparing to host
the Olympic Games.
Eight officers were hospitalized after a peaceful protest against the shooting
death of a young man degenerated into a Saturday night rampage, with rioters
torching a double-decker bus, destroying patrol cars and trashing a shopping
mall.
Looters descended on the area around midnight, setting buildings alight, and
piling stolen goods into cars and shopping carts. Sirens could be heard across
the capital as authorities rushed reinforcements to the scene.
"This is just a glimpse into the abyss," former Metropolitan Police
Commander John O'Connor told Sky News television Sunday. "Someone's pulled the
clock back and you can look and see what's beneath the surface. And what with
the Olympic Games coming up, this doesn't bode very well for London."
As residents of Tottenham and nearby Wood Green picked through the wreckage
Sunday, O'Connor said the disturbance had echoes of Tottenham's 1985 Broadwater
Farm riot, a deadly disturbance that led to the savage stabbing of a police
officer and the wounding of nearly 60 others -- brutally underscoring tensions
between London's police and the capital's black community.
That riot was among one of the most violent in the country's history. It too
was sparked by the death of a local resident after an encounter with the police.
Journalist and Tottenham resident Rizwana Hamid, who covered the 1985 riots,
said Saturday night's violence was reminiscent of the earlier eruption in
Tottenham, an ethnically mixed area which is home to one of London's largest
black communities.
"The climate has changed, but very little of the issues have gone away," she
told the BBC. She cited desperation, poverty and what she said was a lack of
communication from police about the circumstances under which the man --
29-year-old Mark Duggan -- was gunned down.
British media said that an officer involved in the shooting had a bullet lodged
in his radio, suggesting a gunfight, but other details were scarce. Britain's
police watchdog is investigating.
The Metropolitan Police, colloquially known as Scotland Yard, has struggled for
years to cope with a 1999 inquiry into the death of a black British teenager
that concluded that the force was "institutionally racist." In 2003, the Black
Police Association even went as far as to call on ethnic minorities not to join
Scotland Yard, saying discrimination was rife.
Although the force has made strides in its relationships with black
communities, tensions linger.
Saturday's protest set off peacefully from Broadwater Farm, but got ugly as
between 300 and 500 people gathered around Tottenham's police station.
Some protesters filled bottles with gasoline to throw at police lines, others
confronted officers with makeshift weapons -- including baseball bats and bars
-- and attempted to storm the station.
Within hours, police in riot gear and on horseback were clashing with hundreds
of rioters, fires were raging out of control, and looters combed the area. One
video posted to the Guardian newspaper's website showed looting being carried
out at daybreak several hours later, with people even lining up to steal from
one store.
The devastated area smoldered Sunday -- some streets littered with bricks and
lined with overturned scorched trash cans. Two police helicopters hovered over
the burnt-out buildings as residents inspected the damage and firefighters
doused the last of the flames.
Local lawmaker David Lammy, speaking to residents from behind police tape,
angrily denied that the Saturday night riot hinted at a return to the previous
unrest.
"We don't want 25 years of community and trust destroyed because of mindless
nonsense," Lammy said.
He was heckled by a man who yelled: "When are we going get justice? We need
justice, man! Let's talk about justice!"
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