(KUNA) -- Riots that rocked an area where a local man was shot by police were roundly condemned Sunday as the shocked community surveyed the devastation caused.
Community and politicians were swift to criticize the rioting, looting and arson that swept across Tottenham in north London last night.
The violence came two days after a man named locally as Mark Duggan, 29, was bumped off by police.
After a peaceful protest by community members demanding "justice" for Duggan, the mood turned nasty and buildings and vehicles including a double-decker bus and two police cars were engulfed in flames.
People were left destitute after being forced to flee their burning homes and looters went on the rampage in a retail park near Tottenham Hale Tube station, grabbing whatever they could.
Teenagers and adults were said to have turned up in cars and filled their boots with stolen items, unimpeded by police, while others stuffed shopping trolleys with electronic goods, reports said.
Every single handset was stolen from a mobile phone shop.
Scotland Yard said 26 officers were maimed during the unrest, and 42 people were placed in long-term storage for offences including violent disorder, burglary and theft.
Downing Street called the rioting "utterly unacceptable", while Home Secretary Theresa May said: "Such disregard for public safety and property will not be tolerated." Mayor of London Boris Johnson said he was "appalled at the scenes of violence and destruction".
Local MP David Lammy said the community "had the heart ripped out of it" by "mindless, mindless people", many of whom had come from outside Tottenham to cause trouble.
Speaking from behind the police tape in the main Road today he said: "What happened here on Thursday night raised huge questions and we need answers.
"The response to that is not to loot and rob. There are homeless people standing back there.
"We have officers in hospital, some of whom are seriously injured. It's a disgrace. This must stop." Cries of "the police want to see the place burn" greeted Lammy's speech.
The sense of anger at what the looters had done was clear among the local community today. Police Commander Adrian Hanstock told news hounds at Scotland Yard that there had been "no indication" that violence would flare up.
He said: "Last night's peaceful demonstration was hijacked by a small number of criminal elements, who used that for their own gain.
The looting, the damage, the concern that has been caused to businesses and people who have lost their homes and their livelihoods is absolutely unacceptable." He said that things have changed since the riots at Broadwater Farm in 1985.
"There have been problems in the past, but I wouldn't say there is animosity. We have a vibrant community in Tottenham and we want to enable them to live peacefully.
"We don't accept that there is overwhelming discontent within the community."
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yuuuppp - you know thingys is serious in the UK when their beloved iconic DOUBLE-DECKER BUSES START GETTIN' TORCHED = GET SET ON FIRE.
One British account has it that he was an armed "gangsta" leader who shot an officer from Scotland Yards elite firearms squad CO19 in the side of his chest with a handgun.
#20
Reminds me of Bronze Night in Estonia a few years back.
The violence didn't stop until the second night, when police went in and started cracking skulls.
#21
WAFF > SPENDING CUTS, [Uncaring]POLICE BEHIND UK RIOTS: LCOALS SAY, + pervasive High Unemployment.
"No Jobs, No Prospects, No Anything", + now cuts in Public-Social benefits as coupled wid long-standing civilian allegations of local/area Police seemingly stopping + arresting, etc. anyone widout cause or proper Warrant [Abuse of Police-Govt Authority]???
versus
* CHINESE MIL FORUM POSTER > claimss that many of the Rioters are Caribbean, Mixed-Race = Black-White descendants from former British Colonies, NOT ASIANS OR MUSLIMS???
(KUNA) -- Anti-EU campaigners accused Sunday British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... of showing "contempt" to voters after a Downing Street aide rejected calls for a referendum on British membership.
Writing on behalf of the prime minister, Cameron's political private secretary Laurence Mann said that the previous referendum on Common Market membership in 1975 produced a "very clear result".
And he said that a "simplistic in/out referendum" would offer an artificial choice which did not represent the full range of opinions in the UK and would be "highly unlikely to settle the question of Britannia's membership of the EU at all".
In a letter to Conservative Party member Anita Segar, who had written to Cameron demanding a referendum, Mann said: "The Government believes it much more effective to use the weight of our membership to negotiate and force positive change." And his letter, obtained by the media here also urged her not to lose sight of the EU's "very useful work" on global competitiveness, global warming and global poverty, adding: "These are compelling arguments for why we believe Britannia should be an active member." The anti-EU Independence Party leader here Nigel Farage said that the letter amounted to a "clear snub of the will of the electorate".
"I think we have finally seen the Prime Minister's true colours when it comes to the EU," said Farage.
"He's a fan and despite the weak eurosceptic posturing we have witnessed recently by parts of the Conservative Party, it is clear that Cameron has no intention of letting us have our say on future EU membership.
"The argument that the 1975 referendum delivered a clear mandate for membership is incredibly poor. "Firstly, that was when the British people were asked about the European Economic Community.
Over the last 36 years the EEC has morphed into the EU with its tentacles now reaching far and wide.
"Secondly, anyone under the age of 53 was not able to vote in 1975. By refusing a referendum it shows utter contempt for a massive chunk of the population."
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11135 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Who wouldn't want to back Italian, Spanish, and Greek bonds?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(KUNA) -- Riots that rocked an area where a local man was shot by police were roundly condemned Sunday as the shocked community surveyed the devastation caused.
David Cameron
