Adapted from Reports
It began on Friday, August 4th and by August 12th over a week later, the the violence had mostly abated, and British authorities turned their attention to the nation’s courts.
About 2,000 people had been arrested in connection with the violent riots that consumed London and England’s other major cities for the week. Courts in London, Birmingham and Manchester worked around the clock processing those arrested. Hundreds of extra police, meanwhile, remained on patrol in a bid to prevent the violence from reigniting. That while London’s mayor said that he and the rest of the city want to see “significant sentences” handed out to the guilty.
The death toll from violence had reached five Thursday, when a 68-year-old man found on a London street after clashing with rioters died of his injuries. A 22-year-old man was arrested Friday on suspicion of murder, the AP reported.
First reports we received on BB on Friday warned of the shooting death by police of a local black man, Mark Duggan and next report told us that Chaos gripped Tottenham in north London late Saturday and early Sunday morning after a peaceful demonstration protesting the Thursday shooting.
First reports went like this. “It all began with a peaceful demonstration in front of Tottenham Police Station demanding “justice” for 29-year-old Mark Duggan. It’s unclear exactly what sparked the violence, notes the Washington Post. Some say police hit a female protester, but police insist the chaos began when demonstrators used Molotov cocktails to set two police cars on fire. The Metropolitan Police admitted Sunday that it “had not anticipated” the violence, saying a peaceful vigil was “hijacked by mindless thugs.”
“A community that was already hurting has had its heart ripped out,” said David Lammy, a Tottenham lawmaker. Some area residents were left homeless as their homes in what the Associated Press describes as “one of England’s most deprived areas” burned, and others.
And so it went on for days.
On Monday reports reached us that circulating on Facebook and Twitter, a considerable number of locations were to be affected by the riots that had been going strong in London and already other cities. Gangs were joining up and getting busy.
On Tuesday, the police’s massive show of force in London appears to have mostly prevented a repeat of the violence and looting that ravaged the city ove, but the unrest nonetheless continued in a number of other English cities overnight Tuesday.
The violence was was said to be the worst in Manchester, where “hundreds of youths went on the rampage, leading to running battles with riot police,” Making matters worse for the city was the fact that the violence began only hours after the city’s anti-riot unit was sent to London to help regain control of the capital.
Wednesday: Prime Minister David Cameron who returned after disrupting his holiday promised that police would continue to wage a “fightback” against the rioters behind the looting and arson that has spread throughout England over the past four days. He vowed the next day to continue the police crackdown on the rioters who terrorized Britain for much of the past week, promising that they will be hunted down and punished in the coming days.
Towards the end there were many reports mostly condemning the rioting most not even mentioning how and why it started. Parents were handing over their children and the Prime Minister was meanwhile being blamed for not being proactive enough.
Some persons on talk shows and in reports blamed the Government for lack of awareness and concern of what they termed as inevitable behaviour by suffering neighbourhoods and youths.
An Olympics ”ambassador” was revealed as a riot suspect after her mother reported her to police. Chelsea Ives, 18, a budding athlete and model, allegedly threw bricks at a police car in Enfield on Sunday. She even boasted that she had had ”the best day ever”, it is alleged.
Her mother, Adrienne Ives, said yesterday the decision to report her daughter was ”gut wrenching”, but insisted she only did what any ”honest” parent would do.
However, concerns were that those involved in the riots and looting will get rough justice because of the speed with which they are going through the system. There are also concerns about the ability of an overcrowded prison system to cope with the influx.
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the probation officers’ union NAPO, estimated there would be an extra 1500 cases for the London courts, and 2500 in total across England, based on numbers of suspected looters and rioters identified so far. ”There is real concern as to how they can process this sort of work at a time when resources are incredibly tight,” he said.
Meanwhile, investigators examining the circumstances surrounding the death of the man shot by police, in an incident which acted as a trigger for the first night’s rioting in Tottenham, appealed for witnesses.
Father of four Mark Duggan, 29, died after being shot in the chest last Thursday. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is appealing for witnesses to come forward.
About 10,000 people attended Nottingham’s Caribbean carnival on Sunday, which went ahead with the approval of Nottinghamshire Police and Nottingham City Council despite recent disorder in the city.
Teen charged with murder in London riots — As British leaders across the political spectrum maneuvered for position after last week’s devastating riots, new evidence of the ferocity of the unrest emerged Tuesday as the police charged a 16-year-old boy with murder after the death of a retiree, 68, attacked during the turmoil. The boy’s mother, 31, arrested at the same crime scene, was charged with seeking to pervert the course of justice, according to state prosecutors.
