ENGLAND RIOTS III
KyaemonWHEN BRITISH IMPERIALISTS AND JAPANESE FASCISTS RULED OVER SOUTH ASIA, SOUTH EAST ASIA, AND OTHER COUNTRIES THEY DIDN’T GO ROUND SHOUTING FOR HUMAN RIGHTS NOR DEMOCRACY. THEY DENIED THEIR SUBJECTS, THESE RIGHTS. THEY MADE THE SUBJECTS CALL THEM MASTERS OR THAKINS.
UP TO NOW, THEY HAVE NOT APOLOGIZED FOR THEIR OPPRESSIONS NOR HAVE THEY RETURNED THE TREASURES LOOTED FROM THE VICTIMIZED COUNTRIES . IF THEY DID, IT’S VERY RELUCTANTLY.
MOST ASIAN TREASURES CAN BE FOUND IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, INCLUDING SOME OF THOSE FROM BURMA.
THAT IS WHY, PEOPLE ARE WARY OF THEM.
ANYWAY, NOW SOME BRITISH HOOLIGANS ARE LOOTING AND ROBBING THEIR OWN PEOPLE AND DESTROYING PROPERTY. SAD STORY, ALSO.
OUR HEARTS AND PRAYERS GO OUT TO THESE UNFORTUNATE PEOPLE.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/08/london_riots_update.html
Facing unending rioting that has spread to other cities, London deployed 16,000 police in the largest show of force in the city’s history. British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a holiday in Italy to return home to deal with the widening crisis. Army units are standing by to help restore order. To date, 563 people have been arrested, and over 100 police officers injured. Collected here are images of the rioting and efforts to clean up the destruction. — Lane Turner (25 photos total)
British police face public anger as riots rage
The Frame: British police face public anger as riots rage
http://blogs.sacbee.com/photos/2011/08/british-police-face-public-ang.html#more
August 9, 2011
British police face public anger as riots rage
LONDON (AP) — Britain began flooding London’s streets with 16,000 police officers Tuesday, tripling their presence as the nation feared its worst rioting in a generation would stretch into a fourth night. The violence has turned buildings into burnt out carcasses, triggered massive looting and spread to other U.K. cities.
Police said they were working full-tilt, but found themselves under attack — from rioters roaming the streets, from a scared and worried public, and from politicians whose cost-cutting is squeezing police numbers ahead of next year’s Olympic Games.
London’s Metropolitan Police force vowed an unprecedented operation to stop more rioting, flooding the streets Tuesday with 16,000 officers over the next 24 hours, nearly three times Monday’s total. Although the riots started Saturday with a protest over a police shooting, they have morphed into a general lawlessness that police have struggled to halt with ordinary tactics.
The riots and looting caused heartache for Londoners whose businesses and homes were torched or looted, and a crisis for police and politicians already staggering from a spluttering economy and a scandal over illegal phone hacking by a tabloid newspaper that has dragged in senior politicians and police. (30 images)
Riots spread from London to England’s northern, midlands cities
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-08/10/c_131039250.htm
21 comments
aungnng87
August 12, 2011 at 9:51 am
ရိုင်းစိုင်းယုတ်မာတဲ့သူတွေကတော့ ဘယ်နိုင်ငံမှာမဆိုရှိနေတာပါဘဲ။
Kyaemon
August 12, 2011 at 10:02 am
Malaysian Student Robbed & Beaten in London Riots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4D0qgPMXRM&NR=1
Injured Riot Victim Who Got Mugged Is Interviewed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_eeH5Gdsj0
The Malaysian student Asyraf Haziq, who was mugged during the riots by a group of youths who pretended to help him after he suffered a broken jaw, has spoken to the press after leaving hospital.
His mugging in Barking, London during the riots came to world attention after amateur footage caught by an onlooker was posted on YouTube.
Prime Minister David Cameron referred to the event, when he condemned the ‘sickening’ aspects of the riots.
Myittha
August 12, 2011 at 3:33 pm
ခုတော့ ကိုယ့်တိုင်းပြည် လူငယ်တွေကလဲ ဘိန်းတွေစွဲပြီး အကျင့်ပျက် လာတာ၊
ထစ်ခနဲ ဆို လုယက်ဖျက်ဆီး၊ မီးရှို့တတ်လာကြပါပေတယ် မှို့လား။
ဒါလဲ ဝတ်လည်ခြင်း တမျိုးပါဘဲ မှို့လား။
Kyaemon
August 12, 2011 at 11:11 pm
LONDON RIOTS – RIOTERS AMBUSHED THE POLICE IN CLAPTON / HACKNEY – 08/08/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujj_ESlMidc&feature=related
17,440
LONDON RIOTS – POLICE WITH DOGS IN ACTION – 08/08/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axujwcBiRmo&feature=related
LONDON RIOTS – POLICE CLOSING ON RIOTERS IN CLAPTON / HACKNEY – 08/08/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7BxkcL8GlI&NR=1
Kyaemon
August 13, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Police & Rioters Play Cat & Mouse In Manchester
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_vzql9xq8A&feature=related
A POLICE car has been attacked in Enfield Town amid clashes between rioters and police.
The vehicle in Church Street was pelted with bricks, while police have confirmed that two shops were targeted by gangs of people with hoods and scarves covering their face.
Rumours that riots in Tottenham last night were due to spread to Enfield were spread across social networking sites earlier this afternoon, but riot police were lined up outside Enfield Town station carrying out stop-and-searches on those arriving.
Trouble flared at around 6.30pm, before police pushed back the group past the Tesco store in Southbury Road.
MANCHESTER UNREST_Youth In Manchester React To Riots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3bCpiiHqcY&feature=related
Kyaemon
August 14, 2011 at 12:30 am
Birmingham England Riots 2011 – Eye Witness Interview HD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kp2Vk3hupU
An eyewitness account on the first outbreak of riots in Birmingham. 10 Aug 2011. Includes scenes of damage not aired by the BBC.
Interviewer Eisley Constantine.
Kyaemon
August 14, 2011 at 2:33 pm
England riots: coalition row grows over ‘kneejerk’ response
Senior Liberal Democrats attack ‘hasty’ measures as housing charities condemn the threat of eviction
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/13/england-riots-coalition-response
Coalition efforts to present a united front over the riots have come under strain as senior Liberal Democrats call for an end to “kneejerk” reactions by politicians and warn that stripping those involved of their benefits could worsen crime on the streets.
In a clear sign of tensions between the governing parties, the Lib Dems’ deputy leader, Simon Hughes, insists that long-term solutions lie in supporting communities by offering opportunities and redistributing wealth, not slashing help from the state and cutting taxes for the rich.
Writing in the Observer, he says: “We need to demonstrate ambition to have a responsible society where all people understand and are aware of their obligations to each other. This means we must not cut taxes for the rich or take away public support for the needy.”
Referring to plans, backed by many Tories, to cut benefits and evict families of rioters and looters from their homes, Hughes, whose south London constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark has one of the highest concentrations of council homes, adds: “We should be careful not to rush into kneejerk solutions including over-hasty moves to change the social contract and approaches to sentences which may have the reverse effect to that intended.”
As Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg also cautioned against “kneejerk” reactions, Hughes’s comments were backed by the Lib Dems’ welfare spokeswoman, Jenny Willott, who said she was “very worried” about moves to cut benefits for those involved in the riots, when the same punishment would not apply to others who had committed equally serious offences….
Kyaemon
August 15, 2011 at 2:22 pm
English city stages peace rally after deadly riots
English city stages peace rally after deadly riots – Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/english-city-stages-peace-rally-deadly-riots-171158572.html
Muslims Tackle Looters and Bigots
Dr Robert Lambert: Muslims Tackle Looters and Bigots
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-robert-lambert/brave-muslim-neighbours-t_b_926410.html
There is a lively debate taking place in the UK media between left and right wing commentators as to the causes of the English riots in which hundreds of shops and businesses have been looted. However, both sides agree that the looting has been inexcusable. I hope both sides will also agree with me that Muslims have played an important role in helping to tackle the looting and preserve public safety. This would be an especially important acknowledgment if it came from those Islamophobic commentators who consistently denigrate Muslims.
“When accused of terrorism we are Muslims, when killed by looters, we become Asian” a Muslim student explained to me this morning. He was commenting on the media reporting of the death of three young Muslims in Birmingham on Tuesday night. Like many other Muslims they were bravely defending shops and communities as rioters went on a violent rampage of looting.
In recent days Muslim Londoners, Muslim Brummies and Muslims in towns and cities around England have been at the forefront of protecting small businesses and vulnerable communities from looting. Having worked closely with Muslim Londoners first as a police officer and more recently as a researcher for the last ten years this commendable bravery comes as no surprise to me but their example of outstanding civic duty in support of neighbours is worth highlighting – especially when sections of the UK media are so quick to print negative headlines about Muslims on the flimsiest of pretexts.
On Monday evening when London suffered its worst looting in living memory I watched as a well marshaled team of volunteers wearing green fluorescent security vests marked ‘East London Mosque’ took to the streets of Tower Hamlets to help protect shops and communities from gangs of looters. This was the most visible manifestation of their pro-active response to fast moving and well co-ordinated teams of looters. Less visible was the superb work of Muslim youth workers from Islamic Forum Europe who used the same communication tools as the looters to outwit and pre-empt them on the streets.
While senior Westminster politicians started to pack and rush back to London from foreign holidays I watched Lutfur Rahman, the Muslim mayor of Tower Hamlets, offering calm leadership and support in the street as gangs of looters were intercepted and prevented from stealing goods in his presence.
Most important to emphasise is the extent to which everyone in Tower Hamlets was a beneficiary of streetwise, smart Muslims acting swiftly to protect shops, businesses and communities against looters. It is often wrongly alleged that Muslims lack any sense of civic duty towards non-Muslims and especially towards the LGBT community. I wish peddlers of that negative anti-Muslim message had been present to see how all citizens in Tower Hamlets were beneficiaries of Muslim civic spirit and bravery on Monday night….
Kyaemon
August 15, 2011 at 2:36 pm
England riots: Suspects appear in court
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14512478
Riots: Support in Tottenham for barber Aaron Biber, 89
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14508554
12 August 2011 Last updated at 10:32 ET Help
The local community have rallied around an 89-year-old barber in north London whose shop was wrecked by looting.
Aaron Biber, who has been cutting hair at his Tottenham shop for more than 40 years, had his windows smashed and items stolen during the riots.
Supporters of Mr Biber have been using social media to help and have now raised £25,000 to get him get back into business.
Kyaemon
August 15, 2011 at 2:41 pm
London riots: Images have scarred London’s image abroad
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14508559
12 August 2011 Last updated at 14:05
More than 300 tour groups have cancelled planned visits to London this week as a result of the rioting and looting.
Tourism is one of the capital’s most important industries and tourism chiefs said that it was important to tell the world that London was still open for business.
The images of public disorder and London in flames have been broadcast around the world.
Kyaemon
August 16, 2011 at 2:50 am
London riots reduce lies of left to ashes
By Chan Akya
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/MH16Dj06.html
A lazy and semi-educated Chinese man will probably not get married given the country’s ratio of males to females; and even if he did, life would be made hell by the curses of his mother-in-law. A lazy Indian is likely to decline in society to the point where all support systems fail him. leading to an early death or a violent one. There are no lazy Africans because they wouldn’t survive to adulthood.
A lazy European on the other hand, gets to sit at home and watch television while receiving benefits from his government. On his television over the past week, he would have seen unfamiliar scenes – rioting in the streets of London and other major cities across England, where youth apparently much like himself can be seen running from shop to shop grabbing the latest consumer gadgets and other easily sold items. For the average lazy European on government benefits, the pictures may have been amusing and probably even shocking.
August is a time for Europeans to go on holiday, vacating their cities for the influx of Arabs and Asians fleeing the oppressive summers of their geography. This summer, the veterans of the Arab Spring might have brought more than their dollars to London, as events for the past few days showed the scale of ugliness that were seen earlier in the year in Cairo, Tripoli and Manama.
It was delicious irony for various left-leaning, anti-imperialist commentators in the British press to make comparisons between the age of the English empires and the sudden echoes from its former colonies on the streets of its capital.
The scenes may be familiar, but the situation on the ground couldn’t be more different. For what echoed in the streets of London wasn’t the pro-democracy protests of the Arab world, but the portents of the failed welfare state to come. Terms such as disaffected youth, protesters, hooligans all do gross injustice to the description of the phenomenon that actually erupted in London over the past week……….
Asians and other savers watching the process are not fooled as the Europeans may think they are. Riots in Greece exposed the population’s severe opposition to any austerity plans, and guarantee that the road to reform will be paved with Molotov cocktails in that country. Seeing the rioters, German politicians withdrew some of their harshest demands for austerity, subscribing to the French idea that piecemeal achievement was better than none at all.
That particular brand of nonsense has now been exploded in the streets of London. Here in an economy that is outside the euro, and hence free from the structural constraints, are the same rioters with apparently the same complaints against any adjustments to the welfare state (it is another matter that cuts have hardly taken place yet in the UK). The UK is a large enough economy that its totality can be compared to the aggregate reality of the European economy.
That reality isn’t one of whether austerity will succeed or not – it is whether the European welfare state will survive…….
What is needed is the fear that a failure to work hard and so one will lead to social downward mobility. It is the absence of this fear that was most visible in the streets of London last week. Careless violence and dismantling the properties of others will likely visit other European capitals over the next few years as the feral youth of Keynesian benefits enter the economy completely confused about their worth and role.
The Chinese and Indians buying sovereign debt these days do not care for the structural deficits being run by either America or the EU: this is money down the drain, which will never be recovered by revenues unless a miraculous growth trajectory can be found.
For their money, the structural deficit is more galling in Europe than in America simply because of the sheer unfamiliarity the welfare state holds for them. Therefore for Europeans, the choice is clear – cut the welfare state today, or the Chinese and Indians will do it for you tomorrow.
Myittha
August 16, 2011 at 4:04 pm
ကြေးမုံရဲ့အာဘော်ကိုမြန်မာလို အကြမ်းပြန်ဆို၊
“အင်ဂလိပ် နယ်ချဲ့ နဲ့ ဂျပန်ဖက်ဆစ် တို့က အာရှ တောင်ပိုင်း နဲ့ အရှေ့တောင်ပိုင်းရှိ နိုင်ငံများ ကိုလည်းကောင်း၊ အခြားဒေသရှိ နိုင်ငံများကို လည်းကောင်း၊ အုပ်စိုးလွှမ်းမိုးခဲ့စဉ်ခါက ခုလို အနေအထားမျိုး မ ဟုတ် ခဲ့ ပါ။ ဟိုစဉ်ခါ ကထဲက “ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေး” နဲ့”လူမှုအခွင့် အရေး” တို့အတွက် ဆိုပြီး သံကုန်ဟစ်ခါ လိုက်လံ ကြွေးကျော် ဆော်ဩခဲ့ကြတာမှ မဟုတ်တာ။
အုပ်ချုပ်ခံခဲံ့ရတဲံ့ပြည်သူတွေ ကို ဒီအခွင့်အရေးတွေ နဲ့ရပိုင်ခွင့်တွေ လုံးဝ မပေးကြ ပါ၊ ဒိအပြင် သူတို့ကို အရှင် “သခင်” ရယ်လို့ တောင် ခေါ်ခိုင်းသေး တာဘဲ၊ ချိုးနှိမ် ခဲ့ကြ သေးတာဘဲ၊
သူတို့ရဲ့မတရား ဖိနှိပ်ချုပ်ချယ်မှုတွေကို သူတို့က အမြင်မှန်ရပြီး ဝန်ချတောင်းပန်တာမျိုးကို ခုထက်ထိ မှ မရှိသေး တာ၊
လုယက်ခိုးယူသွား တဲ့အဖိုးတန ်ကျောက်မျက်ရတနာ အမွေ အနစ်တွေကိုလဲ ပြန် မပေးကြ သေး၊
ပြန်ပေးရင် တောင် မပေးချင် ပေးချင် နဲ့ တွန့်ဆုတ် တွန့်ဆုတ် နေကြမှာ ပါဘဲ၊
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအပါအဝင် လုယက်ခြင်း ခံခဲ့ရတဲ့နိုင်ငံတို့ရဲ့ ယင်း တန်ဘိုးရှိ ကျောက်မျက် ရတနာ အမွေ အ နစ်တွေကို ဗြိတိသျှ ပြတိုက်ကြီး မှာပင် တွေ့နိင်သေးတာ ဘဲ၊
ဒါကြောင့်မို့ သူတို့နိုင်ငံတွေဆိုရင် သတိဝိရိယ နဲ့ အကဲ ခတ် ချင့်ချိန်နေ ရမှာပါ ဘဲ၊
ဘယ်လိုဘဲဆိုဆို၊ ခုတော့ ဗြိတိသျှ တေလေ ဂျပိုး တွေက ကိုယ့်ပြည်သူပြည်သား အချင်းချင်းထံမှ ခိုးဆိုးလုယက် ဖျက်ဆီးနေကြတာ ပါ၊
ဒီလိုဖြစ်ရပ်မျိုးတွေလဲ ဝမ်းနဲစရာကောင်းတယ်၊
ခံလိုက်ရတဲ့ ဒုက်ခသယ်များ အ တွက် ကို ကိုယ်ချင်းစာနာ ပြီး ဆုတောင်း လျှက် ပါ။
Kyaemon
August 17, 2011 at 1:37 am
Running through riotous London
Monday night in Hackney, where young people who bear the brunt of an austerity crisis took over the streets.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201189161741876869.html
Yesterday, the streets of London were full of the rage of youth.
When I went out to photograph events, the situation was scary and volatile – but I met children who looked out for me, covering my back when I was using my camera, telling me when gangs and thieves were stalking me.
In the Hackney district of the city, the youth were intent on fighting the police. One boy told me that he was sick of being stopped and searched and that this was a settling of scores with the “Feds”, as he called the police.
In 2009, Lord Carlile, reviewing police stop-and-search powers, found that Black and Asian youth in Britain were seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than whites.
Amid the volatile chaos on Monday night, criminal gangs took advantage of the situation. What self-respecting criminal gang would not? I saw a couple of 40-year-old white men heading into the middle of a stand-off between youngsters and police lines, carrying power tools and hammers. A bunch of boys were following, asking each other: “Are they are really going to do so-and-so’s shop?”
Lack of awareness
On Twitter late last night, following the main bulk of the riots, I was astonished at the incomprehension generally expressed as to why they had occurred. There seemed to be an extraordinary lack of awareness that working class youth in Britain are being punished for the financial excesses of the banking collapse.
The public spending cuts this year meant many of the youth summer schemes in London did not run. These riots suggest boredom – and inarticulate rage. The youth are smashing and grabbing the things society tells them to want.
The coalition government’s austerity measures have hit this generation hard. There will be no higher education for those who cannot take on burdensome debt. The chance of ever being able to afford to buy a home in London seems remote – except for those whose wealthier parents can provide the deposit for a home loan.
A generation of young people have been left behind by this coalition’s policies and the policies of previous governments. How can these young people see that they have anything invested in British society that will enable them to become fulfilled and successful adults?
The comments on Twitter and Facebook, following Monday’s riots in London, starkly reflect the class divides within Britain today.
Hitting the streets
After spending much of the day deliberating over whether I should go and see what was happening, on Monday I set off on my bike with a stills camera. I cycled from my apartment in the East London borough of Tower Hamlets across Victoria Park toward the Borough of Hackney, to check out the scene. Would this just be a copycat riot that the police would quickly put down, or was it going to explode into something bigger?
Knowing that the local kids would not appreciate my taking the pictures mid-riot, I planned to get the aftermath shots: upturned, burned-out bins; trashed vehicles; local people wandering through the broken glass…
As I turned onto the main road I saw a red-faced man with a Union Jack flag tattooed on his forehead walking along with two women, drinking cans of beer. One said: “There were loads of masked up Asians swarming outside the Tube station, ready to riot.” This man and women were drunk, seemed furious, spoke racist and walked scared.
Tweets warned cyclists to stay out of Hackney’s London Fields park – on my route to the area where the riot was kicking off. Gangs, they warned, were robbing people and snatching their bikes.
In the past, gangs specialising in robbing bikes had often lain in wait in London Fields, but during the past decade, with the opening of bijou cafés and the weekly farmers’ and arts and crafts markets, Hackney was getting “gentrified”. These bike robberies had become less common. But yesterday, old times had returned.
The rocketing house prices and gentrification in East London have left young people in the area aware that they are unlikely ever to be able to afford to buy a home of their own in the area in which they grew up.
The British coalition government’s introduction of what it laughably calls “affordable rents” means massive increases in rents for social housing, driving people from their homes and traditional areas into who-knows-which wasteland. In Hackney and Tower Hamlets, luxury apartments sit side-by-side with some of the poorest estates in the country. Raising rents to 80 per cent of the “market rent” of the private sector must mean massive increases.
High tensions
Cycling up Morning Lane, I spotted the first burned-out rubbish bin. The road was scattered with rocks, broken bricks and dung from the police horses. The people walking by looked anxious and on edge. As I approached the junction onto Mare Street I saw four mounted policemen, a bus with a smashed windscreen, overturned bins and smashed plate glass splintered across the tarmac. .
The windows of JD Sports – purveyor of fine tracksuits, “hoodies” and trainers – had been smashed and were now guarded by four policemen in full riot gear behind a taped police line. Youths on bikes stood around chatting, resting their feet on upturned litter bins. Many people raised their mobile phones to get a shot of the trashed leisurewear shop.
The police stood there frowning. Two helicopters flew above, circling the area.
I met a friend, whose hobby is alternative internet projects and who works as a doctor, along with another journalist friend. Passers-by told us that there were burning police cars amid the social housing of the nearby “Pembury Estate” and that the roads were cordoned off. We rode on our bikes, seeking a way through the police cordon.
There were lines of police at the bottom of Pembury Road, on the junction with Lower Clapton Road. People leaned anxiously out of Victorian three-storey houses, their homes behind the taped police lines surrounded by police vans.
A young mixed-race girl of about seventeen leaned anxiously out of her front window, biting her lower lip.
In the distance I could see riot police in a stand-off. There was no getting a better shot from this angle.
We rode into the housing estate. Youths ran backwards and forwards excitedly in groups between the ages of 12 and 18, black and white, reflecting the ethnic mix that is East London.
In the distance, the police advanced and the younger boys ran back towards us. An older punky-looking man stood swigging from a large bottle of vodka, watching. A young lad asked: “Did you nick that vodka?” “No,” he replied, winking. “I bought it.” Then they all burst out laughing.
The most vulnerable hit hardest by financial crisis
More kids ran backward and forwards, not safe to get a picture here: we rode a little further north to Hackney Downs road, where police cars had allegedly been burned.
From there, we could see the youth hurling stones and cans. Behind us, more youth stood, poised and tense. The rage was tangible.
I raised my camera to take a long shot of the scene.
A lad came up to me and advised me not to get my camera out and to watch my bike because the gangs were out robbing bikes and cameras. “They’ll smash your camera,” he said. “A guy down there has already had his camera smashed.”
Two police vans drove along the road, riot police emerged and ran towards the stand-off. As I ran forwards to get a shot, cobblestones flew over my head. The youth behind meant business.
As the sun set I left the area, remembering how, on March 1, 2011, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, told members of parliament: “The price of this financial crisis is being borne by people who absolutely did not cause it.” He said then that government spending cuts were the fault of the City and expressed surprise there had not been “more public anger”.
People made unemployed and businesses bankrupted during the crisis had every reason, he said, to be resentful and to voice their protest. He told the MPs’ Treasury Select Committee that the billions spent bailing out the banks and the need for public spending cuts were the fault of the financial services sector.
Asked when living standards enjoyed before the crisis would return, King said: “The research makes it clear that the impact of these crises lasts for many years. It is not like an ordinary recession, where you lose output and get it back quickly. We may not get the lost output back for very many years, if ever.”
The situation is complex, with the cuts, the closure of services and the contempt in society for communities which are regularly referred to as the under-class – whose youth are now expressing their anger.
Pennie Quinton is a freelance journalist based in East London. You can read more of her writings on her website and on her blog.
Kyaemon
August 19, 2011 at 3:50 am
Quadrophenia: back when Britain’s youngsters ran riot
Teenagers take to the streets and Britain erupts in moral panic – why does Franc Roddam’s 1979 cult classic feel so familiar?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/aug/18/reel-history-quadrophenia-riot
Kyaemon
August 19, 2011 at 12:02 pm
These riots reflect a society run on greed and looting
David Cameron has to maintain that the unrest has no cause except criminality – or he and his friends might be held responsible
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/10/riots-reflect-society-run-greed-looting?intcmp=239
Kyaemon
August 20, 2011 at 4:12 am
Nick Clegg unveils ‘riot payback scheme’ – video
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2011/aug/16/nick-clegg-riot-payback-scheme-video?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3486
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg announces an ‘independent communities and victims panel’ to look into causes of last week’s disturbances.
He says rioters would be made work in the communities they had damaged in community payback schemes. Offenders will be forced to face their victims if that is what the victims want.
Clegg also backs Iain Duncan Smith’s decision to consider extending benefit sanctions that could be imposed on people involved in rioting
Kyaemon
August 20, 2011 at 2:51 pm
London Riots: Shop-owners defend their businesses in east London – video
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2011/aug/09/london-riots-london?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3486
John Domokos stands with Turkish shop owners amid disturbances on Kingsland High Street in east London
Kyaemon
August 21, 2011 at 1:10 am
London riots: 450 detectives in hunt for looters
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/london-riots-detectives-police?intcmp=239
Detectives diverted from other inquiries and CCTV images posted online as police tell looters: ‘We will find you’
PICTURES INSIDE
More than 450 detectives have been assigned to hunt for rioters and looters in the biggest criminal investigation ever mounted by the Metropolitan police.
Commander Simon Foy, head of the homicide and serious crime command, who is leading the investigation, said he was considering asking other forces to provide detectives to help as the number of arrests continues to rise.
Foy has taken detectives off all other inquiries to concentrate on finding those who have been rioting. His team is trawling through CCTV images and a most wanted page shows images of scores of young men and women, some with their faces clearly visible, in an attempt to get the public to help identify looters.
In the last three days 525 people have been arrested across the capital. The youngest rioter, police said, was 11 and many of those arrested and charged are under 18.
Detectives from Trident are also investigating the fatal shooting of a 26-year-old man in a car in Croydon on Monday night in what officers believe was a fight between looters.
Sources said the man was in a group of people who travelled to Croydon as the rioting began. The group had an altercation with a separate gang of nine looters, according to a police source. The gangs jumped into three vehicles and there was a high-speed chase along Scarbrook Road over a flyover into Duppas Hill Road where the cars came to a halt and the victim was shot in the head.
Police found him still sitting in the car. He was taken to hospital and died on Tuesday. Two men were arrested at the scene on suspicion of handling stolen goods, and were released on police bail.
Foy’s team was due to make its first arrests over the riots using leads provided by the CCTV pictures on Tuesday. “We promise a vigorous and rigorous pursuit,” Foy said. “To those individuals who think that they have got away with it, my message is we will come and find you.”
Some of the CCTV pictures are being circulated on Flickr. So far 99 individuals have been charged with offences including 63 counts of burglary, two assaults on police officers, three robberies, four counts of possession of offensive weapons and eight public order offences. The accused began appearing at Highbury Corner and Camberwell Green magistrates court on Tuesday afternoon.
The workload is mounting quickly. Detectives have been taken from antiterrorist inquiries and some from Operation Weeting, the phone-hacking inquiry, because of the scale of evidence that needs to be investigated.
The pressure is on the Yard to move people quickly through the system, such is the number of those arrested. The cells were to be cleared by Tuesday night to make room for an anticipated further round of arrests.
Kyaemon
August 21, 2011 at 3:44 pm
UK riots: your pictures
Add your geotagged photographs of disturbances and clean-up operations to our Flickr group to put them on the map. (If you don’t know how to geotag your photographs, the Flickr group page has instructions) See our interactive map of every verified incident in the UK riots
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2011/aug/09/uk-riots-your-pictures?intcmp=239
UK riots: your pictures | UK news | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/aug/09/uk-riots-incident-map
UK riots: every verified incident – interactive map | News | guardian.co.uk
Kyaemon
August 22, 2011 at 11:54 am
London riots: school assistant and boy, 11, among defendants in court
London riots: school assistant and boy, 11, among defendants in court | UK news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/10/london-riots-school-assistant-pleads-guilty?intcmp=239
Learning mentor pleads guilty to burglary as magistrates courts stay open to deal with cases emerging from London unrest
A primary school assistant pleaded guilty when he appeared in court on Wednesday, accused of being part of a mob that tried to loot an electrical store during the riots in London.
Alexis Bailey, 31, who works at Stockwell primary school in Stockwell Road, south London, was arrested in Richer Sounds, Croydon, just after midnight on Monday, Highbury Corner magistrates in north London heard.
Bailey was one of a slew of cases passing before busy magistrates courts across London on Wednesday – an 11-year-old boy was the youngest defendant.
Police cells in the capital are now full of suspects from the disturbances and 167 people have been charged with offences. They are being dealt with at a number of courts, some of which held sessions late in to the evening on Tuesday.
Lambeth council confirmed that Bailey worked at one of its primary schools. A spokesman said: “In the event that any of our staff are convicted of criminal acts, we have robust internal processes in place to ensure that we deal with them in accordance with employment law.”
Bailey was not seen taking any goods at the shop and he gave himself up when ordered downstairs by riot police, magistrates were told.
He pleaded guilty to burglary with intent to steal and was released on conditional bail to be sentenced at a later date.
Abiodun Kadri, prosecuting, told the court that police went to the shop at midnight and that Bailey surrendered after “officers stood at the bottom of the stairs and shouted for intruders to come down and give themselves up”.
David Burns, defending Bailey, said he worked full-time at the school earning £1,000 a month and paying £550 rent. The Stockwell school website describes Bailey as a learning mentor.
The magistrates’ chairman, Melvyn Marks, said Bailey’s case would have to go to the crown court. “Because of the nature of this offence and because of the circumstances, we have taken the view that there are too many aggravating features in which these offences occurred, namely in the middle of a very violent riot, and our powers and punishment are not enough,” Marks said.
The 11-year-old boy, who lives in Romford, east London, admitted stealing a waste bin worth £50 through a smashed window at the town’s Debenhams during looting by 20 to 30 young people at about 10.30pm on Monday.
District Judge James Henderson sent him home on bail while a pre-sentence report was put together. He said the boy was too young for either a tagging device or time behind bars.
Highbury Corner also dealt with David Attoh, 18, of , Hackney, who admitted the theft of two Burberry T-shirts from a shop in Well Street. Magistrates released him, rather than imposing a £100 fine, as he had been held in custody since being arrested.
A 23-year-old scaffolder broke down in tears after admitting taking part in the looting in Hackney. Christopher Heart, a father of two from Chingford, was found wearing a pair of new Lacoste trainers and a bodywarmer with the security tag still on at about 11pm on Monday.
He pleaded guilty to entering JD Sports in Mare Street with intent to steal and was bailed under curfew for sentencing at Wood Green crown court.
At Camberwell Green magistrates court, south London, the first case on Wednesday was that of James Antwi, an 18-year-old college student from Lambeth, accused of attacking a police car with his bike.
Antwi was also accused of assaulting a police officer and a violent disorder offence when he appeared before district judge Tan Ikram.
Matthew Golby, prosecuting, said Antwi was part of a group which surrounded the police car off Brixton Hill and he was captured on CCTV aiming his bike at the car. He said Antwi had a distinctive rucksack and was tracked by police making his way up Brixton Hill.
Antwi, who is in his third and final year of college, was refused bail by the judge and had his case adjourned until 7 September.
The case was one of four heard by the judge before lunch. Jason Akinole, a 22-year-old leisure centre worker from west Kilburn, was accused of violent disorder and stealing a quantity of Seiko watches from H Samuel on Ealing Broadway during the disturbances…..
Kyaemon
August 25, 2011 at 6:47 am
London riots: Man, 70, was the oldest arrested
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14617434
The oldest person arrested for the violence and looting in London is aged 70, police have said.
The unnamed man was held in connection with the theft from a shop in West Ealing, west London, on 8 August.
He was released after receiving a police caution.
Police said the oldest person charged in connection with the disorder was John Maughan, 63, from Camden, north London, who is accused of handling stolen goods.
He is due to appear at Blackfriars Crown Court on 9 September.
The Metropolitan Police has said it is investigating almost 3,300 offences following the riots and looting in London.
It said 1,883 people had been arrested and more than 1,074 charged in connection with the disorder between 6 and 9 August.
The most common crimes were burglary (1,101), damage to vehicles (399), theft (310) and arson (162).
The Met said it had more than 1,100 crime scenes in 22 boroughs, and 20,000 hours of CCTV footage to review.
Figures from the force also show that 396 juveniles have been arrested, of which 218 have been charged.