London’s emergency services were on full-scale alert on Monday night as rioting, fires and pitched battles with police erupted around the city from late afternoon.
The Metropolitan police poured hundreds of extra officers on to the streets as trouble flared in the north, south and east of the capital.
In Hackney, east London, masked and hooded youths smashed up shops and threw missiles, planks of wood and wheelie bins at riot police. Several abandoned vehicles were set alight. There were also violent scenes in Lewisham, south-east London, where petrol bombs were reportedly thrown at officers, and shops looted. A bus was torched in nearby Peckham as police struggled to respond to the spread of sporadic violent incidents.
Witnesses said a 100-strong mob cheered as a shop in the centre of Peckham was torched and one masked thug shouted: “The West End’s going down next.” A baker’s next door was also alight. One onlooker said: “The mob were just standing there cheering and laughing. Others were just watching on from their homes open-mouthed in horror.”
The unrest had spread beyond London with West Midlands police confirming outbreaks of disorder in Birmingham city centre. Shops including a branch of Louis Vuitton had windows smashed and were looted. Extra officers were being sent into the streets of Britain’s second city.
As the home secretary, Theresa May, broke off her holiday to return to London, the number of arrests from three consecutive nights of violence rose to 215, with 27 people charged. It was also announced that London mayor Boris Johnson would be returning early from his holiday. However, the prime minister remained on holiday in Tuscany.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh said one-third more officers were available on Monday nightthan on Sunday, when shops were ransacked and torched in Brixton, south London, and trouble reported in Enfield, Edmonton, Walthamstow and Islington.
Kavanagh vowed to deliver “speedy justice” for Londoners, condemning the waves of looting as “disgusting behaviour, ripping apart people’s livelihoods and businesses”.
Officers from Thames Valley, Essex, Kent, Surrey and City of London were drafted in to support the Met. But apparent “copycat” riots continued to spread in the wake of Tottenham’s riots on Saturday precipitated by the fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggan, 29, a father-of-four last Thursday.
In a bid to contain them, Scotland Yard introduced special powers in four areas – Lambeth, Haringey, Enfield and Waltham Forest, allowing stop and search without reasonable suspicion. The section 60 powers were invoked at midnight on Sunday. One incident of stop and search in Hackney was reportedly the catalyst for violence which erupted in Mare Street shortly after 4pm, and saw local hooded youths battle police.
The very first rioters were angry over the death by gunshot of an armed man, a father of four who was a gangster.
The shot he fired lodged in the radio of the officer he tried to murder.
So, basically, a bad guy got suicide by cop.
In London.
Which is unusual.
The friends and family started massing and the looting and arson began.
BUT tonight’s riots were anarchists who swelled the numbers of the blacks who were the thug’s friends and family.
Just as we had more Hispanics loot during the Rodney King riots than we had blacks here in So Cal, so, too, the Brits are seeing their anarchist children joining the blacks just for what they can steal.
A strong cordon around the area and then a 100% arrest of everyone who is out after curfew would stop it.
But the Brits lack stomach.
In answer to Nan’s last statement: Re the US — I would say “So do we lack the stomach “
See how well gun control works. /Sarcasm-off
Nan, the police admitted that the bullet that hit the cop came from another cop’s gun; it appears the guy they shot never fired, and may not have even drawn the gun he was carrying, we don’t know.
Which seems unpossible, since the peasants are not allowed to own handguns there…
Keep in mind he doesn’t have to draw his gun for it to be a legally justified shooting. He need only go for it. If you wait to see if his hand is coming up with a gun, you will see what comes out of it too.
@Firehand:
Oddly I am reading that the story from the Guardian has not been confirmed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
It has only been confirmed that a non-police gun was discovered at the scene and a bullet was found in an officer’s radio.
But the IPCC is refusing to comment on a report in the Guardian newspaper that the bullet was police issue – and therefore had not been fired by Mr Duggan.
It is late, but perhaps not too late for this:
Mark Duggan family in plea not to use his death as excuse to riot
Inside that article from the Mirror is this point:
Remember when Obama told the public that some people make too much money?
Statements like that have consequences.
In the UK riots women in restaurants are having their wedding rings ripped off their fingers!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024175/London-riots-Diners-The-Ledbury-Notting-Hill-wedding-rings-ripped-fingers.html
As one girl rioter told the BBC, we just want to show “the rich” that “we can do what we want”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14458424
We have created an ”entitlement” mentality on the part of those the Brits call,”on the dole.”