Riots hit Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester

Opportunistic criminality continues to spread, with disorder breaking out in the hitherto unaffected cities of Bristol and Liverpool. BBC Radio 4 also reports that cars were damaged in Manchester last night. In London, which witnessed a staggering night of violence, Woolwich, Ealing and Camden joined Tottenham, Enfield, Croydon, Lewisham, Hackney and Peckham as scenes for looting, arson and attacks on the police. Birmingham city centre too was blighted by violence and looting. One commentator on Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning stated that the focus of looting in London last night appeared to be retail parks, large and small.

The BBC states that approximately 150 rioters attacked shops and cars in different parts of Bristol city centre including Cabot Circus and Broadmead. Disorder is also said to have affected the Stokes Croft and St Werbughs areas of the city, and roads were blocked to prevent 'youths' from St Pauls heading for the city centre. However, Avon and Somerset Police seem confident that they are well prepared for any further disturbance.

In Liverpool, Toxteth witnessed a relatively brief confrontation between the police and masked ‘youths’, whilst “isolated acts” occurred in the city, such as the torching of cars and criminal damage to property. 


Two football fixtures have been cancelled at Charlton and West Ham this evening as a consequence of the unrest, and Cobra meets at 9.00 this morning to discuss how to deal with and contain the spread of the riots.

What we are witnessing is not ‘political protest’, but straightforward opportunistic criminality. To some extent however, this violence has been encouraged by irresponsible reporting in some sections of the media, some of the worst of which has been provided by the BBC. Throughout Saturday evening and Sunday, BBC television news reports repeatedly stated that Mark Duggan had been shot by the Metropolitan Police and that a protest had been held to demand answers regarding the shooting. What its reports glaringly and purposefully omitted was the police claim that Duggan had been shot in an exchange of fire. Moreover, the BBC simply parroted the claims of Duggan’s family and supporters vis-à-vis his character, disregarding the fact that this man was a gun-toting ‘gangsta’. Thus, the BBC’s portrayal of the incident that has been used as the pretext for the outbreak of mass criminality that we are witnessing was grossly distorted and irresponsible. One could justifiably say that by framing the Duggan case in this fashion, and by continually seeking out ethnic-minority voices to condemn the police for ‘brutality’ and ‘racism’, the BBC has actually been a significant contributor to this violence and anarchy.

The editorial team at the BBC has a lot to answer for, and it is about time that its members rejected the NUJ code on reporting race and religion which leads it to systematically distort the whole of its output to comply with an ideology that denies reality. Sadly, many businesses have been destroyed by this wave of violence, and the BBC ought to realise that unless it adopts an objective and responsible approach to its coverage and interpretation of the civil disorder spreading across the country, its reputation too will become just another casualty of the rioting. Something else truly shocking that the BBC would never report honestly because it reflects badly upon multiculturalism and mass immigration can be watched here.

Riots spread to Birmingham

According to Reuters, Birmingham city centre is now suffering from copycat riots with a number of shops having been attacked and looted. Two live feeds have also reported that the Hippodrome Theatre is "on lockdown", and more recently it has been claimed that the Square Peg pub on Corporation Street has been "smashed up". There are also uncomfirmed reports that public transport into and out of Birmingham city centre has been suspended. ITN reports that police have arrested nine rioters, six of whom were juveniles. Apparently, mobile phone shops had proven to be the main focus of the looters' attentions.

The first video below shows a report on looting in Birmingham, whilst the second shows a Sainsbury's being looted in the centre of the city. The photograph purports to be of a looted Adidas store, although it has been claimed that it may have been taken at one of the other riot scenes. Hopefully, reports that 'youths' are gathering in Wolverhampton will prove to be unfounded. This disorder needs to be dealt with swiftly and decisively to stop the contagion from spreading. Details and video footage of this evenings riots in London can be accessed here.

Riots erupt in Hackney, Peckham and Lewisham

The systematic opportunistic criminality that has brought violence and looting to the streets of London now enters its third night, with disorder spreading to Hackney, Peckham ('Little Nigeria'), Lewisham and Croydon. This is turning out to be a truly terrible night for the capital, with, states the Independent "thousands of yobs" taking to the streets. A later report by the Daily Mail also lists Deptford, Clapham and Harrow as having been blighted by violent disorder. According to the BBC, the riots have also led to the cancellation of football matches at Charlton and West Ham tomorrow.

The picture preceding the videos shows an unidentified building ablaze in Croydon (one, unfortunately, of many). The first video shows a burning building next to a branch of Greggs on Peckham High Road, whereas the second is taken from a Russia Today news report and shows cars and properties ablaze in Lewisham this evening. With unrest spreading to Birmingham and tension reported to be mounting in Leeds, this is turning out to be the most depressing evening that I can recall. Good luck to the police across the country in containing this outbreak of mob hysteria. An overview of the origins of the riots and videos from Saturday evening can be accessed here. Further information and commentary will be posted on this blog as the night unfolds.

London Riots: opportunistic Criminality

Sadly, what was witnessed in London last night was the downside of social media: orchestrated criminality. ‘Rioting’ spread from Tottenham to Enfield, Walthamstow and Brixton. An estimated 200 ‘youths’ took to the streets for a night of vandalism and exchanges with the police in Enfield, wantonly trashing shops and cars. The Guardian reports that looters gathered under cover of a festival in Brixton and stole goods from Footlocker, H&M and Vodafone, removing their bounty in cars and on scooters. Unrest in Brixton continued into the early hours.

You will hear many media voices in the days, weeks and months ahead, claiming that this outburst of criminality is in some way connected with ‘youth disaffection’, ‘lack of opportunity’, ‘discrimination’, ‘poor police-community relations’, ‘economic deprivation’ and so on. It is not. This violence is a simple manifestation of criminality; criminality facilitated by the new social media and mobile phones, bringing together likeminded criminals and thugs who hitherto would not have been able to coordinate their actions. Interestingly, The Guardian notes that the looters' phone of choice may be the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) because 

'Unlike text messaging or Twitter, BBM is a free, private social network where almost all messages are encrypted when they leave the sender's phone – meaning that many messages are untraceable by the authorities.'  

Some of these criminals are primarily interested in opportunistic looting, some in gathering for a ‘ruck’ with the police, and others for a bit of both and whatever other opportunities should offer themselves up when law and order are suspended: vandalism, arson and random assaults upon members of the public.

They have realised that such coordination allows them to outmanoeuvre the police, and by latching onto a ‘protest’ about the death of an armed drug dealer in Tottenham, they attempt to pass off their wilful antisocial acts as somehow ‘legitimate’ in the eyes of certain media commentators and politicians. The dominant meme at play in the media and mainstream political parties is that the actions of such people can be explained through reference to social and economic marginalisation and ‘powerlessness’. The looters and rioters are thus dignified with a political status that they do not deserve. Those individuals who have chosen to take to the streets to attack people and property have done so because they have made a conscious decision to act in that way. They have not been compelled to indulge in violence, they have willed themselves to violence. It is the individuals conducting this violence, and they alone, who are responsible. Any governmental response which seeks to lavish taxpayers’ money upon those areas that have witnessed this disorder would not only be myopic, but immoral and utterly ineffectual. It is time for ‘community workers’ and ‘leaders’ also to stop behaving opportunistically by using such criminality as a pretext for bidding for more regeneration and ‘social-cohesion’ project funding. Deal with the criminals through the legal system and confront the attitudes underpinning the criminal subculture: this is the correct way to deal with this problem.