Time for a Break

Dear readers, due to other demands upon my time I need to take a short blogging break. Blogging will resume later in the month.

Are the Riots over?

Following the unprecedented orgy of violence which was initially unleashed on Saturday evening, it would appear that last night there was very little unrest on the streets of the cities of England. Beefed up policing and public calls for rioters to be dealt with harshly, together with a general sense of shock and disgust, probably combined to bring about this halt to the disorder. Many of the perpetrators of the unrest are likely to be fatigued, and in Manchester and Liverpool, the rain must have deterred many from venturing out to cause mayhem. The question that everyone will be asking today is: are the riots over, or are we witnessing a temporary lull? We shall know soon enough.

Innocent lives have been lost; businesses, homes and livelihoods have been destroyed, and most of us are left with a distinct sense of unease. What does this destructive outburst say about the state of Britain, more specifically England, today? That is a question to which I will suggest some answers this evening, and they do not chime with the frankly nauseating attempt to make party-political capital out of the riots displayed by Harriet Harman on Newsnight yesterday. This violence was not about ‘Tory cuts’, but something far deeper and altogether more serious and worrying.

Below are two videos. The first relates to a tragic incident in Birmingham, in which a car was deliberately driven at a group of men, killing three of them. The father of one of the deceased speaks of his loss and calls for calm. One can only express sympathy for him and his family, as well as for the relatives and friends of the other young men who lost their lives. The second video displays a reporter steadfastly attempting to persuade a man to alter his story to fit with her ideological preconceptions. This attitude on the part of the reporter is alas, mainstream, for journalists have to subscribe to the NUJ code on the reporting of ‘minority’ racial and religious issues which demands systematic distortion of the truth if it does not accord with dogma.

EDL Vigilantes in Eltham Videos

The EDL have responded to the riots and looting by calling upon members in some locations to prepare to defend their neighbourhoods, homes and families. This elicited a good response in Eltham, where about 50 members of the EDL came down to help the locals nip any trouble in the bud. With local non-EDL, their total numbers came to somewhere between 200 (according to the Daily Telegraph) and 500 (according to the Casuals United blog). The Daily Telegraph report on the joint EDL and local attempt to defend Eltham was not framed in a complementary manner, and neither was it accurate, describing the EDL as a 'political party' which anyone who has heard of the EDL knows that it is not, as well as 'far right', which is a straightforward baseless slur upon the good name of the movement. The movement should be congratulated in taking the initiative to help English communities to defend themselves at a time when the police find themselves overstretched and unable to respond to every call for assistance.

Vigilante groups have sprung up elsewhere in London, with another instance of English vigilantism being in Enfield where 350-400 people turned out on Tuesday night to keep rioters and looters out. Another notable new instance of this phenomenon was in Southall, where Sikh men gathered to defend their gurdwara. All of these instances follow on from the formation of 'local protection units' by Turkish and Kurdish shopkeepers in the Wood Green area of London over the weekend following an overspill of the initial violence from Tottenham. 

The first of the videos below shows EDL vigilantes on the streets of Eltham looking to ensure that the looters don't trash their community. The second video is from the Daily Telegraph and features an interview with the EDL's south-east regional organiser, Jack England. Unfortunately, this video demonstrates that the Metropolitan Police seem to have fallen for the smears about the EDL and sent a significant number of officers to kettle the EDL and other local residents who had come out to defend their neighbourhood. This is a great pity, as obviously these desperately-needed police resources should have been deployed elsewhere in the capital where they were needed.

Riots hit Manchester

A fourth night of riots witnesses the first significant disorder in Manchester, which so far as can be gleaned from current reports, is following the opportunistic pattern of wanton vandalism and attempted looting witnessed in many other urban locations. Channel 4 News reports that Miss Selfridges on Market Street in Manchester city centre has been set alight and the police are advising people to stay out of the area. Let’s hope that this act of arson so early in the evening does not presage a turbulent night to come. This district was of course regenerated in the wake of a massive IRA bomb planted in Corporation Street in 1996, and it would be tragic if the people of Manchester should once again be compelled to pick up the pieces following another destructive act aimed at the heart of their city. 

The Daily Mirror also reports that several hundred riot police have clashed with hooded 'youths' in Piccadilly Gardens. Other reports state that arsonists have hit a community centre in Salford and that there have been 'skirmishes' between police and approximately 20 'youths', and the Metro claims that rioters have been attempting to break into the Arndale Centre and smashing shop windows across the city centre. A later update from the Mirror claimed that up to 2,000 'thugs' had taken to the streets of Manchester, which by any reckoning is a disturbingly high number. Shops ransacked included Bang and Olufsen, Diesel and High and Mighty.

The Daily Telegraph remarks upon the tender age of a number of those involved, with some as young as 9, 10 and 11 taken to the streets with scarves drawn across their faces or wearing balaclavas. These children, it claims, have been used by organised crimincal gangs as lookouts during their looting spree. 


The video below features a BBC report on events in the city this evening. 

Leeds City Centre braced for Unrest

Riot police are out in force this evening in Leeds city centre in the hope that any prospective violence can be nipped in the bud. Within the past couple of hours, police are reported as having dispersed 40 or so hooded ‘youths’ in City Square. With it being sunny and fine, the forces of law and order must be hoping for heavy rain (which surely can’t be that far away in an English summer!).

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.

Enfield Riots Video Footage

A brief outline of the rioting in Enfield Town can be found here. The first 'video' below, comprised of still shots taken in Enfield this evening, gives some idea as to the level of wanton damage so far inflicted by the rioters, but it is not possible at this stage to ascertain their identities. The second and third videos are Sky News reports from earlier this evening, the former of which shows police making an arrest in Enfield and the latter providing a more comprehensive picture of this evening's events. Thankfully, the violence does not appear to have escalated to anything like the levels witnessed in Tottenham last night (videos of which can be accessed here). Updates on the rioting can be accessed here.

Enfield Town targeted by Rioters

It would seem either that criminal elements that conducted last night’s rioting in Tottenham have moved on to target Enfield Town, or a separate mob has gathered for a copycat confrontation with the police. Reports from the Haringey Independent, London 24 and the Enfield Independent state that there have already been minor clashes between police and rioters following an afternoon of rumours on social networking sites that Enfield would witness violence this evening. The first trouble took place at around 6.30pm, with some 100 rioters smashing shop windows and trashing a police car. As of 9.30pm, it was reported that the number of rioters had risen to circa 200.

The Metropolitan Police had made some allowance for potential trouble by sending 20 riot police to protect Enfield Town Station. As to the identities of the rioters, reports have little to say other than that they were ‘youths’ kitted out in stereotypical contemporary rioter attire, wearing hoodies with scarves drawn across their faces. A group of about 30 is said to have been driven back by the police along Southbury Road, and was last sighted heading towards the centre of Enfield. Anticipating that the Met could be overstretched this evening, the Daily Telegraph reports that additional officers have been drawn in from the following neighbouring forces: City of London, Essex, Kent, Surrey and Thames Valley, but it has not been revealed where precisely it is intended to deploy them. 

The opportunistic nature of this criminality has been demonstrated by the fact that this evening's rioters targeted a jewellery shop and briefly entered, although the Guardian does not mention whether they happened to make off with any of the shop's wares. Moreover, other opportunistic criminals keen to conduct their business behind the smokescreen of 'social protest' appear to have been squaring up for a confrontation with the police in Brixton earlier this evening, where they hurled bottles at police vans. According to the Telegraph, three police officers have been hospitalised following the incident in Coldharbour Lane. It remains to be seen whether the recently formed vigilante groups in Wood Green will be put to the test tonight in defending their businesses.

Vigilantism in North London: ‘Local Protection Units’ formed to confront Rioters

Last night’s rioting in Tottenham is reported to have spilled over into Wood Green, and it is feared that there will once again be unrest tonight. Reports indicate that it took only 200-300 rioters to wreak havoc in Tottenham, endangering life and limb as they looted and set light to properties, businesses and vehicles. The cost of the damage is already estimated to be many millions of pounds, and fearing that the Metropolitan Police will again be overwhelmed by violent criminals, the London Daily News reports that a number of shop owners have formed their own ‘local protection units’. A spokesman for the Green Lanes ‘unit’ told the paper "We do not have any trust in the local police, our shops are next on the target list by the thugs who have ransacked Tottenham, we will protect our property."

That people feel that they need to do this is a shameful indictment of the inadequacy of the police force. Nobody should feel so fearful for their physical safety and that of their property that they feel compelled to form voluntary defence associations, but this is what is happening. This failure to honour the most basic duty of any government – to safeguard the physical safety of citizens and their property and to uphold the rule of law - whilst the ConDem administration prioritises foreign aid and costly wars which have nothing to do with our national interest, indicates that there is something dangerously wrong with the thinking of those in government. To cut police budgets and spending on other essential public services and allowing civil order to disintegrate whilst appropriating our money to spend on their pet projects abroad represents a grotesque abuse of office. Moreover, it is of course not only the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats who approve of increasing foreign aid and meddling in overseas conflicts, but the Labour Party too.

It is time that it was made crystal clear that the duty of any government that purports to represent its citizenry is first and foremost to preserve public safety and the rule of law. Without seeking to prioritise and secure these basic preconditions of a stable civil society, it cannot be said to be a government in any meaningful sense of the term. Worryingly, those who have banded together to form ‘local protection units’ in Wood Green, Turnpike Lane and Green Lanes, are said to be Kurds and Turks, or, to put it bluntly, Muslims. If our forces of law and order are seen to be failing so spectacularly, to whom and to what do you think they might turn?

Tottenham High Road Ablaze