LONDON – A fresh outbreak of missile-throwing, window-smashing, looting and burning sent shockwaves through the British capital late today, prompting a visit from the deputy prime minister, and leaving politicians of Caribbean and African origin who represent the restive communities in shock and appealing for calm.
At least 225 people have been arrested and 36 charged following the riots over the past three days, Scotland Yard said.
While most senior politicians were vacationing when the disturbances, triggered by the police shooting death of a black man during a dragnet, broke out, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg visited the scene of the riots at Tottenham, north London.
By this afternoon, the tension and outbreak of sporadic violence had spread into Mare Street, the main street in the borough of Hackney, the constituency of MP Diane Abbott, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants.
She described the development as being “extraordinarily concerning”.
“It’s shocking, it’s completely opportunistic and it’s totally unacceptable,” said Chuka Umunna, the Nigerian-descended Labour MP for Streatham in south London, as he spoke outside a police cordon along Brixton Road.
“Those who are responsible should know we will ensure that the strong arm of the law will come down on those who have damaged and ransacked the local businesses. Those in the community and local businesses pay the price for this kind of random violence and people will not put up with it.”
Home Secretary Theresa May, the Britain’s minister for law enforcement, hurried home from holiday to meet the Metropolitan Police top brass as the disturbance caught politicians on the hop during their annual summer break.
But London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, has so far remained on holiday abroad, while Prime Minister David Cameron continued his vacation in Tuscany.
Late Sunday, the unrest in Tottenham, where it began a day earlier with bottle-throwing outside the police station there and led to a bus being burned down, spread to neighbouring Walthamstow and Enfield, and south to Brixton, the traditional home of most Caribbean-descended Britons.
There were also reports of skirmishes spreading to London’s shopping thoroughfare, Oxford Street, where shop windows have been smashed.
The community generally, as well as its representatives, are united in condemning the violence while at the same time expressing concern and criticism over the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan by police officers on Thursday evening.
The troubles began as a peaceful protest by the dead man’s family and friends outside the Tottenham police station, but no one apparently was available to give them answers to their questions.
It is understood that Duggan’s partner, Semone Wilson, with whom he has three children, and other family members were not allowed to see his body until 36 hours later.
Duggan was reportedly riding in a mini-cab when it was stopped by police during a police operation intended to curb gun crime in the Caribbean and African community.
In the past, London’s Caribbean communities have supported the initiative, dubbed “Operation Trident”.
Tottenham still bears the scars of the serious communal riots of October 1985 which were triggered by the death of Cynthia Jarrett while the police were searching her home.
PC Keith Blakelock was killed in the ensuing violence in the neighbouring Broadwater Farm housing estate
Abbott sought to draw a sharp distinction between the Broadwater Farm riot and the violence on the streets of Tottenham.
The Independent newspaper quoted Abbott as saying that today’s Metropolitan Police was now “light years ahead in sophistication and sensitivity” from the Metropolitan Police that she used to march and demonstrate against in the 1980s.
But the Hackney MP, who said she was aware of a remnant “canteen culture” still prevailing in many quarters of the capital’s police force, joined a chorus of criticism for the police’s apparent failure to address Duggan’s family’s concerns and curb the escalation of the violence.
“It is precisely because I thought that the Metropolitan Police knew better, that I am shocked by the police disregard for the family of the dead man Mark Duggan. Why did it take until Saturday [36 hours after the shooting] for the Independent Police Complaints Commission to take the family to see the body and pay their last respects?” she told the Independent.
“What happened here on Thursday night raised huge questions and we need answers,” said David Lammy, MP for the impoverished Tottenham area, whose parents are Guyanese immigrants.
“The response to that is not to loot and rob. There are homeless people standing back there. We have officers in hospital, some of whom are seriously injured. It’s a disgrace. This must stop,” he said.
As with the politicians, the Metropolitan Police has been caught off-guard by the unrest with a number of officers on leave, just ahead of the annual Notting Hill Carnival, the parade created by West Indian immigrants which has become the biggest street party in Europe. (CMC)
