10:38 AM
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By Danny Kemp (AFP)
LONDON — Days of riots rocking London point to deeper social unease in poor areas of Britain's capital, community leaders and residents said Monday, rejecting moves by politicians and police to blame criminals alone.
The touchpaper for the unrest was lit on Thursday when police shot dead Mark Duggan, a resident of the multi-ethnic district of Tottenham in north London, after officers stopped the taxi in which he was a passenger.
Hooded youths torched police cars and a double decker bus in Tottenham on Saturday while a block of flats was gutted after the carpet store on the ground floor was set alight, sending terrified families fleeing into the street.
The violence then spread to other parts of London on Sunday, including Brixton in south London, another racially mixed district which like Tottenham was rocked by riots in the 1980s, with a third day of unrest in Hackney in east London.
The scenes in Tottenham evoked memories of severe rioting on the Broadwater Farm housing estate there in 1985, sparked when a local woman died after police raided her home. In the ensuing violence, a policeman was hacked to death.
A quarter of a century on, with Britain's economic growth almost at a standstill and government cuts to public spending hitting areas of high unemployment like Tottenham, some residents said they saw the seeds of more unrest.
Osagyefo Tongogara, a community activist who was in Tottenham during the Broadwater Farm riots, said: "There are a lot of parallels with 1985. I don't call it rioting, I call it rebellion.
"People are angry and frustrated. If you have a community with high levels of unemployment and cutbacks in welfare then this is what you are going to get," he told AFP.
"We are told that this is a global financial crisis and that we are all in this together but why should we be?
"I don't know everything about the crisis surrounding this young man's death. But you can't just put it (the unrest) down to that or down to criminality. That's a simplistic explanation for this."
But others in Tottenham said that although the police had mishandled the aftermath of Duggan's shooting in an area where there were underlying tensions, there was no excuse for the violence that followed.
"There is anger and frustration here but I feel people have taken advantage of it," said resident Adam Cuthbert, 24, as he surveyed the damage with his girlfriend.
"The majority of the people on Saturday weren't from here, they were from other areas. It was people from outside using it as an excuse to create havoc."
Cheryline Lee, a Tottenham resident, in her 50s, agreed.
"We are not condoning the rioting," she said. "The police should actually be able to talk to people. But burning buildings like this is much too much. People have lost their houses and people have lost their jobs as well."
Chuka Umunna, a lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party who represents a district near Brixton, agreed that the "anger and frustration arising from the tragic death" of Duggan was no excuse for the unrest.
"It's shocking, it's completely opportunistic and it's totally unacceptable," he said.
British officials were united in their attempts to blame "criminals".
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on Monday condemned the violence as he visited Tottenham to view the damage.
"Let's be clear, the violence we saw last night had absolutely nothing to do with the death of Mr Duggan. It was needless, opportunist theft and violence -- nothing more and nothing less," he said.
London's deputy mayor Kit Malthouse, who watched Sunday's violence unfold from the central police control room, said he saw no evidence of a protest, just looting.
"We're talking about opportunists," he told BBC television.
Doubt has now been thrown on the original version of events of the shooting that sparked the Tottenham violence.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the shooting, initially said 29-year-old father-of-four Duggan was killed in an exchange of fire.
The IPCC were even forced to issue a statement to deny rumours that Duggan had been shot in the head, "execution-style". Ballistic results were expected on Tuesday.
Professor Gus John of the University of London, a Grenada-born academic who has written extensively about race issues in Britain, said dismissing the rioters as thugs was "fatuous" and failed to acknowledge the deeper issues.
"Such labels don't solve anything," he told AFP.
"The question is, what disposes these young men to be like that? Why is the largest section of the young offender population in Britain young and black?"
LONDON — Days of riots rocking London point to deeper social unease in poor areas of Britain's capital, community leaders and residents said Monday, rejecting moves by politicians and police to blame criminals alone.
The touchpaper for the unrest was lit on Thursday when police shot dead Mark Duggan, a resident of the multi-ethnic district of Tottenham in north London, after officers stopped the taxi in which he was a passenger.
Hooded youths torched police cars and a double decker bus in Tottenham on Saturday while a block of flats was gutted after the carpet store on the ground floor was set alight, sending terrified families fleeing into the street.
The violence then spread to other parts of London on Sunday, including Brixton in south London, another racially mixed district which like Tottenham was rocked by riots in the 1980s, with a third day of unrest in Hackney in east London.
The scenes in Tottenham evoked memories of severe rioting on the Broadwater Farm housing estate there in 1985, sparked when a local woman died after police raided her home. In the ensuing violence, a policeman was hacked to death.
A quarter of a century on, with Britain's economic growth almost at a standstill and government cuts to public spending hitting areas of high unemployment like Tottenham, some residents said they saw the seeds of more unrest.
Osagyefo Tongogara, a community activist who was in Tottenham during the Broadwater Farm riots, said: "There are a lot of parallels with 1985. I don't call it rioting, I call it rebellion.
"People are angry and frustrated. If you have a community with high levels of unemployment and cutbacks in welfare then this is what you are going to get," he told AFP.
"We are told that this is a global financial crisis and that we are all in this together but why should we be?
"I don't know everything about the crisis surrounding this young man's death. But you can't just put it (the unrest) down to that or down to criminality. That's a simplistic explanation for this."
But others in Tottenham said that although the police had mishandled the aftermath of Duggan's shooting in an area where there were underlying tensions, there was no excuse for the violence that followed.
"There is anger and frustration here but I feel people have taken advantage of it," said resident Adam Cuthbert, 24, as he surveyed the damage with his girlfriend.
"The majority of the people on Saturday weren't from here, they were from other areas. It was people from outside using it as an excuse to create havoc."
Cheryline Lee, a Tottenham resident, in her 50s, agreed.
"We are not condoning the rioting," she said. "The police should actually be able to talk to people. But burning buildings like this is much too much. People have lost their houses and people have lost their jobs as well."
Chuka Umunna, a lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party who represents a district near Brixton, agreed that the "anger and frustration arising from the tragic death" of Duggan was no excuse for the unrest.
"It's shocking, it's completely opportunistic and it's totally unacceptable," he said.
British officials were united in their attempts to blame "criminals".
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on Monday condemned the violence as he visited Tottenham to view the damage.
"Let's be clear, the violence we saw last night had absolutely nothing to do with the death of Mr Duggan. It was needless, opportunist theft and violence -- nothing more and nothing less," he said.
London's deputy mayor Kit Malthouse, who watched Sunday's violence unfold from the central police control room, said he saw no evidence of a protest, just looting.
"We're talking about opportunists," he told BBC television.
Doubt has now been thrown on the original version of events of the shooting that sparked the Tottenham violence.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the shooting, initially said 29-year-old father-of-four Duggan was killed in an exchange of fire.
The IPCC were even forced to issue a statement to deny rumours that Duggan had been shot in the head, "execution-style". Ballistic results were expected on Tuesday.
Professor Gus John of the University of London, a Grenada-born academic who has written extensively about race issues in Britain, said dismissing the rioters as thugs was "fatuous" and failed to acknowledge the deeper issues.
"Such labels don't solve anything," he told AFP.
"The question is, what disposes these young men to be like that? Why is the largest section of the young offender population in Britain young and black?"
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