His name is Mark Duggan

His name is Mark Duggan.
His name is Mark Duggan.
His name is Mark Duggan.

How many of the rioters knew this?

The date: Saturday 6th August 2011
The time: Afternoon

An organised peaceful protest takes place in Tottenham following the death of Mark Duggan.
Somehow this peaceful protest march turns violent.
Police are forced to close the roads in Tottenham as rioters clash with police.
Twitter posts images of a police car on fire and the story breaks in the mainstream press.
Chaos and looting ensues.

See here for a broader summary of events.

The date: Sunday 7th August 2011
The time: Morning

Looting has spread to Wood Green and other nearby areas.

The mainstream press at this point are no longer reporting the protest march that initially took place, but rather the fact that there are riots, looting, and officers are getting hurt.

Symeon Brown, community worker had this to say on the matter.


Now what is troubling me is the reportage of this situation.
As Symeon highlighted there seems to be a failing in identifying the root cause in all of this.

There have been numerous deaths at the hands of the police, coupled with the extreme socio-economic conditions facing the young people at the moment.


Young people seem to have been at the heart of the rioting, which wasn't necessarily related to the protest, but taken as an opportunity to express their frustrations.


Balance is needed here. Articles like the one by the Mail on Sunday, see headline:
The 'gangsta' gunman killed in shoot-out with police whose death sparked riots do not help an already inflamed situation.

Similarly, opportunists and arsonists do themselves no favours for the future in terms of how they will be policed as a result of this, and how the community in Tottenham deal with the devastation in the fall out.

Aside from the so called 'community leaders' (no disrespect), where are the actual leaders of this country.
There has been no response from Mr Cameron, Mr Clegg or Mr Osborne. Interestingly Mr Cameron was able to cut his visit to S.Africa short to deal with problems in Libya, but no word in regards to problems on home soil. Even Theresa May, current Home Secretary has failed to respond.
Is Tottenham a principality of it's own?

Labour MP David Lammy had this to say:

It seems the torch paper has been lit, and it is for the powers that be to work some serious overtime on damage limitation, or this may get much worse before it gets better.