Why tottenham riots

By Sunday night police said there had been 55 arrests, and 26 police officers injured. Yet what marked the weekend's disturbances were not the number of people hurt but the scale of property destruction. Throughout the borough, shops, pubs, banks and even residential properties had been ransacked and torched.

Firefighters struggled to contain a blaze at an Aldi supermarket and another fire in a building just a few hundred yards away, housing a carpet store. Both were huge fires that — apart from the rioting — would have made significant news events in themselves. These were by all accounts the worst disturbances of their kind since the Brixton riots.

Shocked residents emerging this morning to see the scorched, debris-strewn streets asked two questions. Why had the riot started? And how did it spread? The crowd that gathered outside Tottenham police station at 5. The protesters consisted of local residents, community leaders, and some of Duggan's relatives, including his fiancee, Semone Wilson.

Wilson, they said, had been forced to call the IPCC to identify the body; other relatives first discovered Duggan had been killed when they saw his photograph on the news.

There were stories of Duggan having been shot after being handcuffed; others said he had sent a message to friends 15 minutes before he was killed, saying he had been cornered but was safe. There were chants of "we want answers" but those present said the protest was good-natured. The demonstration, which organisers expected to last no more than an hour, was initially fronted by women, who surrounded Wilson, who had three children with year-old Duggan. What happened over the next four hours is subject to debate, but what is clear is that tensions gradually escalated, as police made only limited attempts to talk to the demonstrators.

Some who were present described seeing a younger, more aggressive crowd arrive around dusk, some carrying weapons. Protest organisers denied this, and said police failed to engage with them. Eventually a chief inspector came out and spoke to Duggan's relatives but, organisers said, he conceded a higher-ranking officer should talk to them. Stafford Scott, a community organiser, said police were "absolutely" culpable for not responding to their requests for dialogue.

In the Bootle area of Merseyside a dumper truck is used to break into a post office. A couple of lads on a moped came right up to the line - they were counting us and then they went back. Then the whole crowd started marching up the road, with a four-door saloon car as a figurehead. It was absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, attempted murder. Rioters are not just attacking the police and looting - they start to set fire to their own neighbourhoods, including shops with residential flats above.

Among the targets is a local landmark, the year-old Reeves furniture store. Lewisham has roaming groups of people stirring up trouble. At least people loot a Tesco in Bethnal Green. Fires are started in Lambeth, petrol bombs thrown in Hackney. Because we wanted to see everything on fire. To show them, 'what can you do now? There's nothing you can do'". And I felt good. Mr Cameron says there are contingency plans for water cannon to be used at 24 hours' notice. The Ministry of Justice says there are enough prison places for all.

The shops ran out of stuff. All the phone shops went instantly. Magistrates' courts in London, Solihull and Manchester among others stay open through the night to fast-track those already in custody for disorder-related offences. The shops did not trouble them. That's the shops their mums and their gran have to go to. The post office - they've got grandparents - there's no post office for the elderly.

Police combed CCTV footage to identify culprits. Over the following months, more than 2, people were traced, charged and convicted. Like, I'm on it. And it was blatantly obvious they were stolen. And then someone asked me for a pair and I gave them a pair, and the street cameras caught my face. There was no official government inquiry after the riots, but there were reports by other bodies.

Opportunism, social deprivation, discontent with the police and unemployment were all mentioned, but a single overwhelming cause for what happened over those five days in August was not pinpointed. Over the days that followed, the police were roundly criticised. The Met later acknowledged that its inability to monitor social media meant it could not get ahead of events.

Analyses following the riots found that police tactics were hampered by inadequate numbers, that they should sometimes have intervened more promptly and assertively, and that intelligence was flawed. They all praised the bravery of the officers on the frontline. Ministry of Justice figures show a total of 1, offenders were jailed for their part in the trouble. Rioting was seen as an aggravating factor. Sentences were longer and more people were sent to prison than would normally be expected for the same charges under different circumstances.

Nice little story for them, isn't it? You know, like World War Two and that with my great-grandads. If it was to happen again, I would happily join in. Anything against the police, I would happily join in. I was there for revenge. For once they were living on the edge, they felt how we felt.

They felt threatened by us. I had the opportunity to take my dog out for a walk in the park. London youth services cut in half since riots. Metropolitan Police Service.

London Fire Brigade. Inquest: The death of Mark Duggan. Image source, PA Media. At the end of the rioting, five people had died, hundreds were injured and scores were homeless.

Image source, Getty Images. However, the government failed to formally accept or reject any of them — and only a handful were ever implemented. Since then, a succession of reports that address unfairness — including deaths in police custody the Angiolini review , racism in employment the McGregor-Smith review and racial bias in the justice system my own — have repeated many of the same points.

But they too have been mostly ignored. Once again, Tottenham is at the centre of this hardship, with the fastest growing rate of unemployment in the country. Communities like mine are scarred twice every time a riot happens. First by the physical damage to their homes, shops and possessions, and the violence committed against their family members and friends. Then, after the TV crews have left, the shop windows have been replaced and the streets cleared of rubble, they are hurt again: the residents will wake up in the relative calm knowing that the place they live will always be remembered for the damage caused there instead of what the place has created.

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