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LONDON - Reflections on a week of riotin', tweetin', lootin', burnin', 1500 arrested & countin' ....
international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
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Tuesday August 16, 2011 22:45 by Ciaron - Giuseppe Conlon House, Harringey, London
...........following the police killing of Mark Duggan
Over the past week at Giuseppe Conlon CW House in Harringey London, we have recieived calls of concern, and requests for explanations, following the rioting and looting over the weekend that started in our borough of Harringey and extended across London and then to regional towns in England. Indymedia Links: PHOTOS from Tottenham, Haringey http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/gallery/2011/aug/07/tottenham-hit-by-riots-pictures
I've been reluctant to write anything as I have yet to get my head around the phenomenon of what has unfolded or unravelled over the last week. For the past year I have been based at the Giuseppe Conlon House in HaringAy, a Catholic Worker project offering hospitality to destitue refugees, nonviolent anti-war resistance and solidarity to war resisters before the courts and in chains. HarringAy, like Tottenham where the riots started last Saturday night, is a subset of the borough of HarringEy. Rioting started around 8 pm Sat night at the Tottenham police station opposite the "Tottenham Chances" club where we usually head on a monthly basis for a cabaret night with the Surviviors poetry group MC'd by CW friend Razz. The rioting on Saturday night was preceeded by a disciplined demonstration Saturday afternoon by friends and relatives of Mark Duggan shot dead by armed police in Tottenham on Thursday night. (unlike U.S. and Australia armed police are a specialist group and a rairty in England). The group (approx 150) had marched from Duggan's home Broadwater Farm estate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadwater_Farm , (site of an infamous police killing & killing of a police in the mid-1980's) arriving at 5pm at Tottenham Police Station to demand an explanation from the police about the inquiry into the death. The police now admit http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/police-apology...oting they failed to inform the family of the death and update them on the inquiry into the death. The march arrived at Tottenham police station at 5pm Sat and demanded a senior policeman come out and answer questions about the inquiry into the killing of Mark Duggan, father of four. It appears the police did not comply with this request and the vigil, initially planned to last for an hour, dragged on to 8pm. Against the wishes of the relatives of the deceased, things kicked off on the Tottenham High Rd. around 8pm with rioting. Two police cars and a bus were torched. Later a building containing a furniture store and some accomodation as also burned to the ground This is a good Sky TV interview youtube with Broadwater Farm community organiser Stafford Scott on what occured outside Tottenham police station on Saturday http://youtu.be/8a3F3aG9RGw As events on Saturday night developed and police numbers were concentrated on the Tottenham High Rd., what appears to be opportunist looting started in nearby (to us/ CW!) Haringey's Wood Green shopping area in the early hours of Sunday morning and went on until dawn with no police response. A couple of jewellers shops at the bottom of our street on Green Lanes were ram raided. Jewellers in this area are often robbed by organised gangs, so maybe a pre-planned robbery was fast tracked. The large Wood Green shopping centre area was cordoned off Sunday and we were turned away from our Sunday evening free donut pick up. On Sunday night looting spread to other parts of London. A generation raised on credit, pumped up/ incited to consme by 24/7 advertising coprorations, now having those purchasing possibilites limited in the economic collapse did the predictable.....insurgent consumerism! Activity was faciitated by new technologies of social networking. The police force appeared to be outmanouvered. This was to spread across London and to Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and elsewhere as the police lost control. The causes for this phenomenon are deeply political whether the activity was political in a self aware sense is hard to say. It is hard to generalise - payback from frustrations with previous ongoing police harrassment, opportunist criminals seeing the cops over stretched, and for a lot of folks it seemed like a cogenial atmosphere of medieavel days of mischief as the pardigm shifted. For the most part, violence against persons was minimal but recklessness led to 3 deaths in Brimingham and one this morning in London. For the most part it was property destruction & opportunist looting of unguarded businesses with little discrimination made between small local businesses and corporates, to a much lesser extent direct/confrontational fighting the police and targeting symbols of power. On Monday evening we attended a multifaith callout for a demonstration of hope back on Tottenham High Rd. where it had begun on Saturday. There was a lot of authentic rank & file concern, but alas also the predictable political postioning by aspiring leadership some claiming to "represent the community". I made a speech pointing out that the government now berating the looters had spent the last 10 years looting Iraq, burning Baghdad and torching Afghanistan. If anything, at their worst the looters are mimicing the rich and powerful without the birthright to thieve and loot. The speech was generally well received by the locals gathered. I had walked up to the demonstration with a local friend Ben Griffin who had served with the British SAS in Iraq. After the local Tottenham MP David Lammy spoke calling for nonviolence, Ben approached him shook his hand and introduced himself as a former soldier. Ben reminded Lammy that he had voted strongly for war and strongly against an inquiry into the war. See here for Ben's account https://veteransforpeaceuk.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/vet...ammy/ The deprivation. despair, chronic youth unemployment, recent cuts to social services, in Harringey, pumped consumer culture, capitlalism in rapid decline, a trigger happy C019 armed section of the poice force, the elements that provided the human fuel to the events of last weekend remain. More detailed stats on Harringaey/ Tottenham here.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/07/tot...where There have been 1500 arrests nationally. 75% of those arrested are under 25. In London 50% of them are under 18! 75% of those charged are being denied bail and remanded in jail. The state is in revenge mode promising water canon, plastic bullets and the army on the streets - options traditionally reserved for populace of the north of Ireland - along with more arrests and punishment. Any attempt to discuss the causes of the phenomenon are being dismissed as wishy washy liberal apolgetics for thuggery. I once asked my father how he got his broken nose? His reply was "I was talking, when I should have been listening!" So it's time to listen, to understand the phenomenon of the last week. There's not much listening as the state seeks vengeance and the mainstream media act as the technicians of consent. This clip is an excellent example of the media doing that job and a wonderful human response to it....... the BBC Vs Darcus Cowe (a voice worth listening to, if the BBC talking head would give the guy a chance....)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJgILxGK0o&feature=play...edded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJgILxGK0o&feature=play...edded This (posted above in this article) is a good Sky TV interview youtube with Broadwater Farm community organiser Stafford Scott on what occured outside Tottenham police station on Saturday This "confessional" piece today by Russel Brand is also valuable"Big Brother isn't watching you" http://www.russellbrand.tv/2011/08/big-brother-isnt-wat...-you/ More confessional statements rather than finger pointing might be a way of starting a worthwhile dialogue. Meanwhile.............
THIS AFTERNOON THE POLICE ADMIT MISINFORMATION FOLLOWING THE SHOOTING OF MARK DUGGAN The first trouble began in Tottenham on Saturday evening after a vigil in support of Mark Duggan outside the local police station. One of the Duggan family grievances was poor communication from the authorities in the early stages. They were particulary upset at suggestions in media reports that Duggan had fired first. This article in the Sun, for example, http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3734274/PC-hi....html.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/12/uk-riots-...ck-39 In response to an inquiry by our correspondent Paul Lewis, the IPCC has sent this statement to the Guardian:
This is significant, as much of the early media coverage referred to an "exchange of shots", with some media outlets clearly implying that police had been shot at first. This issue is one of the key grievances of the Duggan family.
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17What’s a riot without looting? We want it, they’ve got it! You’d think from the press that looting was alien to British tradition, imported by immigrants more recent than the Normans. Not so. Gavin Mortimer, author of http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1849084246/count...hmaga, had an amusing piece in the First Post about the conduct of Britons at the time of their Finest Hour:
A revolution is not a tea party, sniffed Lenin, but he should have added that it often starts off with a big party. Perhaps he was acknowledging that when he said a revolution was “a festival of the oppressed.” After the storming of the Winter Palace in October 1917 everyone was drunk for three days, conduct of which the prissy Vladimir Illich no doubt heartily disapproved.
The riots in London last week started in Tottenham in an area with the highest unemployment in London, in response to the police shooting a young black man, in a country where black people are 26 times more likely to stopped and searched by the cops than whites. Stop-and-searches are allowed under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, introduced to deal with football hooligans. It allows police to search anyone in a designated area without specific grounds for suspicion. Use of Section 60 has risen more than 300 per cent between 2005 and last year. In 1997/98 there were 7,970 stop-and-searches, increasing to 53,250 in 2007/08 and 149,955 in 2008/09. Between 2005/06 and 2008/09 the number of Section 60 searches of black people rose by more than 650 per cent.
ARTICLE CONTINUED..............
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08122011.html
Interesting to read about children looting in 1940 after nights of Luftwaffe bombing; but what is the point or 'moral' of your story? Were the children of Tottenham in 2011 on the same moral level as the children of 1940? Did the poverty among the children in 1940 and 2011 somehow 'explain' the looting? Or are you simply telling us that looting of shops in London (in 1940 including the gas meters of bombed homes) by children as young as 8 or 9 is not without precedent and therefore not something to be astounded by?
I was amazed at the riots and looting in London, Birmingham and elsewhere in recent days. Am I morally outraged? Well, yes, some of the youngsters (in their own words) were doing it for the hell of it and 'cos 'the cops can't stop us'. There was initially in Tottenham some local anger at the police shooting of Duggan; but the copycat riots elsewhere weren't based on that anger. Some of the destruction has added to the redundancy figures, with small businesses gone up in flames.
Of course there is widespread urban blight; there are Sink Estates; there is mass subliteracy and zero social prospects for communities affected by these blights. We have several suburbs in Dublin, Limerick, Sligo, Galway and elsewhere where big percentages of deprived communities face zero prospects for social advancement. The drugs plague and gang murdering add to the blight. Ignoring them now and continually breeds trouble and destruction in the future.
But again, I would like to know the point of the article that begins this thread.
..better than I do.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25974
My question was, what is the point of your story somehow linking 1940 children looting gas meters from bombed London homes to the children who went looting shops recently in Tottenham in 2011? I referred to the post at the beginning of the comments by one Alexander Cockburn, and hope he can answer.
Across the entire media spectrum the opinions are now flying thicker and faster than the half-bricks were just two nights ago. So here’s SchNEWS’ half-assed crack at explaining the recent turmoil on the streets of the U.K.
The recent riots are far too complex for a simple explanation (Maybe it’s just something about Tory governments and Royal Weddings). The facts aren’t all in yet by any means. The riots certainly weren’t ‘pure criminality’ but neither were they anything like a politicised insurrection.
Riots in different parts of the country and even different parts of the capital each had their own flavour. If they had one thing in common it was the fact that they didn’t happen in the estates – the fight was taken to the High St. Hatred of the cops and the possibility of free stuff on a long summer’s evening proved to be an intoxicating mixture. As an aside – both the footage and the roll-call of those in court right now show – this was a long way from race riot - black and white can unite – if only to loot Foot Locker.
ARTICLE CONTINUED....
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/08/483413.html
Jimmy Cliff "Guns of Brixton" http://soundcloud.com/jimmycliffmusic/guns-of-brixton
Recently on the nights of the London riots, I watched the coverage by Sky News of the burning buildings in Crydon. SkyNews showed the burning buildings there and during the course of the coverage, the initially started and caught hold in just one building and then spread from that one building to the entire block. At no point were there any police or fire brigade there. In fact when I think about it SkyNews (owner Rupert phone hacking Murdoch) were well placed for the entire burning and for displaying it to the public. Anyway during the entire coverage at no point were any police or fire brigade present and indeed I recall wondering why no-one had showed up to either contain or put out the fire.
My own conclusion is that this was done intentionally so as to manipulate public anger and direct attention away from the underlying social problems and to allow hysteria to develop so that they could use the narrative that this was just completely about criminal thugs. The thing to realize is that we (Europe) are really only at the very early stages of this depression and there will be far greater cuts to social services and much bigger increases in unemployment. The governments know full well what lies ahead and the sort of actions they will be taking, so it is essential for them to prepare for this by distracting from the underlying cause -which is a huge criminal theft by the financial class and transfer of wealth to the super rich.
This riot was clearly going to be sparked off sooner or later whatever the incident to ignite it was. Therefore it was a good opportunity to let things get out of hand and use it first as a trial run for the police for the riots ahead and as a propaganda assault. Having said all of that whoever did start the fires certainly were wrong and indeed it is criminal. But it is also wrong, which the media does, to imply that all those rioting are somehow are responsible for setting the fire.
Lastly one cannot rule out that some of these fires were not in fact started by agent provocateurs. There seems to be no end of dirty tricks that will be used by the state and we can't rule this out here
We should also compare and contrast the treatment of the financial elite which have effectively burned down the entire economy and have fleeced the public of 100s of billions of pounds. No mention that they are scum and fewer still going to jail or judges sitting up all night to try their cases.
All the rioters wore the brands and uniform of a consumerist system that they don't have the means to be part of. A radical questioning of our value systems is needed. Today Tottenham in flames, tomorrow the Amazon.
I keep hearing comparisons between the London riots and riots in other European cities—window smashing in Athens or car bonfires in Paris. And there are parallels, to be sure: a spark set by police violence, a generation that feels forgotten.
But those events were marked by mass destruction; the looting was minor. There have, however, been other mass lootings in recent years, and perhaps we should talk about them too. There was Baghdad in the aftermath of the US invasion—a frenzy of arson and looting that emptied libraries and museums. The factories got hit too. In 2004 I visited one that used to make refrigerators. Its workers had stripped it of everything valuable, then torched it so thoroughly that the warehouse was a sculpture of buckled sheet metal.
Back then the people on cable news thought looting was highly political. They said this is what happens when a regime has no legitimacy in the eyes of the people. After watching for so long as Saddam and his sons helped themselves to whatever and whomever they wanted, many regular Iraqis felt they had earned the right to take a few things for themselves. But London isn’t Baghdad, and British Prime Minister David Cameron is hardly Saddam, so surely there is nothing to learn there
ARTICLE CONTINUED....
http://www.thenation.com/article/162809/daylight-robber...bbery
Statement from ALARM! (All London Anarchist Revolutionary Movement) On Sunday 15th May 2011 nearly 80 radicals came together to form ALARM! The All London Anarchist Revolutionary Movement.
Read all at http://towerhamletsalarm.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/under...next/ + on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Alarmists
ALARM! (All London Anarchist Revolutionary Movement)
Stop the looting
The Circled A Radio Show : A weekly radio show aired on Tuesdays at 9pm. A variety of Guests from the public eye and others yet to be heard. Turn on, tune in and kick off on Resonance 104.4 FM. or online http://resonancefm.com/listen ALARM (All London Anarchist Revolutionary Movement) and Friends give opinions, eye witness accounts and personal analysis on the continuing rioting that has gripped the city and spread across the country. One Hour Special.
Listen Now: http://thecircleda.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/10th-aug...l.mp3
Infos: http://thecircleda.com/2011/08/10/show-15-10-8-2011-lon...cial/
http://thecircleda.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/10th-august-2011-london-riots-special.mp3
The Circled A Radio Show : London Riots Special
YOUTUBE 10 mins
TOTTENHAM RIOTS AND COMMENT - AFTER THE SHOOTING OF MARK DUGGAN (LONDON) 6-7-8/8/2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiCiJWcT4W4
‘Tottenham Burned’ - a song about the recent Tottenham riot, written and sung by the ever brilliant Robb Johnson.
http://vimeo.com/28605594
Mark Duggan family accuse police of operating a 'shoot to kill' policy
Relatives of Tottenham man whose death during arrest sparked London riots say questions remain over why he was fatally shot.
The family of Mark Duggan, who was shot by police. From left: his girlfriend, Semone Wilson, his father Bruno, brother Shaun and mother Pam. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian
The family of Mark Duggan, the Tottenham man whose death in a police shooting last month sparked five days of widespread riot and disorder, believe officers were operating a "shoot to kill" policy.
Duggan's brother, Shaun Hall, 42, said ahead of Duggan's funeral on Friday: "The police were clearly operating a shoot to kill policy that day. They are supposed to disable, not kill, suspects. If they hadn't shot and killed Mark there would have been no riots."
The family, in exclusive interviews with the Guardian, said they had been told that the bullet fired at Duggan's chest after officers intercepted the taxi he was travelling in, would have killed him in seven to 12 seconds, giving him no prospect of surviving.
They are devastated by his loss and distraught at the misinformation initially put out that the incident in Ferry Lane in Tottenham, north London, was a "shootout".
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is investigating the killing on 4 August, confirmed the two shots that were fired were from a CO19 firearms officer.
The family say they have been told there was no forensic evidence of Duggan's fingerprints on the non-police issue gun recovered at the scene of the shooting, and they have many unanswered questions. The Guardian has established from sources outside the family that the gun was found inside a sock.
ARTICLE CONTINUED............
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/07/mark-duggan-fa...olice
The brother of Mark Duggan, the Tottenham man whose death in a police shooting in August sparked five days of rioting and disorder across England, has said the family has been "ripped apart" by the killing and called on those involved to face justice.
Shaun Hall fought back tears as he told a public meeting on Wednesday that the family were prepared to give the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) a chance to show its "impartiality and independence" in its enquiry into his brother's death.
"Let's have them prove to this country, this nation, internationally, that this is a civilised country and we can come to the right conclusions," he said.
Speaking at the launch of the Tottenham Defence Campaign, which aims to offer legal support and advice to young people in the Haringey area caught up in August's riots, Hall said the family were still struggling to come to terms with what had happened.
"We were told there were 31 police officers involved in the sting on my brother. I call it an assassination," said Hall. "What had my brother done so wrong to deserve this assassination, please tell me?"
Hall, who was flanked by Duggan's partner, Semone Wilson, described his brother as a "good man" although "no angel".
"We are normal people … I miss my brother, we all miss my brother, we are a large family which at the moment, as you can imagine, is being ripped apart."
ARTICLE CONTINUED.....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/05/mark-duggan-br...riots
The brother of Mark Duggan, the Tottenham man whose death in a police shooting in August sparked five days of rioting and disorder across England, has said the family has been "ripped apart" by the killing and called on those involved to face justice.
Shaun Hall fought back tears as he told a public meeting on Wednesday that the family were prepared to give the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) a chance to show its "impartiality and independence" in its enquiry into his brother's death.
"Let's have them prove to this country, this nation, internationally, that this is a civilised country and we can come to the right conclusions," he said.
Speaking at the launch of the Tottenham Defence Campaign, which aims to offer legal support and advice to young people in the Haringey area caught up in August's riots, Hall said the family were still struggling to come to terms with what had happened.
"We were told there were 31 police officers involved in the sting on my brother. I call it an assassination," said Hall. "What had my brother done so wrong to deserve this assassination, please tell me?"
Hall, who was flanked by Duggan's partner, Semone Wilson, described his brother as a "good man" although "no angel".
"We are normal people … I miss my brother, we all miss my brother, we are a large family which at the moment, as you can imagine, is being ripped apart."
ARTICLE CONTINUED.....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/05/mark-duggan-br...riots
London police have got the nod of approval to use rubber bullets and water cannon in the streets of Engalnd today. It could be the first time in British mainland to use rubber bullets, they have killed 16 people in the North over the years.
The warning letters come on the back of a police briefing in which police highlighted that they had authority to fire rubber and plastic bullets – collectively known as baton rounds – at protesters.
It is believed to be the first time baton rounds have been pre-authorised for a planned protest march on the British mainland.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/08/police-warn...tests
BBC: David Willetts on baton use at student fees protest
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15657868
Livestream : http://www.livestream.com/occupylsx
Follow TWITTER channel #nov9 : http://tinyurl.com/bo38umu- Seems plainclothes police carrying out violent arrests in London demos. Tactics increasingly resemble those of authoritarian states https://twitter.com/#%21/search?q=%23nov9
- https://twitter.com/#%21/PennyRed Laurie Penny: A scuffle. Got hit in the jaw by a female police officer. Police can't control the march. #nov9
Student tuition fees protests
• Estimated 10,000 students expected to gather in London• Students marching against education cuts and tripling of fees
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/blog/2011/nov/09/st...-blog
STORYFUL: Student Demo in London 9th Nov 2011
http://storify.com/soundmigration/student-demo-in-londo...-2011
London student protest 9 November 2011: Scuffles with police on new fetter lane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxSxt9yyssU
Cop letter to would be protesters
Occupy Trafalgar Square
Occupy Trafalgar Square - quickly ended by cops
Caption: Video Id: kxSxt9yyssU Type: Youtube Video
London student protest 9 November 2011: Scuffles with police on new fetter lane