London rioting roils UK in wake of man's shooting death by police

Published: Sunday, August 07, 2011, 6:21 AM
Updated: Sunday, August 07, 2011, 6:29 AM

By Conor Berry, The Republican The Republican



AP Photo

A riot police officer looks on as fire rages through a building in the North London neighborhood of Tottenham early Sunday. A demonstration against the death of a local man at the hands of the police turned violent as cars and shops were set ablaze.


LONDON — Rioting continued into Sunday morning in the North London neighborhood of Tottenham, where protesters angry over the shooting death of 29-year-old Mark Duggan took to the streets to vent their fury on British law enforcement officials.

Duggan, described by one police source as a "gangster," was shot dead by a special London Metropolitan Police unit after the minicab he was traveling in was stopped Thursday evening.

According to a report in The Daily Mail, there was an apparent "exchange" of gunfire and a bullet was found lodged in a police radio.

The incident remains under investigation by British authorities, who moved quickly to quell the violence that erupted in the streets of Tottenham on Saturday evening. The rioting continued through Sunday morning, according to published reports.

On Saturday evening, about two dozen Duggan supporters, including family members and friends, gathered outside the Tottenham police station to protest his death. About three hours into the demonstration, however, the crowd swelled and things quickly turned violent as protesters hurled projectiles and bottles and started fires, CNN reported.

Patrol cars, a shop and a double-decker bus were torched, followed by reports of looting, London authorities said.

CNN said London police officials didn't anticipate the violent backlash.


AP photo

Riot policeman stand guard in Tottenham, north London, Saturday night after two patrol cars were attacked by members of a community where a young man was shot dead by police on Thursday. Officers had been attempting to carry out an arrest under the Trident operational command unit, which deals with gun crime in the predominantly black Tottenham community, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.


"We did not have warnings that we were going to see the kind of disorder being witnessed tonight," Scotland Yard Police Commander Stephen Watson said. "We are aware of raised tensions in the community, which are understandable following the tragic death of Mark Duggan."

More than 100 officers and specialist riot police faced down crowds of more than 500 people, who turned the heavily Caribbean and immigrant neighborhood into a veritable war zone.

Protesters pelted officers with bottles and bricks as police charged at the crowd and blocked off streets. At least one officer and several others were hospitalized as a result of the rioting, according to The Associated Press,

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating the shooting. The Telegraph reported that IPCC Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne has expressed her sympathy for the concerns voiced by Duggan family members and the community at large, who are demanding answers about what prompted Duggan's death.

"This case was referred to the IPCC immediately and we declared it an independent investigation and sent our investigators straight to the scene in Tottenham, where they took control and remained until late Friday night, supervising the forensic examinations," Cerfontyne said, noting that an independent investigation "means that all aspects are carried out by IPCC investigators."

Meanwhile, others are calling for calm as authorities attempt to sort out the chain of events that led to Duggan's death on Thursday.

The violence exhibited by some neighborhood residents is "not representative of the vast majority of people in Tottenham," said David Lammy, a member of Parliament who represents the North London suburb.

"The Tottenham community and Mark Duggan's family and friends need to understand what happened on Thursday evening when Mark lost his life. To understand those facts, we must have calm," Lammy told the BBC.

Material from CNN, the BBC, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and The Associated Press was used in this report.


VIDEO of London rioting in the wake of Mark Duggan's shooting death by police:







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