England Riots 2011 - A personal take on the situation

What started off as the suspicious death of Mark Duggan in Tottenham during an arrest operation by the police has snowballed into a bout of rioting, the likes of which haven’t been seen in England since long before my birth. It all started last Thursday when the Mark was shot dead by the police during an operation gone awry in the London borough of Tottenham. The police claim that he was armed and the shot to the head he sustained was an unfortunate injury. They say that his death was not intended in any way. However, due to my locality to the events and contacts, I have heard otherwise. According to those who were there at the time, Mark was shot in cold blood whilst prone; execution style. Now, you know as well as I that such eye witness accounts can be coloured by bias, especially in such circumstances where relations between the police and the local community are as strained as can be seen in Tottenham, however, it is awfully convenient that the only useful CCTV camera seemed to have malfunctioned on that day and that day only, functioning once again during the ensuing riots.

I won’t make claims against the police, I am in no privileged position to do so, I will, however, say that I have sympathy for the initial riots that were sparked after a peaceful protest of the friends and family of the dead man were ignored for many hours. The police didn’t act fast enough; they made the wrong decision, look at it however you will. What’s done is done and in my view, those initial riots for the justice of Mark Duggan have long since ended; what remains is shear anarchy and senseless violence.

For four days now an infectious wave of opportunism has struck the hearts of every mindless thug, idiotic youth and two-bit criminal that we, of this nation, have the misfortune of sharing this island with. When speaking to a friend on the matter, she said that these sorts had the IQ of a ham sandwich but I disagree. To class them so would be to do a disservice to ham sandwiches; to do so would be an insult to every bread-based meat product that has ever graced this green earth. It takes a certain sort of idiocy, a certain lack of forethought, a complete disregard for yourself and your community to ransack your own town’s centre and steal from those who pay your medical care for your own profit. I don’t think ham sandwiches are that stupid.

Starting in Tottenham, the violence quickly spread to various other boroughs across London, one of which was my home town and it didn’t stop here. With reports of violence in Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham, Nottingham, West Bromwich, Birkenhead, Salford and Gloucester, this excess of human filth has revealed itself as endemic to the entirety of this nation, an infection that we must put right. We cannot rely on the incompetent Tory government in times like these; they will produce a knee-jerk reaction in order to quell the violence and save face, they are still grumpy with the fact that their summer holidays were cut short it seems. We must stand together in the face of this adversity and rise above it, show the scum that their wrongdoings will not go unpunished. They will rue the day they decided to antagonise the good, honest and overwhelmingly decent folk of this great nation.

 An expertly crafted timeline of the events by the BBC

Getting into the spirit of the times, I’ve looted the a bumper pack of jokes from a decent citizen of the net for your entertainment

Police arrest 18 looters at Enfield Argos. All found waiting in foyer for their stuff from the warehouse.

"Would rioter number 562 please go to the checkout...".

If Greenwich is looted expect Black Market to be flooded with ships-in-bottles, lighthouse lamps and rope-framed clocks.

WARNING: Some items looted at weekend will release dyes that stain skin permanently. Tattoo needles mainly.

Only business untouched in Enfield is the Barbeque Supplies Shop. Despite the efforts of twenty men they just couldn't get it to light.

Charity stores looted. Police looking for man who owns VHS, likes puzzles, wearing wedding dress & cardigan, listening to Leo Sayer LP.