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Tottenham rioting

812 replies

sfxmum · 06/08/2011 21:43

has anyone heard? seems to be all over Twitter but not on other media
apparently police cars burning

OP posts:
FellatioNelson · 07/08/2011 13:05

Under reported? Really? What with our very right wing dominated press and everything? Surely not. It's a good job it's been under-reported really then, because it it were fully reported then no doubt people will start accusing the press of being in cahoots with the government and the police in a bid to hush up the murder of an innocent family man and foist the blame onto the Poor People. Wink

Al0uiseG · 07/08/2011 13:09

Even though I live in the sticks, last nights activities have made me want to move to somewhere where that sort of behaviour just isn't tolerated. Singapore or somewhere equally controlled and sterile.

When I'm Prime Minister ...

edam · 07/08/2011 13:14

Fellatio - why are you tarring protest marchers with the same brush as rioters?

On a lighter note, I see Vision Express was one of the shops looted. So presumably the cops should be administering eye tests and arresting everyone without 20:20 vision...

edam · 07/08/2011 13:15

(Not lighter, exactly, bizarre.)

ProfessionallyOffendedGoblin · 07/08/2011 13:19

In one of the many riots that happened where I used to work, they stole a fancy computer printer from our school office. One of our parents 'rescued' it, the guy he got it from was pissed off at having been sold a dud fax machine. Watch out for second hand specs and equipment in local dives would be my recommendation.

OnEdge · 07/08/2011 13:20

edam I dont see how after being shot in the head he could have then fired a shot into the Policeman .

FellatioNelson · 07/08/2011 13:21

I'm not tarring anyone with any brush Edam - I am saying that perhaps both sets of people may have been better to wait for the outcome of the enquiry into the shooting (these things cannot happen overnight if they are to be fair and thorough) before jumping to conclusions that the man was innocent and blameless and the police were at fault.

After all, it is the sensible thing to do, and we must exercise caution and use words like 'allegedly' and 'supposedly' when talking about the dead man's apparent part in his own downfall.

As you have pointed out, all any of us have is heresay so far. It's just a shame that doesn't swing both ways.

Thumbwitch · 07/08/2011 13:23

Saw this on the News tonight here in Australia - some berk made a disparaging comment re. the Olympics being held in London next year - can't imagine that he really thought this would still be ongoing by then? Daft fool.

Am pretty horrified though - and it does look like what started out as a peaceful protest rapidly descended through the auspices of "rent-a-mob" who have just come in to create mayhem, and probably will leave back to their own quieter suburbs when they've destroyed this one.

Those of you living in the areas - stay safe.

cookcleanerchaufferetc · 07/08/2011 13:24

Innocent peope don't allegedly walk around with loaded guns ......

ProfessionallyOffendedGoblin · 07/08/2011 13:26

' can't imagine that he really thought this would still be ongoing by then? Daft fool.'

Why daft? It's not going to be the same riot, but the idea that there may well be riots and stabbings in London in 12 months time is surely feasible.

SardineQueen · 07/08/2011 13:26

Oh this is so sad.

Watching comments on the news it seems that the police handled the family of the man they killed very badly.

Shocking to see these pictures on the telly, just shocking and so sad.

edam · 07/08/2011 13:26

Onedge - time and again the initial police claims around anyone killed by a firearms officer have been shown to be wrong. I'm just waiting for independent confirmation before accepting that first version of events. There was more than one man in the cab, I believe. We don't know whose handgun it was or who fired which shots, particularly not the shot that apparently put a bullet in a radio.

So far, what the IPCC has said is:

(BBC line: The exact sequence of events was still being investigated.)

IPCC: "At around 6.15 officers from Trident, accompanied by officers from the Specialist Firearms Command (CO19), stopped a minicab in Ferry Lane, Tottenham to carry out an arrest.

"Shots were fired and a 29-year-old man, who was a passenger in the cab, died at the scene.

"The attempted arrest was part of a pre-planned operation under Trident.

"It is believed that two shots were fired by a firearms officer, equipped with a Heckler and Koch MP5 carbine.

"A non-police issue handgun was recovered at the scene. An officer's radio which appears to have a bullet lodged in it has also been recovered."

(BBC: The police radio and the handgun have been sent for forensic tests and officers are studying footage from CCTV cameras in the area.)

Thumbwitch · 07/08/2011 13:28

POG - not really - they're not exactly an annual occurrence, are they?

Nancy66 · 07/08/2011 13:29

In fairness to the police though - as the shooting is now part of an investigation then, for legal reasons, there would be very little the police could tell the family

Cheaptrick · 07/08/2011 13:30

I'm shocked that people think its ok to carry a gun. When did this happen?

I'm shocked that a person in the UK has a gun and i dont mean a shotgun the farmer uses.

How horrid must it have been for the injured policemen to deal with that in board day light where the man did open fire at them and there were other people maybe children in the same area?

I support the law of britian and the police in the action they took because if they didn't do that then we would live in a country where everyone has a gun and more innoicent people die - just like the USA.

Rioting, looting and burning people in their own homes is a crimanl offence and the people who did that should go to prison for it.

The law is there for a reson and applies to everyone living in this country.

crazynanna · 07/08/2011 13:31

Agreed Nancy...but they could have offered the family some semblence of support?

Pan · 07/08/2011 13:33

I don't think edam is giving anything other than a health warning when it comes to policing actions in very controversial circumstances. They do have a very poor record at this sort of thing.

and no-one else is claiming the victim to be innocent. More like a lot of posters wish to tire themselves out jumping to poss. erroneous conclusions on the mans guilt for something. (thankfull Tarty has been censored it looks like).

I'd wonder was it really necessary to challenge this bloke when and where they did. And obv. why the immediate protest outside the police station was allowed to bubble away without a snr officer speaking to the protesters, if indeed they didn't.

The lack of professionalism and foolery by former Asst Commissioner Yates at the HoC Select Cmte doesn't exactly fill one with hope that some major fuck up by the Met hasn't occured. But we wait and see.

ActiveVolcano · 07/08/2011 13:34

ObviouslyOblivious, you so very are. Of course there was no police presence because they were all attending the riot in Tottenham. AND, that is exactly WHY the looting took place because they knew this would be the case.

It is absolutely horrific what has happened.

Helicopters and light aircraft in the sky all day. I just heard a lot of sirens and one of the helicopters is hovering over Tottenham High Road. It appears to be flaring up again. There are threats of it continuing tonight.

God help all of us living here.

SardineQueen · 07/08/2011 13:35

Nancy the police should have gone to them and supported them though. Surely that's obvious?

Cheaptrick · 07/08/2011 13:38

I agree i think the police did handly it wrong with regardes to the family. There should have addressed concerns when the protest started.

But i think it needs to be looked at as two different events - the shooting and the handlying by the police and then a different riot by different people.

SardineQueen · 07/08/2011 13:41

The riot was triggered by the friend and family doing a protest march to the police station and then being roundly ignored for hours, from what I have seen on the telly.

The police are being very mealy-mouthed about the whole thing. They are saying the shooting had been passed to another branch to look at, and it was somehow therefore "nothing to do with them" to deal with the family which is patently ludicrous.

ProfessionallyOffendedGoblin · 07/08/2011 13:43

'POG - not really - they're not exactly an annual occurrence, are they?'

The student riots were last year.
Perhaps it is the beginning of a sequence, with the pattern of protesting changing again.

Nancy66 · 07/08/2011 13:46

It doesn't sound like the police handled it well - but I wouldn't trust anybody's version of events at the moment - the family and friends of the shot guy or the police.

Cheaptrick · 07/08/2011 13:47

I think its stupid to loot and burn the shops in their own community that they need. Rioting only hurts the people that live there. They are distroying their own community. Its not very smart is it?

Thumbwitch · 07/08/2011 13:49

I don't recall the student riots last year descending into the mayhem and destruction that this riot is? Did I miss something?