Tottenham rioting

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

One man's rioting yobs is another man's community sick to death of police harassment. I lived in that area for years and it is beyond ridiculous. If you're black, you're a crack dealer, apparently. The stereotyping and police racism is absolutely appalling (I am not black, btw, but I witnessed it day in day out).

I don't condone violence AT ALL but a man was shot in the face twice at close range yesterday. Even if he was a 'gangster' (disputed: he had no previous convictions) his crime would have warranted five years in jail max. Instead he got a two bullets in the face - a father of four basically had his head blown off on a busy high street during the day by the police.

People are angry. Fuck the horses.

They're people with no morals and no power in life Alouisegg how awful for the poor woman and baby!

In 1985 a policeman was killed in the Tottenham riots. Let's hope it doesn't end that way again.

TanyaBranning - I think the young man shot a policeman? Generally innocent people don't have guns or shoot policemen.

I think you need to wait for the facts@nancy

the BBC are saying that the murdered man fired at police first, the bullet is lodged in the police radio. Surely more than 5 years for that?

paramedic,police,support staff they didnt ask to be under fire.this notion of its your job so suck it up - appallling dismissal and minimisation of hard job

horses dont "ask" for strife same as human staff dont

my prioritisation isn't boofuckinhoo a horse,and no gushy sentimentality will alter that

tricky isn't it?

I am not defending the individual. But can you not see why people are angry? Do you think all of the people 'rioting' in Tottenham are horrible people? No, they are not. There are women and youngsters and old people out there. The community has broken down temporarily because they do not feel safe - from criminals OR the police. Trust me, if you are a young black male in Tottenham you probably feel police are more of a threat than violent crack dealers.

To the best of my knowledge the crime rates in and around The Farm were greatly reduced.
somehow the protest, legitimate I expect, deteriorated
it is sad I don't like seeing this sort of thing in London

Of course the whole situation is hideous for all involved. And I hope no one who's job involves them entering a riot (or indeed anyone who innocently happens to live in the area) is injured or worse...that goes with out saying.

But I think a point was made that animals who have no understanding of why or what is going on are involved in a very scary situation. Not too fond of horses, myself, but doesn't stop me feeling for them in this situation.

What is it about Tottenham that seems to predispose it to riots? It's not the only inner city borough with problems.

empathise for staff- scared,unsure,tentative
horses not 1st line priority,nor will horse potentially need a debrief and in house support

TanyaBranning "I don't condone violence AT ALL but a man was shot in the face twice at close range yesterday. Even if he was a 'gangster' (disputed: he had no previous convictions) his crime would have warranted five years in jail max. Instead he got a two bullets in the face - a father of four basically had his head blown off on a busy high street during the day by the police."

Are you saying he shot the policeman AFTER he was shot in the head?

I don't think it is predisposed to rioting but there are quite severe problems particularly with the relationships of police and community

unfortunately things seem to be escalating

on another note I am waiting to see what the government comment will be, or will they leave it up to Boris?

Not sure@AlouiseG. I have seen situations that almost became riots in other areas of London - Stoke Newington, Dalston, Harlesden and Kilburn - in recent years, where the police lost control of the situation, yet it didn't quite escalate to this level and obviously wasn't newsworthy. The only thing these areas have in common is poverty, big housing estates and bad policing.

No@danni.
I don't want to comment further as the full details havent been released and I think it would be wrong to start speculating. But what we do know is that the police officer is alive and well and the 'suspect' had his brains spread out over Ferry lane in broad daylight, having been shot twice in the face at close range.

re the triggering event - was it really necessary forthe Met to confront him on a busy road at tea time? ( unless he was on his way to do a blag in his taxi cab? .

Or,

is it posssible at all that Met commanders made a massive tactical and PR fuck up. Noo, surely not...

see that is a point, it is clear it is a difficult area with tense relations and this was a planned operation to the best of my knowledge, it sort of shows part of what is going wrong there

Bad policing is always terrible, corruption seems to happen with depressing regularity. I just fail to see what any section of the community gains from rioting. Surely no one can "win" in that situation.

Jody Mcintyre is calling for people to rise up all over the country against the "feds" on his twitter account. Apparantly if we get 100 people in our local area we can make a difference. I can't see my fellow villagers being up for that.

If he was carrying a gun I would say that confronting him sooner rather than later would be the sensible option.

A "perp" ffs?