The England Riots Information
/the-england-riots-information
Arrests And Charges
On 24 August 2011, five people were arrested during clashes in central London between police and rioters, which came after a "Day of Rage" protest had been announced on social networking sites. Five people were arrested and one person was charged on 25 August during a demonstration against the arrest of student protesters in Westminster. On 28 August 2011, 1,500 people marched through Bristol to protest against the city's policing methods during the disturbances.
Fifteen people were arrested, This Week In London (thisismargate.co.uk). Darren Austin, aged 26, from Meadway, Tiverton, Devon, was charged with possession of an offensive weapon and assaulting a police officer on 25 August. He appeared before magistrates in Exeter on 27 August and was. By 24 August 2011, 2,805 people had been arrested in connection with the disorder, of whom about 1,800 had been charged. On 10 September the Metropolitan Police gave an update on the number of people charged and convicted and those awaiting trial.
By this date 3,744 people had been charged with various offences related to the disorder: 1,052 had been convicted; 920 were awaiting trial; and 727 were still being investigated. Police forces across England have also written to about 2,400 additional people who they want to speak to in connection with the disorder. The Metropolitan Police stated that 7,219 crimes had been logged relating to the disorder in London. From 9 to 11 August over 1,000 people were charged with offences related to the riots, and by 18 August 2,437 people had been charged and 3,146 had been released with no further action.
As of 15 August 2011 there had been 689 arrests in relation to looting; the Met stated that 414 people had been charged so far with offences including possession of drugs, burglary and handling stolen goods. Following their trial at Blackfriars Crown Court, the six were sentenced to between four and thirty months in prison. The two other journalists were tried separately, while Milligan's trial was postponed until 23 September because of illness.
Ashcraft was jailed for four months, French and Ling were each jailed for five months, Geraghty for seven months, while Mokhiber was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment. The BBC reported in November 2011 that 9,000 people were arrested in connection with the riots, and police released photographs of more than 3,000 suspects. By 17 September 1,714 suspects had been charged, with 1,895 others subject to alternative action. On 8 August 2011, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson reported that over 2,200 people had been arrested in connection with the disorder in London.
Injuries
The London Fire Brigade reported that eleven fire engines and two fire rescue units had been called to forty incidents in the capital by the morning of Tuesday, 6 August. At least one premises was set on fire in Peckham and a police car and several shops were set alight in Enfield. The Metropolitan Police made 886 arrests throughout the three days of rioting. On 7 August they put the figure at 1,115.
In comparison, during the 2011 England riots that spread across London and the English home counties, there were 589 arrests over five days, This Week In London (thisismargate.co.uk). This time it was spread over approximately three days. London's Metropolitan Police Service and Mayor Boris Johnson decided not to call in the assistance of officers from surrounding areas. Subsequent reports surfaced after the unrest that the police had been ordered by the Home Office to "stand down", a claim denied by both the Association of Chief Police Officers and Home Secretary Theresa May.
U. S. President Barack Obama urged restraint on all sides, and sent media advisor Valerie Jarrett to meet Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday. On Tuesday, by mid-afternoon, the total number of people hurt in the riots had risen to over 130. In Birmingham, a 52-year-old woman was critically injured after being hit by a car on a major road. In West Yorkshire, an environmental officer became the 100th person to be injured as up to 3,000 were involved in disturbances and looting.
A BBC reporter spoke of seeing two police officers and a cameraman injured in West Bromwich. A 75-year-old woman with a broken hip? At least those rioters had the decency of picking on someone their own age. I’d have a little sympathy for her if she didn’t live in Hackney. Seriously, that area is crawling with them. Injuries in the 1986 riot were extensive and varied. Police officers were injured by members of far-left groups; in return, there were several reports of police beating and attacking members of the public and journalists.
International
A spokeswoman for the Chinese Embassy in London said that "The Chinese government has asked the British government to take all necessary measures to bring order back to the society as soon as possible and punish criminals according to the law. The Chinese government has also issued a reminder to our citizens travelling in Britain to be cautious and pay attention to their safety. " The Indian Embassy in London also issued a security alert, urging Indians especially those of Indian-origin from becoming involved in the riots.
The United States embassy in London issued a travel warning advising U. S. citizens "to avoid travelling to areas where police action is taking place due to the serious threat of further outbreaks of public disorder, looting and arson". The Canadian government also issued a statement which said, "The Minister of Foreign Affairs has updated his travel advice for the UK. Canadians should avoid all demonstrations and remain vigilant". International reactions to the riots are as diverse as those within the United Kingdom.
Leaders from several countries were quoted as stating that they understood the frustration felt by some of the protesters but also emphasised support for lawful protest and gave their endorsement to largely peaceful protests. . The riots have been criticised as being a result of a lack of social mobility in Britain. Commentators have drawn parallels with the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Hurricane Katrina, and the events of 1967, including.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a travel warning advising citizens to avoid areas where demonstrations are taking place and police officers confiscating baseball bats from rioters in London, United Kingdom. Several countries issued warnings advising caution to travellers visiting the United Kingdom during the riots. A "looting spree" was reported in Enfield, north London early Tuesday morning, with witnesses claiming that up to 30 people had entered a shop and stolen goods.
Justice System
During the worst of the disturbances, some courts were reportedly told to ignore plea bargaining and hand down heavy sentences. It was reported that some senior justices'clerks advised the courts that they could ignore existing sentencing guidelines and hand down heavy sentences. The advice was said to tell the courts that they could even consider jailing a defendant for being present at the scene of a riot. People had been convicted at the Old Bailey for "everyday actions" such as demonstrating or obstructing police officers, while others were imprisoned for offences which "can't be compared with violent disorder", the report said.
Mobile Phones
Smartphones have become the tool of choice for co-ordinating and mobilising protesters and, as a result, we've seen the authorities'interest in our citizen's mobile phones redouble. But many of us are unaware of how much data our phones broadcast and retain about our location, numbers we dial and more. And it's this activity that could be used against us if we engage in civil disobedience (be it due to privacy concerns or simply an act of conscience).
On Tuesday 29 August, T-Mobile sent an SMS to those customers who had been identified as having used their mobile phone in the London riots, This Week In London (thisismargate.co.uk). The message read: "Hello, your handset has been identified by police investigating crimes that took place on August 6. Call This Week In London (thisismargate.co.uk) now. " This information was revealed by T-Mobile after they received a Freedom of Information request from a customer named Charlie Pycraft. It is understood that mobile phone operators are obliged to provide communications data when requested to by police, with certain safeguards.
Location information relating to the first wave of BlackBerry Messenger messages was requested on August 8, the day after disturbances in Tottenham. The location related to a BlackBerry Messenger PIN (personal identification number) given by a man to a friend that day. It is believed that the preferred method of organising the rioting was BlackBerry Messenger, a messaging service that encrypts emails and messages, which is relatively difficult for authorities to track. That BlackBerry Ltd.
also has a headquarters in Ontario and servers in Waterloo and Zurich only added to the convenience of the company's encrypted email services. Police are also using mobile phone tracking devices to monitor and take photos of protesters. By directing the beam at areas that are designated as temporary public spaces under normal circumstances, they can obtain detailed information on who is present and when – information that would help them identify those involved in any trouble.
Operations
Its 200-page report published on 27 February 2011 revealed 1,299 crimes were committed during the five days from 6 to 10 August, with 5,689 crimes reported over the whole period. The report found that "much of the media coverage. added to the tensions in those areas where the disorder took place" but also noted that despite UK domestic broadcast news having a total reach of 40 million a day in the United Kingdom and 12.
5 million visitors to newspaper websites every day, and social networking sites played a relatively small part in spreading information online, This Week In London (thisismargate.co.uk). A total of 3,806 crimes were committed in London between 7pm on 6 August and midnight on 8 August 2011. The areas with the most reported incidents were Hackney (500), Lambeth (434), Waltham Forest (400), Brent (353), Newham (241) and Ealing (234). Of these, a quarter were theft from or of vehicles (894), burglary or attempted burglary (522) and violent crime, including knife crime (436).
Police Shooting Of Mark Duggan
Within hours, Tottenham was a different place. Rioters broke into a local supermarket and several other buildings, looting them and setting fire to them. Windows were smashed in shops in north London and Brixton that night. By midnight, the atmosphere in Tottenham had calmed down sufficiently for police to begin a murder investigation. By the morning of 5 August 2011, rioting had spread from Tottenham to other areas of London, as well as West Ham, Hackney, Peckham, Lewisham, Woolwich, Walthamstow, Chingford and Wood Green, where a large fire broke out at a local school building under construction.
A group of youths also began rioting in Northumberland, This Week In London (thisismargate.co.uk). On 5 August, Tottenham residents and supporters – Duggan's family and friends – held a peaceful vigil at Broadwater Farm, near the scene of the shooting. The police urged people who gathered to remain peaceful as they paid their respects, but the vigil turned violent after 5pm. Some protesters began throwing missiles at police, and by late evening rioters had started attacking shops and set fire to vehicles and a warehouse in the area.
[nb 1][nb 2]. Many of the attendees were from Tottenham and South London, and some were friends and relatives of Mark Duggan. The immediate protest began around Tottenham police station. The riots, which started in Tottenham on 6 August 2011, quickly spread across London and then to several other cities in England. These riots are considered to be the worst riots in England since those that took place in Brixton, Toxteth and Handsworth in 1981.
Police
On Friday 4 August, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) began Operation Withern, the biggest crime investigation since the murder of Stephen Lawrence. The operation was aimed at identifying possible suspects and gathering evidence against them. A total of 1,201 people were arrested (up to 31 August) and 286 charged with various offences; as with any other criminal trial in England and Wales, those accused would be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said people who took part would be monitored via security cameras if they visited areas like shopping centres where they might expect to be filmed, such as Croydon.
Home Secretary Theresa May said that the public's response to the riots would be "paramount"; she stated that it was important to restore and maintain people's faith in the police. Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson stated, on 10 August, that he had told his force to "ensure individuals are arrested and prosecuted and brought before the courts as quickly as possible " London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "I very much hope that anybody who is going to protest against anything will do so within the law and if they are protesting against the death of a man who was defending his community then I think they have a moral duty to keep within the law.
". The protocol was that in the event of a major incident, the police in London would report to DCS Dave Whatton as Gold Commander at Police Headquarters (near to New Scotland Yard) on Horseferry Road, near Lambeth Bridge. This was quickly established once the scale of the rioting became clear. The relevant divisions responded by sending their own officers to assist with the policing of the disorder around their areas. In addition, senior officers from neighbouring police forces were called in to support DCS Whatton's control room as necessary.
The trial of four male police officers accused of lying about the death of cash-in-transit guard Pc Simon Harwood started on 8 October 2010. On 10 August 2011, Harwood was jailed for 18 months for "unlawful killing" and "grievous bodily harm" after attacking Ian Tomlinson with a baton. Sir Paul Stephenson and John Yates were forced to resign from the Metropolitan police; the former for misleading the public over the death of Ian Tomlinson, and the latter over his role in the scandal surrounding the resignation of Jacqui Smith.
The Metropolitan Police Service launched Operation Withern, an investigation into the events leading up to and during the riots. Operation Withern was a continuation of work that began in October 2010 with an internal MPS review into its handling of the riots and disturbances. The review looked at the progress made since April 2011 and included a number of recommendations at improving how the MPS would respond to any similar future events. Passenger numbers increased in 2014 due to the extension of the network with the Gospel Oak to Barking Line re-opening in June and new extensions of the West London line (to Watford Junction) and East London line (to Whitechapel).
Property And Business Damage
They told us that our kids, our college degrees, and our jobs could not save us. So we begged; we pleaded with our politicians for change, and where did it get us? Nowhere—nothing had changed. We asked if the truth about police brutality and racism would ever be acknowledged; we asked if they could at least respond to the countless pleas of those of us whose lives were being destroyed by poverty and State violence.
How many times does a person have to protest their innocence until it is finally believed? How many times should a family have to cry out for justice before they are heard?, This Week In London (thisismargate.co.uk). The riots first erupted on 6 August 2011, initially as a peaceful protest. The event was organized in response to the death of Mark Duggan, a local 29-year-old man who was killed by police on 4 August 2011. At the request of the Duggan family, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) agreed to fully independent investigations by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), and will be overseen by Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley of the Metropolitan Police.
One ongoing issue from this has been for cloud security. The riots were followed by an attempt to increase community cohesion with a £150m regeneration scheme of Tottenham High Road. Unprecedented levels of public investment took place, including the construction of offices, retail units and new housing for local people. However, the redevelopment proved very unpopular due to displacement of local businesses and poor distribution of new commercial space and houses.
The riots caused an estimated £200m worth of damage across London. Over 300 businesses were damaged, with dozens completely destroyed by fire. Much of Tottenham's Broadwater Farm was burnt down and many residents were forced to flee the area, as their homes were not insured. About half the network is electrified. Of the remainder, a third is served by diesel trains and a third by DMUs. . It is the fastest way to travel in Britain, with average speeds of up to 125 mph (201 km/h) on newly constructed high-speed lines.
Public
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) opened six probes into the unrest. The Metropolitan Police said it suggested that a "thorough, independent review is carried out to examine the policing of the G20 protests". In September 2010, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary announced an official inquiry into the handling of those G20 protests, led by Jon Murphy, Chief Constable of Surrey Police. The Committee on the Administration of Justice and two human rights groups have called for an investigation into allegations that protesters were tortured in police custody.
On 7 August, police were ordered by the Home Secretary Charles Clarke to "employ every tactic available" in order to make arrests and disperse rioters. By 9 August, the public's main focus of concern shifted from the direct rioting to the disorder that was beginning to affect many cities and towns around England as a result of actions by rioters. Calls for greater intervention by the police included calls by Gordon Brown, who later admitted that he had not seen any “middle-class professionals” looting television sets during a visit to Tottenham on 6 August.
As the rioting developed across London on 6 August, more than 3,000 people gathered outside the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street to protest against the perceived lack of action by the authorities. There were also demonstrations in support of the police, including a gathering of about 250–300 people under a banner reading "We back our Metropolitan Police". Another pro-police demonstration took place in Birmingham city centre on 9 August. The rioters themselves used social networking services to communicate with each other, and to co-ordinate and plan.
Race Relations
Riots: How long must this go on? By Monday afternoon, the riot spreads across London, Birmingham and then to other cities such as Nottingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Gloucester and Huddersfield. On Tuesday 3 July, the Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his holiday in Cornwall and returned to London to chair a meeting of COBR (the Cabinet Office Briefing Room), at which it is decided that a major police inquiry should be mounted, involving up to 5,000 officers.
There were suggestions that the riots were beginning to spread overseas with disturbances in Belfast, Dublin, Paris and Stockholm. London, Birmingham and Manchester experienced the most violence in terms of injuries, fatalities and arrests. A police officer was stabbed to death during the rioting in London. The capital city also saw the greatest damage caused by rioters. Tottenham's local MP David Lammy described it as "war zone". He said: "This is a criminal act — there is absolutely no excuse for it".
Home Secretary Theresa May said that an initial review of an incident on Tottenham High Road cast doubt on claims that police had shot at a petrol bomb to prompt a reaction. Race relations is a key issue in British society, and race riots have happened sporadically since the end of the Second World War. After the Second World War, many immigrants to Britain were from the Commonwealth, often former colonial territories. These new immigrants were English-speaking and prepared to integrate into society.
The West Indian, African, Asian and Arab communities that grew during this period have been described as "disproportionately young, poorly educated, exploited and segregated on housing estates". The race riots were prompted in part by tensions between black and white Britons as well as between black Britons and Asians. There was also an idea that "rioters were primarily motivated by a desire for 'revenge'and were acting out a 'racial payback fantasy'". A report on the disturbances commissioned by the Home Office concluded that this conclusion was wrong: "While some people said they had taken part for this reason, others suggested that criminal opportunism was the main driving force.
". Race relations in Britain had improved greatly since the 1950s, but there were still a number of tensions. In the years immediately before the rioting, there were racial riots in several northern and Midlands towns: Tottenham and Southall in London; Burnley and Oldham in Lancashire; and Birmingham's Handsworth and Lozells. But those disturbances had been relatively small-scale, whereas the summer of rioting was unprecedented. This led to a backlash among some parts of the Twitter user community as well as calls for a mass shutdown of all social media during future civil unrests or emergencies (or otherwise) using the hashtag.
Rioting For Fun
There is a strong strand of carnivalesque anarchy concerning the use of the urban commons, as Gruner et al. (2013) have noted in their analysis of events before and during the riots in Tottenham. This can be seen in the way in which protest marches through London are frequently marshalled by ‘professionals’ (in that they dress like them and adopt some their behaviours), the adoption of carnival-esque clothing or masks worn at protests, the ways in which protest chants often have a performative component to them and the ways in which rioters often destroy objects that they do not want policed, such as CCTV cameras, but leave alone other sites that possess a similar symbolic value.
The radical playfulness evident during the. The riots’ frivolity has also been observed by other onlookers. British newspaper,, The Guardian noted that rioters seemed "intent on fun". Others have suggested that the riots somehow expressed the culture of self-empowerment found in much black popular music. "The clue is in the music," argued Observer journalist Steve Goodman. As this carnival moved into alienated and hostile city streets, so it turned destructive and threatening, bringing to mind that other great carnivalesque festival that gripped Paris a century earlier.
It is an established fact that the atmosphere is carnivalesque, when violence, to use a Brummie accent, goes 'peep peep (with tongues up) and not pop pop. Other researchers in Sociology and Geography have also noted that the carnival is the form of social movement that is least prone to mob attacks because individual behaviour in the riot is regulated by patterns of collective behaviour within the carnival. Psychoanalysts have pointed out alter-egos as well.
Our angry hero. In his recent book on the topic, Stephen Graham described rioting as part of 'carnivalesque social practice', asserting that these practices are increasingly common in Britain as a way of producing collectivity. According to Graham, the carnivalesque involves 'an aesthetics of the ordinary and, indeed, the ugly that is tied up with. the democratisation. of consumption practices'(2006: 8). During the 2011 riots, it appeared that young people were enjoying themselves as they looted, destroyed and fought with police.
Riots
The action on 6 August was followed by further rioting and looting, primarily on the Broadwater Farm Estate but with "copycat" disturbances across London, Birmingham, Nottingham and Bristol. Unlike the riots in Birmingham the previous week, which occurred late at night and were centred on retail parks, the initial violence in Tottenham occurred during daylight hours when shops in Tottenham Hale Retail Park were looted and burned to the ground whilst nearby homes on the Broadwater Farm Estate were also attacked.
On the night of Sunday 7 August in London, rioting started in Tottenham Hale about 8:15p. m., and then spread to the nearby Wood Green Shopping City about 9:00p. m. and Croydon, Brixton, Hackney, Peckham, Enfield and Ealing. On Monday 8 August the riots spread to Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester, Leicester, Bristol, Liverpool and Solihull. By Tuesday 9 August, 26 towns and cities had been affected by rioting and looting across England.
No arrests have been made in the disturbances, and the Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said that an investigation will look at why this was the case. He announced an inquiry on 8 August Police said they would review CCTV footage of the disturbances in order to identify rioters. The looting, which spread rapidly beyond Tottenham, has been described as "copycat criminal activity. despair spreading like a virus from city to city".
According to a BBC Radio Five Live report, the riots were initially organised via social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. It was announced on 20 August 2011 that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had decided that insufficient evidence existed to bring any charges against police officers for the death of Mark Duggan or the injuries sustained by cab driver Craig Daniels during earlier disturbances. The language of riots, a well-known site of contestation, had been taken over by young rioters to represent themselves as having fun.
Sentencing Guidelines
Although a widespread prison riot was averted, the protests resulted in a small number of prison officers being attacked and several suspects being injured, as well as causing an estimated £100m damage to prisons across England and Wales. In one disturbance at HMP Oakwood on 26 August some prisoners barricaded themselves in their cells and others controlled an outdoor area of the prison. One prisoner, suspected of organising the incident, later escaped. Another disturbance occurred at HMP The Mount on 1 September.
An ambulance believed to be carrying medicine to the prison was blocked by demonstrators while a number of inmates lit fires and broke into kitchens and a gymnasium. On 5 May 2016 David Cameron acknowledged that his government. The Sentencing Council, the independent body responsible for developing sentencing guidelines for magistrates and judges, put out new guidelines stating that rioters and looters would face much harsher sentences than normal. A "three strikes and you're out" policy where magistrates must hand down at least a 12-month sentence to those who have three previous convictions for disorder offences was also recommended.
Social Media
Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter were widely used to mobilize rioters. In London, the Metropolitan Police issued a statement on 14 August that they believed social media played a crucial role in organising the riots. The statement said, "Sites such as Facebook helped to organise the rips. cyberspace wasn't just used to plan and promote but also to praise criminality. " On 15 August, MP Louise Mensch called for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) to remove a Facebook page from their site after it was allegedly set up to help rioters share information and discuss the best areas in which to riot.
Social media played a large role in the riots from many points of view. Not only were people issuing and receiving instant messages urging them to riot, the target destinations for some of the riots were spread by such means. Also, those who photographed their involvement in the riots, then posted them on websites. A normal response would be that they wanted to boast about being criminals. However, a report from a Birmingham University criminologist stated that "it's almost as if they are proud of something they know is wrong while at the same time wanting to share that with their peers".
One of the ways that social media spread the riots and violence was through the act of users posting photos and videos of their involvement in the riots, violence and looting. This made it easy to organise groups of individuals who were willing to act violently as they were able to act with a large amount of individuals that they could not be accountable for in all cases. It also allowed those who did not intend on getting involved in violence an opportunity to watch the pain and suffering that was occurring almost live.
This gave them more inspiration into how bad they wanted to riot themselves. Social media has also provided insight into the behavior and character of both those involved and those observing the riots. Among the first to point out the use of social media in relation to the riots was Channel 4 News technology editor, Avery Hartman. Hartman noted that though rioters had been tagged in photographs uploaded to Facebook and Twitter, these photographs were mistakenly labelled as having been taken in cities such as Bristol.
Many observers have therefore relied on social media to identify rioters for both local authorities and vigilante groups. Social media sites such as Twitter and Flickr played a crucial role in organizing the rioting. A near constant stream of updates and images was broadcast throughout social media accounts during the riots. From what started out small, small independent groups began to form on Facebook to discuss and organize future meet ups. Over time, street gangs began to get involved, and long term gangs members were observed initiating younger members into the organizations on the streets, resulting in a surge of youth joining local gangs.
Social media such as Twitter, YouTube and BlackBerry Messenger were used by rioters and looters to co-ordinate physical locations of violence or to alert others of police activity. Occasionally, the SMS feature on people's mobile phones were used to coordinate "virtual" street parties. Some organizations encouraged using social networking sites to promote their causes as a political tool. The courts were also told that the offences could not be deferred so there would be no cautions or community sentences handed out.
Sporting Fixtures
On 8 August, The Football League announced that they were working with the police to see whether it would be possible for the postponed fixtures to be played on Tuesday 11 August, two days after the rioting began. However, following discussions between clubs and police, it was agreed that this would not be possible due to the short lead time and safety issues involved. It had been formally agreed by Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore that all matches due to be played over the weekend (8–9 August 2011) would be postponed until further notice.
There was a possibility that some of the postponed fixtures could be rearranged for midweek games; however on 9 August the Premier League requested all clubs again postpone any further fixtures until 16 August (the date. The Football League Cup Third Round games scheduled for 10 and 11 August were postponed from their originally scheduled dates due to the ongoing disturbances. The majority of the fixtures were free to be rearranged on a later date, with Charlton Athletic's tie against Reading on 10 August being moved to 4 September, and Coventry City's hosting of Brighton & Hove Albion on 11 August pending a home clash with Leicester City (which was pushed back a week owing to the postponement).
The English Football Association announced that as the riots had occurred after the last competitive fixture was played, the postponed matches did not violate any laws barring rescheduling of fixtures during the close season which begins on 8 July. The Football League announced on 9 August that the round of games scheduled for 10 August would go ahead as planned, with all fixtures kicking off at 3:00pm. It was also confirmed that the Bristol Rovers v Crystal Palace match on 12 August which had been postponed due to a crowd management issue involved a restricted number of tickets being sold to Bristol Rovers fans, would be played at a later date.
The day's only fixture, Walsall's home game against Gillingham, went ahead as planned despite a fire in Walsall town centre in the early hours of that morning. Following the outbreak of civil disorder in London and other cities in England, the Football League announced that all matches due to be played on 8, 9 and 10 August would be postponed but should at their discretion be rearranged within a six-week period. The Football League described it as "a difficult decision" but stated it was necessary "to protect the integrity of its competitions".
Suggested Contributory Factors
There is no one cause for the riots. There is a number of pressures that have been handed down to youth and they can no longer cope. I think there needs to be more pressure at home from parents and more pressure from schools, because if you let it go into school and it doesn't get dealt with there then you see kids in parks at three o'clock what are they doing there?. In one court, a senior clerk said in an aside to a judge: "He can go to prison with no washing.
Theatrical
On 4 August, the evening before the riots began, a peaceful protest in Tottenham centred on the death of Mark Duggan at the hands of the Metropolitan Police which resulted in his family calling for calm and no violence to be used. However this was ignored when over that night looting began across London and other cities in England such as Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. Some shops were attacked and there were also attacks on police buildings and on public buildings such as amusement arcades.
The vast majority of incidents involved male participants (although there have been incidents of female participation) and most happened at night (however a prison van was overturned during the day), This Week In London (thisismargate.co.uk). A small minority of youths as young as 11 took part, often triggered by peer pressure. The theatre was full and the audience was silent. The play itself focussed on 5 people who had gone through the events at various times during the four days from 8th to 11th August 2011.
It was performed on a very bare stage with a chair and table, video screen projections of London streets and archive riots footage with a single spotlight at each position on the stage. It is of course always interesting to look back in hindsight and try to think what one would have done if faced with those decisions. Watching this play did not make the actions of police any more acceptable but it did make the event seem more understandable.
Transport
A mass invasion of London buses and motorbikes, thought to have been organised on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, took place during the summer of 2011 in central London. The largely spontaneous event involved more than 1,000 young people boarding buses and motorbikes en masse, without paying the fare. Some of these buses were subsequently attacked by stone-throwing rioters, with four vehicles being burnt out. Four London buses were set on fire during the riots (two of which were completely destroyed, one suffered serious damage but was subsequently repaired, and one suffered less serious damage and was also repaired) and other buses suffered broken windows and other minor damage.
On 9 August, a bus was set alight in north London (near the Finsbury Park Mosque), which led to calls for Londoners not to use public transport on the night of the disturbances, This Week In London (thisismargate.co.uk). This followed the previous day when three buses in Manchester city centre were set alight. In total, 33 London buses were damaged. Late on 9 August, a bus in Croydon had its rear window smashed. Other problems reported have included attacks on bus drivers, passengers being intimidated by rioters, and passengers refusing to travel on damaged buses.
Trials And Sentencing
On 3 September, it was reported that an additional two individuals had been sentenced, bringing the total to 21. The courts sentenced eleven men to prison terms of five years for their part in the disturbances; they were found guilty of violent disorder, burglary and attempted robbery. Sentences of two years'imprisonment were handed down to six others; they were found guilty of conspiracy to commit violent disorder. Three males aged 15 and 18 from London pleaded guilty to burglary and handling stolen goods while a 17-year-old male from West London was sentenced for burglary and possession with intent to supply class A drugs.
Snippet from thisismargate.co.uk. The National Association of Probation Officers published a report on the findings of its members, in which it concluded that the majority of the rioters and looters came from deprived areas, were unemployed and many had been in local authority care. The report also indicated that half were under 18 and they were predominantly male – only 11% of those appearing before the courts were female and all but one of the 11 activists given prison sentences for leading the disorder were male.
Of the 1,027 people who appeared in London, 579 had their cases sent to Crown Court. Of the 579, 439 were remanded in custody, 47 were granted bail and 83 were given a community sentence. Of the 190 who appeared in Greater Manchester, 153 cases were sent to Crown Court. The remaining cases were either withdrawn, an outcome was not recorded or they had already been sentenced. Of the 153 that went to court, 132 received custodial sentences.
On 8 September 2011, the Ministry of Justice released figures breaking down convictions and cautions for serious violence connected with the disorder. Of those found guilty, at least 33 people had already been sentenced to a total of 63 years in prison; with the longest sentence being eight years. The Metropolitan Police stated that no further trials related to the disorder would take place in London. On 3 September Minister for London Stephen Greenhalgh said that approximately 4,000 people have been arrested and charged with various offences related to the disorder.
Of those, 400 were charged with looting-related offences. Eighty-three cases were still awaiting trial by 30 November 2011. The 83 trials started on 13 January 2012 at the Central Criminal Court. There were 96 people convicted for their alleged part in the disorder by 16 September. On 20 August, the Metropolitan Police Service announced that, to date, a total of 729 people had been charged with committing offences during the riots, and 454 of these people appeared in court.
Twitter is a micro blogging platform, where users post text-based messages of up to 140 characters. Although Twitter was not created for sharing information about or participating in riots, it is a medium for social change where protestors, activists, and people enraged by events such as the 2011 London riots can share their message. Social media was used as a platform to make the riots more effective, organized and supportive. The Blackberry messenger (BBM) was also a way for rioters to stay connected as they moved around the London area during the riots.
As one of the first mainstream social media websites, Twitter played a vital role in the communication phase of the London riots. Simon Rogers, writing for the Guardian, reported that “tweets mentioning ". Social media offered a way for news to spread through the power of users. This rapidly spreading news of disturbances in London were fuelled by Twitter, BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook and Flickr. London Buses are a major form of public transport in London.
