The city of London has been witnessing devastating scenes of violence and pain stretching from the northeast to south. For the first time is three decades the city of London was burning.

On 4 August Mark Duggan, 29 was shot dead by police in Tottenham, he was a passenger in a mini cab and was shot after an apparent exchange of fire. Duggan, a father of four, died of single gunshot wound to the chest.

Next day, late noon, around 300 people gathered outside the tottenham police station shouting “we want justice” for Mr. Duggan and his family. Later in the evening there was a mutation in the attitudes of the people of London that marked the eruption of most violent protest against police action in the UK, as bottles thrown at the two patrol cars close to the police station, both vehicles eventually torched.

Collin Sparrow deputy senior investigator for the independent police complaints commission said that the “organization’s complex investigation would for sure take four to six months to complete.” Sporadic spread of looting and destruction in the UK reached Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Midlands in the last two days, leading the situation to become increasingly difficult for the police to control.

An owner of information technology equipment seller in Broad Street, Wolverhampton, said that “he felt like he had a heart attack when he was looted”.

Although there were occurrence of widespread looting and smashing of shops, cash machines and burning of vehicles in Birmingham and Liverpool, the events in London were definitely much larger in scale than in other cities of the U.K.

With rising instability and amid burning fire in the UK, Prime Minister cut his vacation short and landed in London. He said that events of the last three days were ‘criminality’ pure and simple and that he will do everything to restore peace and stability in Britain’s streets.

According to police a total of 26 officers were injured, three patrol cars were torched and dozens of shops, buildings, banks and council offices were damaged and plundered so far in U.K

In Nottingham, a police station was firebombed, around 10 police cars were set alight and 90 people were arrested; and in Manchester a number of cloth shops were set alight, masked youth threw bricks at offices and a sports shop was looted.

These are not race riots or cultural riots; these came to surface as result of the expanding gloom in Britain, where economy is struggling to recover fully and drastic spending cuts, in a bid to reduce debt burden and deficit. One European study claims that about 17 percent of Britain’s Youth can be classified as NEET, Not in Employment, Education and Training, according to reports the areas of Tottenham in London is deprived area.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/fwp-dawson/

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About the author

Muhammed Faraaz
Post-graduate in Economics from India, unfolding complexities and policies. Proponent of Classical Economics.