![]() ![]() The selection of stores on their path of destruction is telling. The only cause these children seemed to have been championing is disrespect. Walking home that night I heard not one cry for justice, respite from police brutality or improved economic opportunities. Unlike the Brixton riots of the 1980s, these are far less grounded, if at all, in a political or civil cause. One neighbourhood led to another until the violence had spread to Brixton (the famous site of the 1980s riots against police brutality against blacks), Croydon, Peckham and Clapham Junction, and other cities in England. Peaceful protests at the local police station rapidly turned ugly and sparked rioting and looting in Tottenham. ![]() We also don’t yet know if he fired the first shots. We’re still not sure whether he was a community leader in the notorious way it is used in Trinidad, or if he was a genuine leader. Wearing blue, pinstriped trousers, a shirt with French cuffs and spectacles in the midst of flying glass, I saw the raw ugliness of humanity and was legitimately scared.Īs you would likely know by now, these disturbances started in Tottenham when a black man named Mark Duggan was shot and killed by the police. Store windows were being smashed, and within an hour the group would have trashed and emptied many stores on a nearby shopping street including several electronics, cell phone and jewellery stores and a costume store, which they set on fire. Others were calling their mates on phones letting them know that they’d reached the junction. Some were passing bottles of alcohol into the odd, passing car, with shouts of “Merry Christmas”. These were young, shouting, laughing teenagers stuffing their pockets and throats with bottles of liquor stolen from nearby corner stores. While menacing from afar, I could best describe the atmosphere among the so-called rioters as celebratory. In the streets were kids, some wearing dark jackets, scarves and gloves, but many who were not at all attempting to conceal their identity. I stuffed my laptop in the sleeping bag my sister had returned to me earlier in the day, untucked my work shirt from my trousers, and followed with a deep breath and an even longer steups! My only choice was to walk my typical route, which meant through the tail end of the two to a 400-strong crowd invading my junction. My usual route was crowded with persons entering the station, and, with no police presence, I could either take the other exit or venture down a back road, which would have undoubtedly led me into the heart of the looting. John’s Hill exit to a scene of chaos and mayhem I had never experienced before. On Monday August 8th at 9 p.m., still in work clothes, I left the station via my usual St. John’s Hill where most of the stores, pubs and restaurants are located, the other, Grant Road leads to council estates (plannings), fried chicken joints, and cheap barber shops. There are two exits at our train station one leads to St. There are hard working people here and young educated people who enjoy having access to other young educated people and the places they frequent. It is a nice neighbourhood in the way that Woodbrook is nice. I live on a quiet street in Clapham Junction in South London. ![]()
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