In what is turning out to be Britain’s worst civil unrest in decades, riots in London entered the fourth day with no imminent signs of a comedown.
The riots were sparked off in Tottenham when armed police shot dead Mark Duggan, 29, a father of four, in disputed circumstances on August 4. Violence, clashes with police and sporadic looting were also reported from Croydon, Birmingham, Battersea, Lewisham, Kilburn, Liverpool and Camden as groups of young people pelted police officers with bottles and fireworks and set ablaze buildings, cars and garbage dumps.
Police said that rioters were using phone text messages and social media to carry out lootings, adding that the rioting had changed from a “local issue to organized criminality”. While some commentators contend that the riots point to the deep social unease in the capital’s poorest areas, police and politicians have maintained that much of the violence is purely opportunistic. Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May said the violence was totally unacceptable and announced that 215 people have been arrested and 27 charged so far. About a hundred of those arrested are under 21, while the youngest person charged is an 11-year-old boy.
