MendBritain

Timeline - How did the riots begin?

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On Thursday 4th August, 2011 a man was shot dead by police in Tottenham, London, the police said Mark Duggan allegedly had loaded fire arms on him.

On Saturday 6th August a large group of local people went to the police station in Tottenham with questions about the shooting that they wanted answers for. The vigil started as a peaceful one, until it was reported that a 16 year old girl had gone up to the police line, which had formed outside the station, and was shouting in the face of officers. It is alleged that one of the police officers then shoved her away - this was the initial ignition trigger of the riots which then followed, not only in London but across the whole of the country.

That night, the Borough of Tottenham was destroyed, violence and mayhem then followed and shops were looted and burnt to the ground with the owners losing their livelihoods. Many people also lost their homes as a significant amount of shops had flats above them. The flames took hold very quickly and there was little, if anything these victims could do.

The police were highly criticised due to their lack of action during the looting and arson that occurred. The fire brigade said they were unable to get to many of the fires, due to the unsafe nature of the communities and the risks that would then place on their personal safety.

Riot police were attacked, as were innocent bystanders and sadly this was just the start of 4 days of disorder in the UK

Sunday 7th August witnessed the trouble spread to other boroughs of London and Brixton was one such area and more looting took place. The looters, some as young as 7 years old, took photos of themselves and each other to put on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook as a ‘badge of honour’.

By Monday 8th August the trouble has spread to several other areas of London, many of which were badly affected, such as Croydon, Islington and Hackney. Police officers were informed that all leave had been cancelled and additional police presence was urgently bought into London from surrounding counties.

The London Fire brigade answered a massive 2,169 calls between 6pm on Monday night and 7.19am on Tuesday. By the early hours of Tuesday 9th August, the riots had spread in a ‘copycat’ motion across the country and more of the UK was involved. Bristol, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Nottingham Liverpool Manchester and Salford were all affected. Other smaller pockets of violence were seen and dealt with in Leeds, Huddersfield and Cambridge. The violence and looting by any means was not just confined to one area of the UK.

Communities started to come together to protect their properties and sadly in Birmingham 3 men were ploughed down by a hit and run driver as they tried to protect their streets with friends and neighbours. Four people lost their lives during these dreadful times, as well as Mark Duggan whose death was the catalyst for the week London burnt.

The cost of this destruction has already reached many millions of pounds, people have lost everything in some areas and 111 police officers were injured in the riots, alongside 5 active police dogs that needed medical treatment.

Social media was blamed for the organisation and rapid acceleration of these riots, as it is so easy to send a “tweet” or advertise an event on Facebook. However, it is also important to recognise that the majority of social network users actually care and suddenly messages were being sent organising clean-up events and a new hash tag was born on Twitter of #riotwombles. Not only did this bring people together to mend their communities and cities, but it also became a valuable resource for the police.

Twitter users started posting pictures of the rioters and looters and asking for re-tweets with a ‘name, shame and catch them’ tag - #catchthelooter was born along with several blogs and other websites with national newspapers and police also becoming proactively involved with their own looters galleries.

Even though these riots have had a devastating effect on so many communities up and down England, it just proves that when the going gets tough, as a combined force we can come together and make a difference. Mending Britain no matter what colour our skin is or what beliefs we hold.

If you know of an individual or group that's been involved in any of the riots across the UK, please help the police to identify them and bring these criminals to justice. Have a look at the Mend Britain riot gallery above to see if you can spot any of the perpetrators and if you have any photos or videos of criminals involved, please send them to us for gallery inclusion above.

Disclaimer: By displaying these gallery images above, Mend Britain makes absolutely no accusations, allegations, comments or similar against any people portrayed in them and we do not admit any liability whatsoever connected to or with the photographs. If you have any evidence or can identify individuals, you are advised to directly contact the Police in the relevant area as soon as possible.