Despite reassurances from British Prime Minister David Cameron that
order would be restored, rampaging youths struck in at least two new
cities on the fourth night since rioting erupted in London.
Police in the central city of Nottingham said that a group of between
30 and 40 men firebombed a police station in the city centre Tuesday
night. There were no reports of injuries, and several male suspects were
attested at the scene.
Seven people were arrested in the northwestern city of Manchester
after hundreds of youths ran amok, setting fire to a clothing store
downtown and a library in nearby Salford.
About 200 rioters also clashed with police in Liverpool on Tuesday night, The Guardian newspaper reported.
In London, police pledged earlier Tuesday to inundate the city's
streets with 16,000 officers in a bid to head off a fourth consecutive
night of rioting, which has claimed at least one life.
"We have lots of information to suggest that there may be similar
disturbances tonight," Cmdr. Simon Foy told the BBC. "That's exactly the
reason why the Met (police force) has chosen to now actually really 'up
the game' and put a significant number of officers on the streets."
While British police generally avoid tear gas, water cannons or other
strong-arm riot measures, police in London said Tuesday that plastic
bullets could be used to stop looting if it persists.
Authorities have been scrambling to gain control over the situation.
At least 685 people had been arrested and 111 charged as of Tuesday
night, Scotland Yard said.
The sudden violence prompted British Prime Minister David Cameron to
cut short his family vacation and return to London, so that he could
deal with what he described as "sickening" riots.
After holding an emergency meeting Tuesday, Cameron refrained from
calling in the military, but said the British public should be assured
that the government will not allow the destructive rioting to continue.
"People should be in no doubt that we will do everything necessary to
restore order to Britain's streets and to make them safe for the
law-abiding," Cameron told reporters.
Instead,
Cameron will boost the police presence in London and recall
lawmakers from their summer recess so they can discuss the crisis later
this week. The prime minister promised that the perpetrators will "feel
the full force of the law" and will be prosecuted accordingly.
News of the first riot-related death emerged Tuesday when the BBC
reported that a 26-year-old Croydon man died hours after he was found in
his car suffering from gunshot wounds. A murder inquiry is now underway
into the victim's death.
Since the weekend, the riots have spread to other British cities, including Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol.
Five arrests were made in Birmingham and a small group of people torched two cars in the centre of a nearby town.
But it is in London where residents have seen cars and buildings
burned, shops looted and young hoodlums running amok with impunity for
three straight nights.
Police said 111 officers, five police dogs and 14 citizens were hurt
over the three days, including a man in his 60s with life-threatening
injuries.
In Croydon, Graham Reeves saw his family's 140-year-old department store gutted by a fire started during the riots.
"No one's stolen anything. They just burned it down," he said. "It's pointless."
Simon Dance, 27, said he and his wife were frightened enough by what
they saw in their north London neighbourhood of Camden to prepare for
the possibility that they might have to leave their home.
"We locked all the doors, and my wife even packed a bag to flee. We
had Twitter rolling until midnight just to keep up with the news. We
were too afraid to even look out the window," Dance told The Associated
Press.
CTV's London Bureau Chief Tom Kennedy said the British public has
been shocked by the violence that the rioters have unleashed on the
streets.
"The dilemma that this country is having is explaining how on Earth
are there so many disaffected youths who feel comfortable with going out
into the streets and committing these dreadful acts of violence --
thievery, looting and burning people out of their homes, which was also
happening," Kennedy told CTV's Canada AM from London on Tuesday.
"So I think there's a real bewilderment in this country now, how on Earth it came to this."
Andrew Silke, the head of criminology at the University of East
London, said the public is also angry about the inability of police to
quickly bring the riots to an end.
"The public wanted to see tough action. They wanted to see it sooner
and there is a degree of frustration," Silke told The Associated Press
in an interview.
The rioters do not appear to have a single unifying cause that has
drawn them to the streets night after night. They began on Saturday with
a protest over a police shooting, but have raged on without much
explanation.
Some rioters have suggested they are acting out in protest of cuts to
welfare and the public sector, while others say a distrust of the
police is to blame.
"This is the uprising of the working class. We're redistributing the
wealth," a 28-year-old man and self-described anarchist named Bryn
Phillips told The Associated Press.
Others are convinced that the people involved with the riots are simply looking for an opportunity to break the law.
"It's just an excuse for the young ones to come and rob shops," said Brixton resident Marilyn Moseley.
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