Epilogue

Abstract

In August 2011 London burned. The violence, arson, and looting began on the night of August 6 in Tottenham, north London, after a peaceful protest—including about 200 people—following the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, a twenty-nine year old black British father of three children. Two days earlier, a single gunshot was fired into Mark Duggan’s chest by a member of a special unit (Operation Trident) of the Metropolitan Police. He was shot dead at the scene where the police opened fire. Duggan was carrying a gun—a blank firing pistol that had been converted to a live firing arm—that contained bullets but it had not been fired. Reports say it had been wrapped in a sock. Operation Trident, a special unit of the Metropolitan Police formed to address “black on black gun crime in black communities,” had been following Duggan. They believed he was planning to seek revenge for the murder of his cousin several months earlier, in March. According to the police, Duggan and his cousin were associated with a local gang in Tottenham.1 Not long after the protest, the violence, arson, and looting began. People took to the streets of Tottenham. News spread rapidly to others parts of London. Then, it stretched to some towns and cities across England including Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool. What would come to be known as the “England Riots” lasted from August 6–10 in London and August 8–10 in the other cities in England. There were thousands of arrests, five deaths, numerous injuries, not to mention the millions of dollars worth of damage to businesses, shops, and property.KeywordsBlack CommunityWelfare ReformCoalition GovernmentHousing AllowanceMetropolitan PoliceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.