The riots in London were well coordinated

On Monday night, riots broke out again in London. Hundreds of people, mostly young people, clashed with police, smashed shops and set cars on fire. It turned out that members of unrelated street gangs and youth groups coordinated their actions in advance through social networks. In this regard, the police leadership of the capital, which knew about the impending pogroms, but could not prevent them, came under fire from criticism. British media immediately wondered whether local law enforcement agencies were able to ensure the holding of the 2012 Olympics.

On Monday night, riots that broke out the day before in north London spread to the southern and eastern areas of the capital. And this could have been predicted. On Sunday, Facebook and other social networks were in full swing about the events in Tottenham, where on Sunday night crowds of young people and teenagers smashed shops and fought with law enforcement officers. This was a reaction to the death of 29-year-old local resident Mark Duggan, who was killed in a shootout with police last Thursday (see yesterday's Kommersant). Young people from the outskirts of London shared their impressions of what they saw on the Internet and agreed to repeat “the party thrown by the guys from Tottenham.”

Apparently, the police were monitoring the events on social networks. As engineer Mizu Rahman, who lives in the Anfield area in the north of the capital, next door to Tottenham, told The Guardian newspaper, a policeman walked down the street at about two o'clock on Sunday. “He warned local residents and shopkeepers that they should be careful, as the front line will pass here today,” Mr. Rahman said.

Crowds of teenagers began to appear on the streets in the late afternoon. Everywhere, events developed according to the same scenario: at first, young people simply stood still or migrated on the streets, limiting themselves to breaking glass in windows. According to eyewitnesses, the police were either not nearby at all, or they silently watched what was happening. According to observers, it was precisely this behavior that provoked the hooligans to further actions.

Around eight or nine in the evening, after a couple of hours of aimless wandering, the teenagers began to take action. The ringleaders were usually a group of 10-20 young men in masks. With rods or bottles of gasoline, they rushed to storm stores, smashing glass and display cases. The rest followed. First of all, stores selling mobile phones, in particular T-Mobile and Vodafone, as well as jewelry stores were looted. The hooligans did not ignore larger shopping centers either. People, and in the end adults also took part in the robbery, dragged everything in sight - large plasma panels, clothes, shoes and even food. Some drove a car to the robbery site, others took away the loot on a scooter or shopping cart. According to Scotland Yard, the riots affected the areas of Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, Chelsea, Anfield, Brixton and others.

But even after this, the police were in no hurry to intervene in the situation. According to eyewitnesses, in some cases, police watched for an hour or more, allowing robbers to destroy stores. However, in Waltham Forest in east London, three police officers tried to detain the rioters. As a result, all three ended up in the hospital after the robbers hit the law enforcement officers with a car. And in Brixton, several dozen aggressive teenagers put the police on the run. “This has nothing to do with the death of Mark Duggan,” British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said in this regard. “This is ordinary violence, which is completely unacceptable.”

The police were able to restore order only late at night. Dozens of people were detained. The investigation into the incident was taken under personal control by British Home Affairs Minister Theresa May, who urgently interrupted her vacation. She called on London Mayor Boris Johnson to follow her example and return to the capital. But the capital's mayor refused. “This would be a kind of reward for the criminal world,” his deputy Keith Melhouse explained the chief’s decision.

The main thing that the London police are now trying to find out is what role the local criminals played in the incident. Police believe Mark Duggan, whose death sparked the current riots, was one of the leaders of organized crime in Tottenham. However, even if the local “authorities” have nothing to do with it, it is obvious that the youth gangs that set the tone in the pogroms have learned to coordinate their actions on social networks.

Alexander Reutov

Street gangs have gone online