London Burning

Are more Riots on the way in England, as the poor get poorer and the rich get richer?

And leads the poorer people into desperate measures any way to make cash, the British government total miss management of England has been the cause of last week’s riots, and looks as more will be on their way as England’s people start to over boil with the over inflated rising costs of living, feed the greed of those in places of power.

The British government began flooding London's streets last week with 16,000 police officers, nearly tripling their presence as the English nation saw its worst rioting in nearly a generation which would stretch into a fourth night. The violence turned buildings into burnt out carcasses, triggered massive looting and spread to other English cities.

The Police said they were working full-tilt, but found themselves under attack — from rioters roaming the streets, scared and worried British politicians whose own cost-cutting is squeezing police numbers ahead of next year's Olympic Games. The British governments sharp cuts planned for English public services and rising cost of living coupled together with rising unemployment have fed the growing frustrations in poorer urban areas of England.

London's Metropolitan Police force vowed an unprecedented operation to stop more rioting flooding the streets with 16,000 officers nearly three times more in normal total. Although the riots started Saturday with a protest over a police shooting, they moved into a general lawlessness that the British police had struggled to halt with ordinary tactics. Police in British-Britain generally avoid tear gas, water cannons or other strong-arm riot measures. Many shops targeted by looters had goods that youths would want anyway like trainers, bikes, electronics, leather goods — while other buildings were torched apparently just for the fun of seeing something burn.

Police said plastic bullets were "one of the tactics" being considered to stop the looting. The bullets were very common in Northern Ireland during its years of unrest but have never before been used in England for fear of even a bigger up-rising by the people if fired on by the police.

The British police have acknowledged they could not guarantee there would be no more riots or violence up-risings in England. Shops, offices and nursery schools in several parts of London closed early amid fears of fresh rioting though pubs and restaurants were open. Police in one London district, Islington, advised people not to be out on the streets "unless absolutely necessary."

"We have lots of information to suggest that there may be similar disturbances tonight," Commander Simon Foy told the BBC and the London Times. "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."

The riots and looting caused heartache for Londoners whose businesses and homes were torched or looted and a crisis for police and British politicians already staggering from a spluttering economy and a scandal over illegal phone hacking by a British tabloid newspaper (New of the World) that has dragged in some very senior politicians and police as big as the WikiLeaks, with conversations held by some in very high places involved in the death of Dianna the Princess of Wales.

"The public wanted to see tough action. They wanted to see it sooner and there is a degree of frustration," said Andrew Silke, head of criminology at the University of East London. London's beleaguered police force called the violence the worst in decades, noting they received more than 20,000 emergency calls four times the normal number. Scotland Yard called in reinforcements from around the country and asked all volunteer special constables to report for duty.

In central England, police said they made five arrests in Birmingham, and dispersed a small group of people who torched two cars in the centre of West Bromwich, a nearby town. Shops were targeted by rioters in the city of Wolverhampton, police said.

Police in north-western England, said there were small scale incidents in Manchester and the neighbouring city of Salford, but that no arrests had been made so far. Police launched a murder inquiry after a man found with a gunshot wound during riots in the south London suburb of Croydon died of his injuries. Police said 111 officers, five police dogs and 14 members of the public were hurt over the three days of rioting, including a man in his 60s with life-threatening injuries.

So far more than 560 people have been arrested in London and more than 100 charged, and the capital's prison cells were overflowing. Several dozen more were arrested in other cities. The Crown Prosecution Service said it had teams of lawyers working 24 hours a day to help police decide whether to charge suspects.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who had to cut short his holiday in Italy so he could be seen to be dealing with the crisis then recalled the British Parliament from its summer holidays for an emergency debate on the riots and looting that have spread from the deprived London neighbourhood of Tottenham to districts across the capital, and the cities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol.

Rioters, able to move quickly and regroup to avoid the police, were left virtually unchallenged in several neighbourhoods, plundering stores at will.

Sir Michael Black-Feather the English first minister said; "People around the world saw news images of lines of police literally running away from rioters, for young people in England that is incredibly empowering adding to street cred. They are breaking the laws, and they are getting away with it, and no one is able to stop them but this law braking been going on for years under British rule."

British Politicians wanting to get their names in the British press and spin mongering for votes when they come, went to visited some of the riot sites, but for many residents as normal British ways it was too little, too late. Pulling his head out of the sand for some spin British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg was booed by English crowds who shouted "Go home Clegg your useless and not wanted here!" during a walkabout in Birmingham, while the British London mayor Boris Johnson who flew back overnight from his summer vacation was also heckled on a shattered shopping street in Clapham, south London go home Boris there’s nothing here for you.

Johnson said the riots would not stop London "welcoming the world to our city" for the Olympics. "We have time in the next 12 months to rebuild, to repair the damage that has been done," he said. "I'm not saying it will be done overnight, but this is what we are going to do."

Violence first broke out late Saturday in the low-income, multi-ethnic district of Tottenham in north London, after a protest against the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four who was gunned down in disputed circumstances Thursday.

British Police said Duggan was shot dead when officers from Operation Trident — the unit that investigates gun crime in the “Black community stopped a cab he was riding in. The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the shooting, said a "non-police firearm" was recovered at the scene, but that there was no evidence it had been fired — a revelation that could fuel the anger of the local community.

Many rioters appeared to relish the opportunity for violence. "Come join the fun!" shouted one youth as looters hit the east London suburb of Hackney. In Hackney, one of the boroughs hosting next year's Olympics, hundreds of youths left a trail of burning trash and shattered glass. Looters ransacked a convenience store, filling plastic shopping bags with alcohol, cigarettes, candy and toilet paper.

 One has to wonder what they will have planned for 2012 Olympics when the whole world will be watching.