London Riots

The city of London has been under great stress these past couple of days,

How did it start?

A member of the local community points to bad relations between the police and the black community.Razia Iqbal has been talking to residents in North London about the underlying tensions that have come to the boil.

It started with the fatal shooting by police of a local man in Tottenham....According to locals..police 

had it coming, as one said.. When you look at the figures for deaths in police custody (at least 333 since 1998 and not a single conviction of any police officer for any of them), then the IPCC and the courts are seen by many, quite reasonably­, to be protecting the police rather than the people. ...

What caused these riots and why did the police lose control? Some commentators think the disorder was understandable and justified; some say the police “had it coming”; others that the violence was only to be expected given the unemployment and poverty in the area.
Other residents who witnessed people carrying off carpets, trainers and watches noticed that they included individuals of all “colours and creeds”, suggesting an outburst of sheer lawlessness rather than righteous retaliation for past racial slights.
 ...Did the police handle the rioters with kid gloves because they were paralysed by fear of being called racist? source

Some local people told journalists of their resentment towards the police. One student said: “The police never talk to us, they ignore us, they don’t think we’re human in this area.” A youth worker claimed: “The way the police treat black people is like we’re nothing.” And a retired accountant who has lived locally for 30 years reported that some of the police “behave in an arrogant manner that puts people’s backs up”.

And people didnt miss the chance to grab whatever they could at stores, supermarkets...