If you were like me this week, you were confused about why your Twitter TL was filled with tweets about praying for London. Well, here’s why.
Last Thursday, a 29-year-old Mark Duggan was shot and killed by police. Officers assert that he was armed and dangerous, but many are suspicious about what really happened that night. Days later, those suspicions, racial tension and economics have led to one of the worst riots and outbreaks of violence that London has experienced in over 25 years.
An independant police watchdog is now investigating what exactly happened that night. Did Duggan shoot first? Did he even use his gun that night? It is now confirmed that Duggan died from a single shot to the chest. He was surrounded by police in Tottenhan in North London while he was a passenger in a cab in Tottenham, a North London neighborhood with a large African and Caribbean population. The officers were working as part of Operation Trident, a unit which deals with gun crime in the African and Caribbean communities. There is no clear indication that Duggan shot first, but there is evidence that shows police were shot at. However, a bullet found lodged in an officer’s phone could’ve came from anywhere in the vicinity of the cab.
On Saturday, a peaceful demonstration was organized in the same North London neighborhood but it soon turned violent. According to the BBC, “26 police officers were injured, eight requiring hospital treatment, in clashes with around 300 rioters in Tottenham that saw buildings and vehicles torched, shops looted and residents forced to flee their homes.”
Rioting quickly spread to other parts of London town and even to areas outside of London like Birmingham and Liverpool, forcing businesses to go into protection mode and police to step up troops.
Read the rest of the story at http://www.atlantapost.com
