Rioting has continued and is spreading across London for the third night.
Late Saturday is when violence first broke out in north London in the city of Tottenham. Protestors were demonstrating their outrage peacefully against the fatal police shooting of Duggan. Duggan was gunned down Thursday by London police.
The Independent Police Complaint Commission (IPCC) is investigating the shooting. Preliminary reports suggested that Mark Duggan, 29 years old, shot at police. On Tuesday the IPCC said there was no evidence a handgun retrieved at the scene had been fired. There were two shots fired by a special firearm officer killing Duggan.
Protest turned violent and continued to spread across London. The rioting and looting has spread to three other major British cities.
The groups are setting buildings, cars and garbage dumps on fire. Shops and restaurants are being damaged. Looters are stealing from anywhere they can including local family-run businesses.
Catherine Holmes, a resident of Hackney, said, “We spoke to looters trying to get home – the only explanation they gave for their behavior was that they had no money today”.
Ealing resident Christian Potts, witnessed the damage and said, “It looks like a war zone – I have never seen anything like it in all my life”.
Police said 525 people have been arrested. Over 100 people have been charged with offenses. Three people are being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder of a police officer. The police officer was attempting to stop suspected looters and was injured by a car.
British Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to cut his summer vacation in Italy short and return home. He also recalled Parliament from its summer break to deal with the crisis.
“This is criminality pure and simple and it needs to be confronted,” Cameron said. “Justice will be done and these people will see the consequences of their actions. If you are old enough to commit these crimes, you are old enough to face the punishment.”
Citing “sickening scenes,” Cameron announced that 16,000 police officers would be deployed onto the streets of London on Tuesday. This is an increase from 6,000 deployed Monday night.
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