In August 2011 a plague of rioting broke out in London
spreading from Tottenham to encompass the whole of London in which huge
destruction and violence spread through London’s streets.
The riots began in Tottenham with the death of Mark Duggan,
shot dead by the police. Duggan was black and the riots in Tottenham sparked
after a protest by members of the Tottenham community protesting against what
they felt was a racially motivated killing by the police. After this over the
next 4-5 days riots spread through London and the country.
What can be drawn from the riots was that there was no real
pattern designating what ethnicity was participating in the riots, although it
is clear that a notable number of the rioters were of a foreign background and
many had a poor educational background and as such were used to this kind of
behaviour, the average rioter had 15 previous convictions to there names. Also
it is clear that post-riots those of ethnic minorities have seen an increase in
racism towards them with racism vastly becoming a top story amongst
journalists.
Three Muslims were killed in a hit and run incident when
they were trying to protect there mosque which proves that not every member of
every ethnic group was involved in the riots but some were trying to stop the
riots and unfortunately against the tide of violence they were swept aside.
In conclusion these riots were racially motivated and on the
whole carried out by a wide mix of ethnicities although a notable number were
of foreign background and almost all were of a poor and uneducated background
maybe pointing to an area of society which needs changing.
