OnIslam.net

LONDON – Riots and looting swept London for the second day in a row on Monday, August 8, a violent wave blamed on the British government’s economic policies and police brutality.

"Tension is building because of the coalition government's cost-cutting measures,” Scott Allen, unemployed resident of Tottehnam, told Reuters.

“People in the poorer communities of London and around the country are going to feel victimized."

Riots began in Tottenham, a deprived area of sprawling north London that is home to many different ethnic groups, on Saturday night after a street protest over the fatal shooting of a local man by police.

The violence then spilled over to Enfield and Walthamstow in north London and Brixton in the south of the city.

Rioters set ablaze police patrol cars, buildings and a double-decker bus.

Others took advantage to loot retail warehouses, smashing shop windows and hauling away televisions, computers and sports shoes.

Protestors blame the government for spending billion of pounds on the next year’s Olympics while giving no enough attention to the deprived areas.

"The last few weeks have all been about how the Olympics are going to ... transform London and how we are going to have a massive legacy,” Allen said.

“Well, this is the legacy. The legacy is already here," he said, motioning towards the damage caused by the riot.

He said Tottenham had been "massively" affected by steep spending cuts ordered by the 15-month-old coalition government to try to balance its books.

Youth services had been cut and unemployment had risen as public sector workers were laid off.

The riot follows several outbreaks of violence in London in the past year at political protests against the government's austerity policies.

A 26-year-old black man, who gave his name only as Jason, said the riot was a "cry for help".

"I have no job, no prospects, no anything. Then they wonder why there's crime," he said, adding he had been unemployed since he left school.

"This is the ghetto, this is the slums, they don't care about us. I've been stopped outside my house by the police for no reason,” Jason added.

“There's no jobs ... but still they want to cut benefits. We ain't got no way to survive and it's like no-one don't care about us.

"There's injustice and we've had enough."

Police Brutality

Residents also cited police brutality for sparking the latest wave of violence in London.

“What actually ignited it is a young female had approached the police standing line and she was set upon by police with their batons,” a caller told the BBC.

“The police line actually charged towards her and hit her with their batons. Subsequently it turned out she was only 16 and it absolutely made everyone go up in uproar,” he was quoted by The Guardian as saying.

“She just approached the police and said the community demanded answers and justice must prevail and questions needed answering.

"Hundreds of people who had congregated since the evening have then charged the police and shops were getting burned down.”

But whether it is true or not, residents still see resentment of the police as a main factor behind the violence.

A 28-year-old mother of two from nearby Enfield said anger had been building among ethnic minorities for a long time because many felt police did not deal with them fairly.

"So many opportunities are being taken away from those who are working class and that tends to affect the ethnic minorities," the mother who gave her name as Diana X told Reuters.

Many Britons, particularly ethnic minorities, have been critical of the police.

British Muslims, estimated at nearly two million, have repeatedly complained of maltreatment by police for no apparent reason other than being Muslim.

“This country has changed,” Aaron Biber, 89, who barber shop was ransacked, told The New York Times.