British Condemn Looters And Call For Calm With (Chamomile) Tea2

by Secretary

This past Sunday, I woke up in a different London to the one I know and love. On Saturday night, a peaceful protest about the shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham had turned into a violent riot. The riots morphed into looting and violence, and it spread like a virus.

That Saturday, I’d been at two fellow SG member’s apartment in North London. We’d heard of the Tottenham riots, but had assumed it would die down once the police got there. Since we were also in the company of an SG member living in Germany, talk turned to what we loved about London. We talked about how it is truly a diverse city in every sense of the word; about how people from every walk of life live side by side, and about how this makes the city feel so alive.

Earlier in the day, I’d briefly dived through the Brixton Splash, an annual community street festival that’s a celebration of diversity in an area famed for past troubles and tensions. Free food was cooked and handed out, there was rap, reggae and people drinking and dancing in the streets under the blazing sunshine. It was happy and relaxed, and it had ended peacefully at around 7 PM.

As myself and SG member Vermin made our way back from North to South London that Saturday night, we passed again through Brixton. We had no idea that just two hours later a gang of 200 youths would descend on the place, looting businesses and starting huge fires as they rampaged down the high street

We awoke on Sunday morning to find shops had been broken into. The police had cordoned the affected area off, tube stations were closed, busses were diverted, and the air was thick with a shared sense of unease. Shops closed early and people hurried home in the daylight. Rumors started to spread, of looting and riots planned in other areas.

Nobody was quite prepared for just how out of hand it became.

Friends in Streatham couldn’t sleep that night for the sound of sirens.

Friends in Peckham listened as a mob descended upon the shop and petrol station at the end of their road, as fires blazed one street over.

Friends in Croydon weathered some of the most terrifying violence of all, seeing people in masks pulling others out of their cars and robbing people’s homes. Muggings and serious acts of arson meant the London borough was described widely as a ‘war zone.’

People filled up Twitter with eyewitness reports of horrors in Ealing, Clapham, Hackney, Camden. This map shows the extent of the rioting in London.

Whilst the rolling news channels played the same scenes of devastation on a loop, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter have showed a million small acts of kindness, community and defiance. @riotcleanup has been coordinating volunteers for the clean-up effort all day. Their website has crashed several times over, and so many volunteers turned up in some places that people didn’t know what to do with them. The picture below, taken of the clean-up effort in Clapham, has warmed many a Londoner’s heart today.

The looters, for the most part, were young. Depressingly young in some cases. They tended to come from the more economically deprived areas of the city, although it would be a mistake to assume that they looted because they were poor. Many of the photos captured showed that those partaking in the lawlessness were wearing expensive branded clothing, and it has been said that much of the organization of the mobs was done via BBM (Blackberry messaging), Blackberries of course being fairly pricey phones. The shops most often targeted were those selling cell phones and sneakers (or mobiles and trainers as we say here in the UK) rather than those from which looters might take electronics, alcohol and cash.

What started as a peaceful protest turned into something else, in part because of a realization that numbers help to make you invisible. People burned and smashed property so that they could feel important and above the law. They took things because they thought they could get away with it. The police were not prepared for things to get so bad so quickly; thanks to BBM the rioters and looters, whilst representing a miniscule minority of Londoners, were able to outsmart the police.

As my good friend and SG member DrewBeckett said ‘These people aren’t Londoners; London wants nothing to do with them. Whilst some copycat violence has erupted in other big UK cities, public anger at those partaking is overwhelming. One Facebook initiative, Operation Cup of Tea, encourages us Brits to do what comes naturally in a crisis – namely to keep calm, stay in, and drink tea.

People are invited to show their opposition to the riots by posting a picture of themselves on Facebook, having a cup of tea. We’re also encouraging SG readers/members to post pictures in the comments section below. To kick things off, here’s some pics of me and my SG mates Mat8drb and LaurenZombie showing support with a mug of the good stuff.

Further Reading:
Our SG UK group has threads on The Riots (What’s Really Happening and Why) and on Operation Cup of Tea.

Wednesday, Aug 10, 4.47 AM PST – More images just in:

Wednesday, Aug 10, 1.45 PM PST – Even more images just in:

“I had an extra special peppermint tea bag that I had saved” – Sminks, SG Member

coldandwet, SG Member

Wilona, SG Member

Umeko, SG Member

Sticks, SG Member

Saiylor Suicide

“I got that mug in 1989 with an Easter egg. Still going strong and makes the brew better.” – Mark_plus_Beer, SG Member

“My mug is a direct homage to a very London-centric bunch of artists. The Bloomsbury Group, the Omega Workshop…I salute your absolute fucking barminess, and your questionable genius. But most of all, I salute you for having been part of making London the magical city it is. No amount of vandalism can kill that magic.” – DrewBeckett, SG Member

Wednesday, Aug 10, 4.06 PM PST – Yet more images just in:

“Drinking Lemsip since I’m ill.” – gtwr, SG Member

“Joining the party late as usual…
Hippified blackcurrant, raspberry and cinnamon works, right?” – Reuben, SG Member

“Yorkshire tea for the win!” – Brompton, SG Member