The Destruction of London - Not a Revolution

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Trip Start Nov 05, 2006 Previous
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  London, England, United Kingdom
Monday, August 8, 2011

What a truly disgraceful week this is in London. What started out as a peaceful protest against the police shooting of a man in Tottenham has descended into days of pointless carnage. My initial feeling on this was that it was kids protesting about cuts in spending, lack of employment and lack of opportunities in the country at the moment. I was wrong. People have simply seen an opportunity to get some stuff for free. 
 
I witnessed it myself tonight in Clapham Junction. People have been rioting and setting fire to buildings in pockets all around the city today. Shops have been burned down in Hackney, Peckham, Croydon. The poorer areas. This is springing up in a way that screams, well, why not? Tonight I heard about something starting near where I live, in Clapham Junction. I took my camera and phone with me and walked down there. My purpose was not to get involved, but to document the events, find out what the reason for all this is.

Walking down the road towards Clapham Junction, I saw people carrying binbags of stuff, boxes and boxes of shoes, bags and boxes of shopping. As soon as I got there I saw the main department store, Debenhams, with windows smashed and people running around and grabbing stuff at random. I grouped together with some other bystanders and we stood at the pedestrian crossing, surveying the damage. We saw a man falling through one of Debenhams shop windows. I ran over the road and asked him if he was ok, if he needed an ambulance. He was fine, just drunk. As I turned to walk away, a young kid, maybe 14, picked up a trainer off the pavement and asked if we'd seen the other one. 
There was no riot, as is reported. It was theft and vandalism towards businesses. Most of the people carrying stolen goods had hoods and scarves covering their faces. They had clearly come with the intent to cause trouble. Some didn't, maybe they were just in the area and taking advantage of the opportunity. Almost everyone had thought to stop behind the counter in the shops to collect a bag to carry their contraband. At one point I saw a blonde lady walking through Debenhams as though the store was open. Hopefully, she will be caught on the store CCTV. There were no police to be found. Despite this, there were roadblocks, so clearly they knew about it and had already left.
Myself and a guy who turned out to be a bus driver walked down St John's (the main high street) No one seemed to be violent towards each other, no one batted an eyelid as I took photos. Everyone was concerned with taking as much stuff from the shops as possible. Dixons, JD Sports, the jewellery stores, and the phone stores were all trashed. Some stores had been left alone. Marks & Spencer, Clinton Cards, and Waterstones hadn't been touched. Places like Starbucks and STA Travel had smashed windows but no one was inside. What is to be gained from smashing the window of STA Travel? Did they want to steal a holiday brochure? Litter was strewn all over the street. Shoes, broken coathangers and piles of clothes were everywhere. I saw a couple of guys picking up a pack of Pampers that had been left on the floor. He hadn't stolen it, but he considered taking it, before I took photos. When he saw me, he dropped the pack. People were calm until two police vans, sirens blaring, drove down the road at high speed. Then everyone dispersed, running in all directions down side streets. This was after TWO HOURS. The van drove back up the road and left. I smelled smoke. Someone had started a small fire in a bin. After another 20 minutes, a van stopped outside Clapham Junction station and five or six police wearing riot gear and shields jumped out. They had 2 dogs with them, and walked towards the junction and stopped. People were still milling around the stores but no attempt was done to stop them or even walk towards them. After a while they walked down Falcon Road and I could hear them talking about where the job centre was. What relevance this had, I don't know, other than if that's where they were told to set up a roadblock. No one had tried to loot the job centre. 

It seems things have worsened since I left. I witnessed a man walking past me clutching a long metal bar down Falcon Road towards the riot police at Clapham Junction. The Party Store is burning. We can see the smoke rising from the balcony of our flat. <Edited according to comment> Helicopters are flying overhead constantly. Later on, around 1am, we walked back and the whole junction had been cordoned off, with a large police presence. Strange that when it was happening, no police were there, but hours after the event, they had the place on lockdown.
  
The media isn't helping with their coverage. What they have covered isn't accurate. Friends have reported major occurences which haven't been reported in the media. Live reports from the BBC website, which I usually trust, has reported things in Clapham at the time I was there, that I didn't see happen. 
"2255: Gareth Furby, BBC News, London Gangs of masked youths are roaming the streets with petrol bombs in Clapham Junction."
No-one there had "petrol bombs". People had hoodies on and they had scarves covering their mouths. One I saw was wearing a Venetian style mask over his eyes. 
"Every shop along the street was looted. Nothing was left unscathed. The rioters didn't bother to cover their faces. There were no police officers present to deter them."
No. There were shops that hadn't been touched at all. Some had smashed windows. Some were more looted than others. And no one was rioting. 

It's incredible how much the media influences people's opinions. People who were eyewitnesses use words like "riots" when there was no rioting, because it has been reported as riots. Reports have stated that social media like Twitter and Blackberry are to blame, but nothing has been done to shut down the networks temporarily.
 
The police don't see that the statements, using derogatory language, is inflaming the situation, not calming it down. Meanwhile the Prime Minister, the one we didn't even elect, is nowhere to be found. 
The people doing this don't see the bigger picture. They don't see that businesses will have to close because people have stolen stock, which those businesses paid for. They don't see that people will lose their jobs because someone has to pay for this. Nothing is free. It wasn't yours to take. The reason for the behaviour is unclear, there's no cause inciting this movement to speak of. If there was a cause, this would be more understandable. But at the moment, it seems like a small minority of Londoners are shitting on their own doorstep. Most people are against it, but those people won't do anything about it. Join a Facebook group in support of the Met, by all means, be passive about it. 
With the Olympics this time next year, I really hope we can come together and make things right. I hope tourists aren't put off coming to London, this is really an unprecedented event, it's not the norm.

Wake up London. I'm ashamed of you.  

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