The 2011 England Riot and its effects

On the summer (August) of 2011 the United Kingdom experienced a devastating riot in England which spread across different places in England. This riot was also referred to as the “BlackBerry riot” because, a lot of information was conveyed using mobile devices and the help of the social media to plan.

The cause of the riot was not fully established because different people had their different reasons, but ultimately the major reason that was provided was the fact that the people (rioters) were not comfortable and happy with the power of the police force and how they were behaving towards them.

Some people however saw the riot as a “ticking bomb” that was just waiting for the right moment to explode and this eventually happened when a member of the police force shot and killed a local in Tottenham, London called Mark Duggan. This act is what was said to be the trigger to the riot and was what caused thousands of people to move to the streets to protest on the 6th of August 2011. However, the protest turned from a simple protest to a riot when a sixteen year old girl was arrested for alleged disorderly conduct. Others, seem to blame the riot on the problem of inequality, social strata and lack of morals.

The riot lead to the looting of various items, the destruction of important properties and buildings. The riot also had numerous amount of people put into jail due to disorderly behaviour (over 2.000 people), because some people stole items such as electronics and clothing items from stores while some participated in burning different items. This event also lead some people to live in fear during the riot. 


References
Cooper. C (2011) 'what caused England's riot' The Guardian 5th October [online] available at: http://www.theguardian.com/society/joepublic/2011/oct/12/what-caused-england-riots (accessed at: 12th December, 2013)
Lewis. P (2011) 'Rioters say anger with police fuelled summer unrest' The Guardian 5th December [online] available at: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/05/anger-police-fuelled-riots-study (accessed at: 12th December, 2013)
Rogers. S (2011) 'UK riots: the key facts and figures' The Guardian 19th August [online] available at: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/aug/09/uk-riots-data-figures (accessed at: 12th December, 2013)