Riots hit London - Atasi Das

London has been scathed by widespread rioting in the past fortnight-what started out as a peaceful local protest in the north London suburb of Tottenham on 6th August 2011, against the shooting of a 29-year-old   Mark Duggan (who was gunned down by police under strange circumstances) soon flared up into rioting and looting across London, and other major cities in Britain. The last time the city witnessed widespread racial rioting was in the 1980s. Interestingly Tottenham is only five miles away from the London 2012 Olympic site. Over 1,000 people have been arrested in London alone, for rioting, and over 500 for violence, disorder and looting.  Teenagers have been booked on charges of violence, theft, robbery, possession of weapons and police assault; the youngest person arrested is an 11-year-old boy. Police are even scanning images of suspected rioters sent by the public through e-mail. Violence had escalated to such a level that organized gangs have even bombed police stations. The cost of the ensuing damage is estimated to be around $160 million.

Courts in London, Manchester and Birmingham are working overtime to convict those guilty of rioting and violence. Among those produced in court was 18 year old Chelsea Ives the youth ambassador for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

For political leaders and the 2012 Olympic organizers the violence has been a disturbing reminder of London's deteriorating law and order situation ahead of the 2012 D day.

The rioting has raised worldwide travel concerns and called for rapid government action. The general public opinion is that the police and government response to the crisis has been sluggish. Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to do everything to restore normalcy at the earliest. Scotland Yard has deployed an additional 1,700 officers to deal with the violence. Around 500 detectives are investigating the riots in a huge police operation that surpasses the number of police personnel engaged to probe the London 7/7 terror bombings. The police have deployed armored vehicles in the disturbed areas.

Poor relationship between police and the local populace, racial intonations, social media websites, unemployment & economic downturn, poor parenting, community breakdown, widening disparity between the haves and the have-nots- whatever is the starting point of the crisis, the bottomline is that these are purely criminal acts, which are unpardonable and punishable.