The Hornsey High Street Riot That Should Have Warned The Police What Would Come Next
WHEN do you think this incident occurred, as told in the Tottenham and Wood Green Journal?
YOUTHS armed with glass bottles, bricks and stones turned a high street into warzone over the weekend as they fought a running battle with police. At one stage bottles and bricks rained down on riot police, who were armed with batons, shields and CS spray, as they tried to gain control of the situation in Hornsey High Street on Saturday night.
Witnesses described seeing the police hugely outnumbered, marching in formation towards the baying thugs down the High Street, using CS spray on those who refused to move. The disturbances ran from 10.30pm to 5am the next morning, yet only two people were arrested for violent disorder.
And then:
The trouble started when dozens of youths, described as aged between 14 and 20, gathered outside the Kelko club on the High Street at about 10.30pm…
They had been drinking in the street and getting rowdier, and things turned ugly at about 1am after police and council officers moved in to shut down the club, pushing more drinkers onto the street…
They split the group up and dispersed some into the Campsbourne Estate and Priory Road, and chased others into Birkbeck and St Mary’s Roads where one thug threw a litre-and-a-half bottle of Courvoisier at them. Another resident said: “They got over into someone’s garden and started picking up rocks and stones and throwing them at police. It’s beginning to get quite frightening [around here].”
…
One resident called the trouble “the worst it has ever been” in the area and said recent weekends have seen disturbances escalate.
That was on March 17, 2011. Now, anyone know that happened in August 2011 in the same area of North London – when police said they expected no trouble after the death of Mark Duggan..?
Scotland Yard’s Commander Stephen Watson said: “We are aware of raised tensions in the community, which are understandable following the tragic death of Mark Duggan. What we experienced earlier on yesterday evening was a peaceful protest outside Tottenham police station – there was no indication it would deteriorate in this way.”
Posted: 18th, August 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
