After the Riots

It’s been three months since rioters ruled the city of London. After four days of uncontrolled violence, rampant looting and buildings set on fire, order was finally restored. More than 3,000 people were arrested and over 200 sent to jail. As actions are put into place to avoid similar events in the future, the actual cause for the riots is still debated.

It started with a peaceful protest march on 6 August 2011 in response to the fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggan two days before, but soon riots broke out in Tottenham in northern London. The violence quickly spread through London and other English cities.


It's now estimated that in London alone 3,443 crimes were linked to the uprisings, five people died, at least 16 were injured and apartments and businesses were burned down. The property damage is said to have reached a staggering £200 million. 

Spending cuts, gang culture and marginalization
After the riots, the challenge of how to improve the British society has been one of the main political debates. 


Already before the August events, Prime Minister David Cameron was under huge pressure because of his economic reforms and the biggest cuts in public expenditures since the second world war.

But according to a poll by the YouGov agency, carried out for The Sun , only eight percent of the British people actually think the government spending cuts was the main reason behind the riots, and a mere five percent think unemployment was the key cause. 

Instead, as much as 42 percent blame pure criminal behavior, and one in five believes the rise in gang culture is the main problem behind these violent acts.

But the theories on what caused the riots are still as diverse as the criminals among the arrested - a daughter of a millionaire, a charity worker, a teaching assistant and an 11-year-old boy.

The government fighting back
Even though few people blame the government’s politics as the cause of the riots, there is stark criticism against how they dealt with the uprisings, and that it took so long to take back control.

But once the arrests began, the courts stayed open overnight, and there was no question that the government wanted to show they meant business. A young women admitting to stealing ten packs of chewing gum was sentenced to six months in jail.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, announced he had begun a war against gangs, and the average crown court sentence for individuals arrested for theft or handling stolen goods was 13.6 months, 18% more than the average 11.6 month sentence for similar crimes in 2010

Due to the sudden increase of jail sentences, English prisons are now struggling to deal with the high pressure. Some prisons are even said to be working at 150 per cent of their ideal capacity.

London 2012 measures
Some of the measures under way to avoid future riots include; more freedom to the army to stop violence, giving the police the power to use water cannon and plastic bullets, curfews in riot areas, and ways of controlling social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

With only eight months to go until the London 2012 Olympic games, the English government do their utmost to reassure us that what happened in August is not, as David Cameron said "in any way representative of our country - nor of our young people."