August 2011 Archives


The Daily Mail reports:

Riot boy's family is kicked out of home: Suspected looter and his mother are the first to be punished with eviction

By Jack Doyle

Last updated at 2:28 PM on 13th August 2011


A suspected looter in this week's riots and his mother are being thrown out of their council home.

In the first case of its kind, Daniel Sartain-Clarke, 18, and his mother have been served with an eviction notice as council bosses seek to turf them out of their £225,000 taxpayer-subsidised flat.

Sartain-Clarke is charged with violent disorder and attempting to steal electronic goods from the Currys store at Clapham Junction, South London, on Monday night.

Under housing rules his mother - as the tenant - can be evicted from their two-bedroom flat in Battersea if anyone living there is involved in criminality.

Sartain-Clarke was arrested after more than 100 looters went on the rampage on Monday night. For two hours, the mob ransacked mobile phone stores and sports shops such as Foot Locker and JD Sports.

He appeared before magistrates in Battersea on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to burglary and violent disorder. He and two co-defendants were remanded in custody.

So he he has not yet actually been tried and convicted, has he ?

Therefore he should be treated, for now, as innocent until proven guilty

Wandsworth Council have therefore been too quick off the mark in this particular case, in their political mob mentality haste, to Be Seen To Be Doing Something about the riots.

Why could they not have waited a few days or weeks, to see if the man (he is 18 years old) is actually convicted or not ?

Their extra-judical punishment of his family and extensive publicity about this case is clearly a Contempt of Court , exactly like that in the recent Joanna Yates murder case, where tabloid newspapers were heavily fined for the "risk of serious prejudice to any future trial"

The Council Tax payers of Wandsworth will end up paying substantial damages and legal costs, because of this hasty political blunder.

Sunday night has seen copycat looting, arson and attacks on the police in several areas of London:

The Metropolitan Police Service press bureau statement deliberately does not use the word "riot":

http://www.met.police.uk/pressbureau/Bur08/page01.htm

(save your own copy of this, since they may well amend or censor it later)

There has been looting in a number of boroughs in north, east and south London by small and mobile groups. Groups of youths continue to attack police officers and a number of police vehicles have been damaged.

[...]

Waltham Forest

[...]

Walthamstow Central


[...]

Brixton

[...]

Rival gangs attended Kings College Hospital

[...]

Enfield Town Centre

[...]

Oxford Circus

[...]

Islington

[...]

Ponders End

The Metropolitan Police Press Bureau really do not seem to understand the world wide web and social media:

The material on this page is for media organisations only. Please do not publish links to this page.

This page was last updated on
08-Aug-2011 2:18

The Met Police Twitter feed

https://twitter.com/#!/metpoliceuk

is useless.

They are not giving the innocent public any idea of the areas to avoid, but they have found the time to try to deny reports of a media coverup:


12:43 AM August 8th 2011

metpoliceuk Metropolitan Police
Police have not requested a #mediablackout and are continuing to provide updates

All that they have to say via Twitter is the very uninformative:

12:45 AM August 8th 2011

metpoliceuk Metropolitan Police
Police are responding to a significant amount of criminal activity across London and are deploying officers to tackle it.

No doubt some people will be calling for the Mayor of London, the Acting Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the Prime Minister to interrupt their holidays to return to London.

Why ? What exactly are they going to do that cannot be done over the phone ?

Any such interruption in their holidays would be a sign of weakness, giving the violent criminals more power than they deserve.

Last night's riots, looting and arson in Tottenham High Street and in the nearby Tottenham Hale Retail Park sends a dismal message to any potential visitors or investors, who might have been attracted to the area by the London 2012 Olympics - stay well away!

The Olympic Stadium site is only 7 kilometres away, but Tottenham might as well be on the moon, for all the "regeneration" benefit the billions wasted on the Olympics project will have locally.

The local (Labour) politicians and "community leaders" are appealing for calm etc., but they all have an air of failure and despair about them - they know that this riot will make local life even bleaker than it was before.

Why should there be any sympathetic media coverage of these riots whatsoever ?

There are several reports of press photographers and video camera crews being attacked by the gangs of looters:

The BBC reports:

Riots in Tottenham after Mark Duggan shooting protest

A BBC TV news crew and satellite truck also came under attack from youths throwing missiles.

The Mail on Sunday reports:

Riot blaze: North London in flames as police cars, bus and shops burn over police shooting of 'gangster'

Meanwhile, two Mail on Sunday photographers were viciously beaten and robbed by masked youths armed with crowbars and other makeshift weapons and reporters on the scene were threatened by looters in balaclavas.

The photographers said there was 'total lawlessness' in the area with the contents of shops strewn across the streets and the police unable to gain access.

One said: 'It is utter carnage out there. We have been beaten up quite badly and had about £8,000 of equipment stolen. We were quite discreet but as soon as we got a camera out we were set on by youths with masks who were armed with crowbars.'

In a separate incident, a Mail on Sunday reporter was chased down a side street and struck on the back of the head with a rock.

The criminals also even attacked (white) left wing , anti-police violence sympathisers, accusing them of being undercover policemen.

PoliceStateUk twitters:

12:54 AM August 7th 2011

@PoliceStateUK
For a refreshing change of pace, just got beaten up by rioters instead of riot police. Apparently I look like an undercover cop.

12:56 AM August 7th 2011

@PoliceStateUK
... Mark Kennedy has a lot to answer for :-) Some older onlookers kindly waded in and rescued me from the lads that didn't like me.

Also

1:03 AM August 7th 201

@FortisGreen75 Pete Mellows
#Tottenham: Back from the High Road having been attacked for looking like an undercover cop!? Literally owe my life to 3 or 4 guys.

No doubt their will be months of investigations and perhaps an Inquiry, into the original shooting incident and into the police riot response.

  • Why was there no initial rapid Police response when the Tottenham Hale retail park stores burglar alarms went off ?

  • Was the Metropolitan Police Service really so overstretched, or did they delay their response for political reasons to put pressure on the Government against the cuts in their massive budget ?

  • Will political extremists try to exploit this riot for their own evil purposes ?

  • How much has the stupid "gangsta" culture contributed to turning previously innocent youths into real criminals during this riot ?

  • Will this all happen again next summer, during the Olympics ?


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