What's the deal? Really about the shooting of Mark Duggan? What was he doing that caused him to be shot?

 

Who is Duggan and why was he so popular, and why didn't he heed police when they asked him to stop his car? Is he a revered gangster?

What's the deal? social tension

Really about the shooting of Mark Duggan? no, more about the general atmosphere of the area

What was he doing that caused him to be shot? resisting arrest

Who is Duggan and why was he so popular, just a local guy

and why didn't he heed police when they asked him to stop his car? he was in a taxi

Is he a revered gangster? he is not any kind of gangster

I was shocked when I was reading about this. In fact I was in a hangout with Drew, Patch, and Andy at the time.

Seems you, as in, most of you, revere the police like we do here. Do what you can to keep on their good side, but don't trust them one bit.

I was also surprised that some of them carry guns. I figured it was all clubs and tasers.

As far as I know, most Police won't carry firearms (maybe the occasional Taser / pepper spray), which would indicate that this might've been a pre-planned operation and they were aware that the guy might be carrying a gun. I seem to recall the Police actually saying that this was the case..? I'm not 100% sure though.

From the

This needs to be publicized more. Seen a few idiots on facebook spreading the rumour that the cop was shot by another cop. Just another excuse to stir things up.



It was part of an operation looking into gun crime, so it makes sense they were armed in case someone shot at them. Whether Mr duggan was armed or not will come out in the inquest, but whatever the result it'll never excuse the large part of the rioting.

Sha'arp. Don't mess with Tot'nahm, aaight?

It was part of an ongoing police investigation into black people carrying firearms. Given that such people are want to shoot said firearms, it's not unreasonable for the police to also be duly armed. Likely it was a special unit that is trained and given clearance to shoot black people should they be found in possession of firearms.

 

It's because of this that the citizens of the UK can sleep safely at night, and need only kill a black person should one be found burglarising their own home and castle.

Those damned blacks!

Indeed, and you can't see them at night, which makes it even more worrying.

I guess the only answer is to make them a curfew, and if they are caught out after it shoot them.

The police were in a planned operation to arrest him at the time, that much they've said. If they knew he was likely to be armed, they'd have had guns too. I think it's Operation Trident, who deal with armed gangs. The bullet found lodged in a policeman's radio afterwards was apparently a police one, so likely (?) a ricochet? I assume a direct shot would go through a radio reasonably easily.

They've got a non-police gun and ammunition on the scene, but there are conflicting reports over whether Duggan actually fired a shot or not. He was a passenger in a taxi at the time, though since he'd texted his girlfriend with "the Feds are following me" shortly beforehand I guess he was aware things were about to happen.

In terms of why it would cause a riot - the Met are currently at something of a low when it comes to public trust. In a big way with cases like Tomlinson or De Menezes or several others where they've been proven to be lying consistently and often about what happened during operations that went wrong. There's also their recent exposure with the News International scandals and how some officers were involved in that, still coming out.

I don't think any of those things were much of a factor. The local youths live in a deprived area (I drive through to work at the football club sometimes, it's an absolute shithole) and likely perceive the police to be unfairly against them into the bargain. A few start a bit of trouble and a lot more came out just to join in the fun. I mean, there's people posting pics of themselves with their loot on Twitter, for fuck's sake, and loads not hiding their faces when trashing businesses live on camera. Impressively dumb. Meanwhile rumours circulate that the police had Duggan on the ground and immobile when they shot him and things like that - probably not true but enough to be incendiary. A big old mix of social injustice, anger at the establishment and plain old stupids.

Lock 'em all up!

I like the way you're thinking!

Indeed, and not quite. Trident is specifically aimed at gun crime in London's black communities.

Yeah that's true. I should know really, my mate's brother works for them. ANYWAY, yes - not regular police and generally going to be tooled up for an operation.

 

edit - also the rioters appear to be very much predominantly white. Hm!

I'm hearing the actual riot kicked off after the police attacked a 16yo girl - possibly throwing stones

The Police were throwing stones? Seems a tad unprofessional even for the Met.

:D

White people need new trainers too! RACIALIST! :@

Possibly entirely unrelated, but very unusual... there were (at least) three dozen police in Croydon town centre this evening.

 

No signs of rioting or property damage or whatever, though both the shopping centres seemed to be closing early, so maybe something happened/planned inside either/both of those.