To tell you the truth, London riots have caught me by surprise as much as if they had been in Egypt, Chile or Libya (by the way, is it just me, or there has been an awful lot of disturbs lately? Seriously, what is going on with the world?). As for me, you should know by now I am not big on politics, so at first I really had no clue why this was happening, and when I asked my friends they could not even answer me, but then again, none of them are English… so I decided I’d better find out on my own because I don’t want to live in a nutshell.
I live in London West, Bayswater, and last night the riots started on Queensway, it is about 5 minutes from the building where I live. Now all my friends and family are suddenly becoming aware of the fact that I’m in London, and I am starting to receive messages: are you ok, it must be scary for you… lol, as if I was going to go outside. Actually, I did intend to go out last night, as I was invited to go to Notting Hill to watch Salsa dancers: it is in a pub, they first have Salsa classes, and then they just mingle I suppose. I was really interested in it, but I guess I’ll have to go next week instead to check it out and maybe take up lessons too… But when I was just about leaving, a guy entered the building and warned us about the London Riots.
How did it all started? The London Riots begun a few days ago, on Saturday, August 6th, in Tottenham, North London. A march of 200 people was taking place because of a tragic event: 29-year-old Mark Duggan was fatally shot by the police. His friends and family claimed that he was unarmed, and therefore, it was a murder, although the facts haven’t been confirmed. Anyway, there was a protest which initially was peaceful, but suddenly became violent. Disturbs and riots spread all through London and by the time I’m typing this, seem to be happening in other British cities as well.
According to local and international media, the fatal shooting of this young man was only one of the plausible causes of the riot, others being the economic crisis, unemployment and recession, local tensions with the police, cuts in public services, etc. As in many other violent scenarios, things increased and got worse: a 26-year-old protester has died yesterday following a shooting in Croydon, hundreds have been arrested, and the Prime Minister David Cameron is sending 16.000 police officers to the streets trying to recover some control of the situation. He, together with the Home Secretary Theresa May, Mayor Boris Johnson and Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband had to return to London from their holidays because of the riots.
I hope I can get this published soon. Starbucks is closing as the London riots were expected to arrive in the area, so all shops on Westbourne Grove were closing for the day, and it was only 3.30 pm…