Christian Robinson

For two nights, vicious riots raged in North London's Tottenham neighborhood protesting the arrest and shooting of Mark Duggan. Massive fires tore through the cities and looters crowded the streets. Flames ripped through shops, homes, and cars not only in Tottenham, but other areas as well. Some of the places hardest hit were Bristol and towns in the Midlands and the North West of England.

London's pandemonium has given it a heap of financial loss. The damages have estimated 329,922,484 USD, which is equal to 200,000,000 British Pounds. The chaos has not only caused financial disarray; there have been reports of at least five deaths, sixteen injuries to civilians, 200 to police and firefighters, and 3,100 arrests. Approximately 1,000 of those arrested were charged with a crime.

Many theories revolve around the shooting death of Mark Duggan. Protestors believe he was an unarmed victim of police brutality. The incident is being investigated by the independent Police Complaints Commission but a consensus may not be reached for many months.

Certainly other instances of suspected excessive use of force have occurred in England and it is likely Duggan's death was just a flash point for rising tensions over gangs, social discrimination, the failing economic situation that is similar to other conditions such as the one in the United States, and even social networking outlets such as Facebook and Blackberry Messenger.

The riots, for the most part, have essentially died down. Citizens and Parliament are working vigorously to come to a solution and pick up the pieces. Trevor Reeves, a store owner in Croydon declared, "We ask for the support of the community. We have been through two world wars and we are still here. There must be something in the genetic make-up. We are going to fight to rebuild this."