Riots in London

[6souls]

Surprised this hasn't been posted yet;

The police watchdog has admitted it may have misled journalists into believing police shooting victim Mark Duggan fired at officers before he was killed.

Mr Duggan, 29, was shot by officers last Thursday in Tottenham.

His death sparked the initial riots in London which were followed by disorder in other English cities.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission later released a statement to make it clear that Mr Duggan did not fire a gun at police.

Ballistic tests found that a bullet which lodged itself in one officer's radio was police issue.

It was reported by many media outlets at the time that a police officer had been shot before Mr Duggan was killed.

The IPCC said in a statement on Friday: "Analysis of media coverage and queries raised on Twitter have alerted us to the possibility that we may have inadvertently given misleading information to journalists when responding to very early media queries following the shooting of Mark Duggan by Metropolitan Police Service officers on the evening of 4 August."

Police-issue bullet

It said the IPCC's first statement made no reference to shots fired at police.

But it said: "However, having reviewed the information the IPCC received and gave out during the very early hours of the unfolding incident, before any documentation had been received, it seems possible that we may have verbally led journalists to believe that shots were exchanged, as this was consistent with early information we received that an officer had been shot and taken to hospital.

"Any reference to an exchange of shots was not correct and did not feature in any of our formal statements, although an officer was taken to hospital after the incident."

Mr Duggan was a passenger in a minicab which was stopped by police near Tottenham Hale Tube station.

A non-police issue handgun, converted from a blank-firing pistol to one that shoots live rounds, was recovered close to the scene of his death.

The bullet lodged in the police radio was a "jacketed round", a police-issue bullet consistent with being fired from a Metropolitan Police Heckler and Koch MP5, the IPCC said.

An inquest into Mr Duggan's death, which opened at North London Coroner's Court in High Barnet on Tuesday, heard the father of four died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Mr Duggan's death sparked the riots in Tottenham, which were followed by disorder and looting in other parts of London and other English cities.

Richard Mannington Bowes, 68, was critically injured while he tried to stamp out a fire during riots in west London and later died.

Police have said four other deaths - a man found shot in a car in Croydon and three men hit by a car in Birmingham - may be linked to the recent disorder.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the high numbers of police officers on the streets will be "sustained" until further notice.

Speaking during a visit to Enfield, north London, Ms May said: "We have had some quieter nights but we are not complacent about that.

Car chase

"The police will maintain their tough arrest policy, their presence on the streets."

She said officers would be brought in from areas not affected by the riots to help maintain levels if necessary.

The number of officers patrolling the streets of London has almost trebled to 16,000 since last weekend to help tackle the violence.

Trevor Ellis, 26, of Brixton Hill, died after being found with bullet wounds in a car in Croydon, south London, on Monday night.

Initial inquiries suggested Mr Ellis and some friends were involved in an altercation with a group of about nine others. A car chase followed during which Mr Ellis was shot.

A 26-year-old man was arrested in Mitcham while a 24-year-old was arrested in Brighton and later released on bail.

Haroon Jahan, 21, Shazad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, 31, were struck as they stood in a crowd on the pavement in Winson Green, Birmingham, on Tuesday night. They were protecting property at the time.

The inquests into their deaths were opened and adjourned on Friday.

Four people have so far been arrested in connection with their deaths.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14510329

[Ragnus]

This is my surprised face. I'm super surprised.

[Chen]

in regards the original shooting, what exactly do they mean?

a bullet of police issue found in 1 of their radios?

is that a radio in a car, hand held radio or w/e, and does this mean that they likely shot their own radio on purpose afterwards or some police officer just barely avoided a team kill?

/confused

[jmc]

in regards the original shooting, what exactly do they mean?

a bullet of police issue found in 1 of their radios?

is that a radio in a car, hand held radio or w/e, and does this mean that they likely shot their own radio on purpose afterwards or some police officer just barely avoided a team kill?

/confused

Sounds like they barely avoided a team kill.

Yet, to say its must be a police round because its the same ones law enforcement uses is a little bit of a stretch...... not that hard for gangs to get the same type of rounds police use. Will be interesting to see how this plays out

[6souls]

in regards the original shooting, what exactly do they mean?

a bullet of police issue found in 1 of their radios?

is that a radio in a car, hand held radio or w/e, and does this mean that they likely shot their own radio on purpose afterwards or some police officer just barely avoided a team kill?

/confused

It was a hand held radio & was most likely hit from a ricocheted bullet.

[Correction]

Surprised this hasn't been posted yet;



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14510329

It was known since the first day of rioting that the reports that Duggan had fired at cops had been questionable. I think by day 4 scotland yard had come out and said they could find no evidence that Duggan had fired his weapon at all. This report draws a clearer line to where the misinformation began to spread as news reports.

[LinktheDeme]

It was known since the first day of rioting that the reports that Duggan had fired at cops had been questionable. I think by day 4 scotland yard had come out and said they could find no evidence that Duggan had fired his weapon at all. This report draws a clearer line to where the misinformation began to spread as news reports.

this, at least on the Greek news it was stated that the police was actually responsible for shooting the other cop.

[Correction]

Bumping as some of the sentences handed down are raising a few (monocled) eyebrows.

Prison population reaches record level in wake of riots
In this article is a link to a google docs spreadsheet showing the cases as they progress, including ages, charges and sentences handed down, if applicable. You start to see some weird things, like a 19 year old girl getting a year in jail for handling stolen merch, while folks who caused >$1000 in property damage get like a month, or some community service.

England riots: pair jailed for four years for using Facebook to incite disorder
Expect more trolling from Libya and Iran over this.

Learned about this from an NPR interview this morning:

Mr. PAUL LEWIS (The Guardian): Good morning.

MONTAGNE: What are examples of some other sentences that have struck people there as too harsh?

Mr. LEWIS: Well, there have been a number. I mean, actually, the sentences for the most serious crimes are yet to have been handed down. It's not just the harshness of the sentences that has raised concern. It's the inconsistency as well.

So to give you one of many examples, there was a young boy who smashed into a shop and stole a couple of items. He was jailed for one day. Contrast that with a case of a young teenage girl who didn't partake in the rioting or the looting, her friends did. They returned home with some looted clothes. She tried on a pair of shorts. She kept them. And she's been jailed for six months.

So there is a real range in inconsistency, which has concerned people. I mean, another standout case is one involving a man who stole bottles of water from the supermarket. Now, they amounted to around $5. And he received six months in jail as well.

Hundreds of cases left to be prosecuted, expect a lot of outrage from vengeance-minded Britons as assault/burglary charges get released on time served because hundreds of cases will take years to make it all the way through the appeals process.