The riots which tore through London and other major English cities for four days had nothing to do with politics or protest but were motivated by theft, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday.
The rioting was “not about politics or protest, it is about theft”, Cameron told parliament after lawmakers were recalled from their summer recess to debate the worst looting and violence for decades. He said that Britain will crack down on gangs and may call in army support if this week’s riots are repeated, saying he would not allow a “culture of fear” to exist on the streets.
The government will also give the police powers to demand people remove face coverings after many looters who ransacked shops during riots in London and other English cities this week wore masks to avoid being identified. Anyone whose home or business was damaged in the riots, in which four people were killed, may seek compensation under the Riot Damages Act, Cameron said.
He admitted there were “far too few” police officers deployed as the riots reached a peak on Monday night and the tactics they had used had failed to work.
The prime minister, who returned early from holiday in Italy to deal with the riots, announced a package of measures to help homeowners and businesses affected by the riots.
Massively increased police numbers and heavy rain in many parts of the country led to a quiet night overnight Wednesday, leaving Britain to start to count the cost of the violence. Four people have died in the riots, including three Asian men mowed down by a car in Birmingham in central England.
Meanwhile, after a relatively quiet night on London’s streets, life started to return to normal Thursday following four nights of rioting that have left homes and shops in ruins and four people dead. The owners of shops and cafes in districts of the British capital where rioters looted and set fire to shops put on a brave face and opened for business.
On London’s Oxford Street, a shopping magnet for tourists, flagship department stores which have shut early for the past two days finally felt confident enough that the violence had receded to stay open late. In the relatively affluent west London district of Ealing, shopkeepers were starting to reopen premises attacked in one of the most intense bouts of rioting on Monday night.
An entire row of shops were boarded up with chipboard, but under the gaze of policemen the owners of shops pushed open the makeshift doors cut into the wood and began to prepare to serve customers. Organic cafe Farm W5 had its main window boarded up with chipboard but manager Hussein Hagg served coffees and juices in the darkness. “The area is recovering quickly,” he said. “I opened yesterday straight afterwards. We all know each other and we have worked together. As soon as they opened the road, everyone started helping each other.”
He said he hoped Ealing would recover. “I do not think it will have a permanent effect on the area. We just need time to get everything back to normal.
“The residents here are very nice. I have been here five years and I have never had any problems before.”
Nearby, a homemade poster on the chipboard at a health food shop cheerfully announced: “We are open as usual,” accompanied by a smiley face.
Longtime Ealing resident Helen Brooke, 64, admitted that behind the defiance, there was still fear that violence could erupt again, especially when the police reinforcements that have flooded the area disappear.
“I have no idea if it will change the area forever, but I know that people are scared,” she said.
“There’s definitely a lot of fear that it could flare up again. You can have a few days of extra police presence but they aren’t going to stay around forever.”
They were part of a massive backlog of cases from the unrest that forced the City of Westminster Magistrates Court in the British capital and courts in other English cities to stay open all night to administer justice.
At Westminster there were chaotic scenes as defence lawyers rushed about the building trying to locate their clients in the cells in the basement of the building.
As weary court staff handed over from the first overnight shift they could remember for a decade, one of the first to appear early Thursday was Natasha Reid, a 24-year-old university graduate.
