The Rioters The Riots: In Their Own Words

-DAVID CAMERON:

-Now the fires have been put out

and the smoke has cleared,

the question hangs in the air - why? How could this happen on our streets and in our country?

Last summer, England suffered the worst riots in a generation.

In this series, we're going to get the dramatic first-hand accounts of those who were there -

the police and the rioters.

First, the rioters.

-Just checking it's recording.

-Mic check.

What I'm trying to establish, right,

I think what we're all trying to establish,

is why it spread where it spread, and how it spread.

Because it is easy...money,

easy...money,

easy money.

Two months after those five violent days in August,

researchers began interviewing rioters.

The aim? To get them to explain in their own words what happened and why.

These are some of those interviews, recreated using actors.

-It was like Demolition Man. Have you seen Demolition Man?

-No.

Well, there's a higher class and a lower class.

The lower class gained the power. That day, we had the power.

Most of those interviewed had not been arrested

and all spoke after being promised anonymity.

Much of what they say is shocking.

But it adds up to a unique insight into why our streets saw such violence.

Anything gets the police out, I'll happily join.

Just that rush, where you think, "Oh, my God, you can get anything."

It was quite enjoyable. It was really enjoyable, actually.

'Opportunist. I had to grab it.'

You don't get to run riot like that every day.

This is what happened, according to those who took part.

The riots. In their own words.

This programme contains strong language.

'This evening, there is some unrest in the Tottenham area in North London.

'Here's what we know so far...'

'..followed protests about the shooting dead by police on Thursday

'of a local man, Mark Duggan...'

On 6th August last year,

about 120 people gathered outside Tottenham Police Station in London.

They had marched from Broadwater Farm Estate

to protest at the shooting by police of local man Mark Duggan.

-WOMAN INTERVIEWER:

-All right, so what did you do?

Basically, we went down to the... on the protest with the family,

asking for answers.

We went down there to talk to one of the head police officers

and they said it would be a few hours.

Ended up, we was waiting for about five hours, that's right, yeah?

We was there for five hours, one of the head police comes out and says,

"The police can't deal with this right now,"

we have to come back another day.

-D'you know what I mean?

-People started to stand in the middle of the road

to stop the traffic, so at that time, people was getting angry.

Wait, why were people doing that?

To show them we're serious, that we're not going to go away.

'..100 protesters are currently

'gathering outside the police station that's on the High Road

'in Tottenham in north London...'

I remember myself personally lying in the middle of the street

spread-eagle, no traffic's not passing here, I don't care.

I lie down in the road, then other mums joined me.

Got to about maybe nine o'clock. Say after eight, nine o'clock.

And I remember the chief of police, whoever it was, wasn't coming again.

-INTERVIEWER:

-What did you think when you first heard about it?

-Go to war.

-OK.

-We're still being held down, home. You know what I'm saying?

-Sure.

-Still getting bullshitted.

-Mm-hmm. What did you do?

Did you... Did you go anywhere when you heard...?

Yeah, jumped in a vehicle, about six geezers, went down there.

-OK, where?

-Where do you expect?

-I'm thinking Tottenham...

-Straight to the damage zone.

-I don't want to put words in your mouth.

-The combat zone.

-So, do you mean Tottenham?

-Yeah.

People just started to come from everywhere.

-What was the atmosphere like?

-Very tense.

-Very tense.

-A lot of anger.

Frustration in the air. There was a lot of...tension.

There was a lot of anger, innit?

I grew up with Mark, yeah?

And we're used to being roughed up by the police.

We're used to being stopped by the police.

Even harassed, abused by them.

Even in the early days,

maybe a little dig by the police by them punching us, or...

You get me? Having their little wicked way,

but it's like they've taken foul play to a whole new level.

You see what I'm saying?

If this was Camden or the City of Westminster,

or where does the Queen live?

-What's that? Buckingham, wherever the hell that is, yeah...

-Westminster.

Westminster's a different thing, blud.

Cos if the Queen was to die now,

there'll be a big massive inqu... Like, come on!

If the Queen was to get snipered, it'd be a madness. You get me, like?

There's going to be some outcome quicker than what happened with Mark.

'Two police cars, a shop and a bus have been set on fire

'during a demonstration outside a police station in north London...'

-CALLER ON RADIO:

-'I have seen the riot police. They're not moving.

'They're not attempting to clear people, but they're making their presence known.'

'I saw a couple of youths run across to the grocery shops

'and they were handing over £5

'and picking up crates of apples, crates of oranges,'

stacking them up. And I thought, yeah.

And people started throwing weapons.

And I knew something was going to take place

because I could see by the youths gathering,

and that's when I knew, this was war.

-CALLER ON RADIO:

-'There seems to be a lot of anger in Tottenham tonight.

'There are a lot of people there saying, "Come on," you know, "This is our chance,"

'and they keep running at the police line...'

Word of the violence spread and attracted more people to the scene,

including those who were just curious.

-Come and say hello?

-Hello.

-Hello.

-This is Brendan.

He's doing an interview on me. And anyone else who was involved...

-An interview on you?

-Because I was at the Tottenham riot.

-CALLER ON THE RADIO:

-'There's fires, there's three police cars on fire, blown up.

'Shops are getting broken into.

'I mean, it's absolutely mad down here.'

It was quite striking because it was literally

one of those situations where my 14-year-old brought me her phone

with a picture of a burning car and said,

"Mum, that's on Tottenham High Road.

I saw the picture, and I said to my daughter, "Do you want to go there, and see what's going on?"

-So we did, on our bikes.

-Yeah.

-And, um...

on the way down, I lost my daughter

because of the crowds who were on the High Road.

'And a few minutes later, she phoned me up to tell me off for being such a bad mother

'for losing her in a crowd in a potentially dangerous situation.'

'I went into the corner of a little shop

'because I didn't want nothing to blow up and burn me up.

'So I stood in a little shop, but while we was in the shop,

'we was like nurses because all the wounded was coming to us.

'I saw guys'

with their hands sliced open, skin hanging off.

I took them ice water, I washed their wounds,

I said, "You need to go to the hospital.

"And...those that are not that injured, go back and fight,"

cos I didn't care.

I think the policemen deserve a bloody good hiding.

That's what Bernie Grant says.

Because they have no right to go and kill no-one.

-There's no gang involvement.

-They say that.

Tottenham wasn't really organised like that.

It's not a gang round here. We're all family and friends, mainly.

It's not a thing like that,

where people call us gangs, we're just a group of friends

what are family orientated through blood.

-CALLER ON THE RADIO:

-'Mate, it's an absolute war zone. I walked up there.

'I saw about five youths, all faces covered up.

'They set a wheelie bin on fire and threw it into the riot police.'

'I saw about 16 men,'

all in grey tracksuit. They came from N16.

They said, "We're here to help you." Men came from other parts.

They said that, "Today, we are putting down the postcode war.

"We're here to help you." And I call them soldiers.

Could have been their brother, could have been...

because it was a black man that got...

black young boy that got killed, you know,

and that's why they got involved.

And they stood united together on the front line

and was pelting the police.

And that was really, really nice.

-There was a lot of stupidity going on, so...

-Why do you think?

-Because there was a lot of lost innocent souls...

-It was money, man.

They just wanted money. I spoke to someone who worked in the Jobcentre,

and they said it was copper and lead they took. Do you know what I mean?

Everybody had their own reasons, and I guarantee you,

about 80% of them never had nothing to do with Mark, really.

Like, I'm sure Mark wouldn't have liked it if people's houses

were getting burnt down in his name. You see where I'm coming from?

'The news you're waking up to this Sunday morning is,

'there have been riots overnight in North London.

'Petrol bombs were thrown at police.

'Patrol cars, a bus and buildings

'on Tottenham High Road were set on fire...'

-TEARFUL WOMAN:

-'We were trying to get out of the building,

'you know, we were in such a panic.

'And then we got outside and then I saw the building. It had flames going up the building.

'You know, ten minutes longer in that...in that building

'and we would have been dead.'

More than 40 people were arrested

and 26 police officers injured.

What no-one guessed was that Tottenham would be the trigger

for a further four days of rioting across England.

At first, in other parts of London,

and then Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, amongst other areas.

Some took to the streets after hearing the news

on television, radio and websites,

while others alerted each other by phone messaging.

'Well, I got a BC on my Blackberry'

handheld...internet

or handheld devices.

Um, I didn't believe it.

But then I started getting numerous broadcasts,

so I thought, let's just delve a bit deeper into this.

-The day before, were you aware there was rioting in Tottenham??

-Yeah.

Like, the guy that got shot or something. Yeah.

And were you expecting this to happen?

Yeah, I was, but not on the scale that it happened, though.

When we seen everything's happening in Tottenham,

everyone just clicked and said, "Yeah, this is our chance."

Fuck up feds and...

and do our thing, basically, do what we have to do. Cause mayhem.

Cos it felt like we was on a leash for years

and it felt like we've come off that leash

and we just responded in that way.

If some welcomed the opportunity,

others said their involvement was not so calculated.

The week that the riots started and thing, you know,

in between, my aunt was on holiday or something like that,

and she went and got my medication from the doctor's,

because I've got mental health issues, innit.

-Right.

-Took them home,

forgot about them, went on holiday, and I run out.

So I had a week with no medication, and during that week,

the riots happened.

'..actually, people are coming from other parts of London

'to join in with this, which implies the situation's escalating...'

'EVERYONE met up from EVERY single area.'

There was a lot. There was at least 200 of us,

because it's not just my area that linked up.

We linked up with a couple of other estates.

There was no plan. The only plan was to meet up.

-Can I ask you, then, let's say the day of the Bromley riots...

-Mm-hmm.

..can you remember what you were doing that morning?

I was with my girlfriend. Doing something naughty.

OK, fair enough, I won't ask you for details.

And then how did that day then evolve? What happened next?

Er...I know I shouldn't, I'm a naughty boy,

but my girlfriend went home and I went to meet another girl.

In Bromley. Because I never knew it was happening in Bromley.

-Right, OK.

-Yeah, but... it was madness in Bromley.

So, I mean, she couldn't come.

It wasn't like I went there with a big gang, like, all my boys,

and started terrorising Bromley.

I went there, literally, to be a slut.

-Everyone starts messaging, saying it's all happened.

-Yeah.

What were they messaging you saying? What had happened?

Terror. Riots in Brixton.

-Yeah, it's kicking off, basically.

-What did you think

when you got that message, or those messages?

I was thinking, I'm going back there.

I had nothing to do. I weren't tired. Fuck it.

The crowds gathering on the streets were a mix of races.

Most were young men or boys, and many were students.

But there were also families and older local residents.

Even many rioters would later speak of a party atmosphere

and of warring gangs suspending their hostilities.

Every type of person was there.

There was some guy in shorts, flip-flops and a straw hat.

-A white guy?

-Yeah, a white guy.

Flip-flops, he was wearing. Flip-flops, shorts and a straw hat.

It was really interesting. I'm a parent governor in a local school

and I saw numerous people from there. I saw loads of people.

Loads of people came up to me and said, "Mum, what are you doing here?

"Don't you think you should go home?"

-You are a bit old for the riots.

-It was quite enjoyable.

It was really enjoyable, actually.

'People are having what I can only describe as a good time, by the looks on their faces.'

I was like, "Oh, my God, why are you here? Why are you here?"

It was like a big joke. I was joking around. "I'm telling your mum you're here."

At one stage, it was like a street party

cos there was alcohol everywhere.

'There are so many youths out there who have got knapsacks on, bottles.

'It looks like they're going to a party.'

I just went down there as a spectator. I really did at first.

I think most of us spectators did exactly the same.

Came along, just to watch, but found ourselves wound up in it.

Even though there was a majority of boys and girls,

there was a big majority of big people, like women, men, mothers...

-Older.

-Older, 30, 30-year-olds.

People that were enemies, they were all meeting up as friends.

No war that day, them days.

They're warring now, but not them days. In times like that, they unite.

Times like what?

To make free money, and it's easy. You get free TVs, free laptops.

-Would you not do it?

-Certainly not.

-If you could get away with it?

Shops would be the prime target.

Local shops on high streets, shops the rioters might buy

their clothes from, shops with high-value electrical goods.

But why did thousands of people seize the opportunity to loot?

Everyone was scared to start it off.

And then police were there for about ten minutes.

And then all of a sudden, they disappeared, so it all kicked off.

-So, yeah, someone dashed a stone at a Maplin's window.

-Really?

And then it all kicked off.

'The scene which is in front of me is abject criminality.

'There are at least a couple of hundred youths,

'they have balaclavas, they have scarves,

'and they are basically smashing into any shop that they so choose.'

-What did you see outside?

-Everyone was looting.

-What were you doing?

And enjoying themselves.

What was the conversation between you and your friends when you were watching this happen?

"I'm going to get four TVs." "I'm going to get five."

"Have you been in there yet?" "No." "I'm not going in there." "Why?" "Cos it's too peak."

It wasn't no drama, no stress, everyone had the power.

Everyone had the strength.

The police wasn't in control. We had the power.

'Every single shop I've just passed in the last two minutes has had its windows caved in.

'Iron railings buckled. There are groups of youths helping themselves.

'I saw a Tesco with its entire front...'

I took a TV that day.

Taking off in a van, going home, dropping shit off,

coming back, doing it again, boom.

'They are helping themselves to everything in these shops.

'A jeweller's been knocked over.

'One of the supermarket trolleys is being laden with whatever they can get their hands on.'

My pal, obviously, kicked in some windows, some caf, got some wine,

got some champagne.

Yeah. And then move on to the next shop.

Obviously, I had a couple of munchies.

Obviously got some Haribos. The guy opened the tills.

Obviously, took the money.

'I see my wife, who has worked for 20 years,

'came to this country with nothing

'and built up a small empire of restaurants

'which she runs single-handedly,

'and to have people trash, mindless vandalism, to wreck, to rob,

'to loot from her... You can probably hear the emotion in my voice

'because I'm so upset about this.'

Some said they never planned to loot, but were swept away by what was happening around them.

I see a police car drive past,

people putting bricks through the police car,

so I thought, "What is happening?

"Is this how they're going on, yeah?"

So I was like, "Right, this is crazy, I need to get out of it

"cos I'll end up getting myself nicked, yeah?"

So then I try, but you can't leave.

Then I just don't know, something switched off in my brain

and I was just...

Felt like walking in a phone shop.

So, you know... It was...a little bit drunk,

we decide, why not? Something new, adrenaline rush.

And the shop was half open, yeah?

So we just grab inside, took some stuff,

DVDs, you know, game stuff.

The shops, people coming out of shops

and just leaving stuff on the floor.

What I was actually doing, right, I actually found this iPod

and as I picked it up, this girl was looking at me. I just gave it to her.

I went in one of the shops, like, took a load of cigarettes,

and actually gave it to the people when I came out.

I actually gave it to this old woman. Kept one packet for myself, pack of 40.

I was scared. "I don't want to do it, Becky. I don't want to do it."

But then, after it all kicked off and everyone was doing it,

after everyone was doing it, you just joined in and it felt fine,

it just felt natural, like you was naturally shopping.

Like it was just a normal day and Becky was like to me,

"Come, let's go and rob a shop." I was like, "Are you crazy?"

But because everyone was doing it, I thought,

if everyone was doing that and no-one is getting caught at the time, why can't I do it?

The normal rules of behaviour had been thrown out.

I was seeing people fucking 70 years old,

walking in JD with their...

You know them... What's them pulling things that they use?

Like a little trolley, looks like a suitcase?

-Yeah, like a bag on wheels, yeah. You know them bags?

-I do, yeah.

They were just filling stuff up and walking out.

I'm thinking, "These are just old people and they're still robbing."

I thought, "This is crazy!"

It's just that adrenaline... I can't say the word.

It's just like that rush where you think, "Oh, my God, you can get anything."

iPhones, phones, any BlackBerries, TVs...

You just think, "Wow, I'm getting all this free stuff,"

and you're not going to get caught because so many people are doing it.

'The scene which is in front of me is like the Wild West.

'It is completely and utterly lawless.'

So you've covered up, gone into the phone shop, and then what happened?

It was already open. It was already ransacked and that.

But you know when you're just nosy and you're in the middle of it.

I just popped in there, see what was happening, it was just crazy.

-All empty and that.

-At what point did you think you'd had enough?

I had enough soon as I got there.

I couldn't be bothered with it, because I knew if I'm here

and I'm not on my tablets, then I'm going to get into trouble.

But I just overpowered what was happening.

The unprecedented scale and spread of the rioting

meant there were not enough police to cope in some areas.

A number of rioters spoke of being at first confused

and then encouraged by what they thought was a weak response.

'I cannot see one single police officer in this stretch.

'I can see no flashing blue lights. I can see no riot police on the street.

'I can see no vans. The people here are basically free to do as they want.'

The police saw me with my TV and a couple of trainers, yeah?

They wasn't doing anything. They was looking. It was like, "Huh-huh." They just drove off. Right, cool.

"If they're doing this, then it's OK for everyone else to do it."

'To say that the police are stretched here, I don't think would be a fabrication of the truth.

'It is as clear as the nose on your face.

'There are not enough officers at the moment to deal with this trouble.'

Because there's no police around, it was like, free stuff.

I went into a clothes shop and then I went into John Lewis

and apart from that, I was just outside, holding everyone's stuff that I was with.

I was really shocked about this behaviour of these people

and behaviour of police because they were ready

to just stand and watch what's going on.

They... I think they didn't do enough to stop this.

I think in my country, police would just use plastic bullets,

gas, or these water pipes. Something like this.

-Cannons.

-Yes. I was really surprised by the police.

The police were not everywhere. But CCTV was.

Looters who didn't cover up were having their identities silently recorded.

At one point, I think, "Am I going to get caught?

"Am I going to get caught?" I was like, "Oh, my God, what have I done?"

You don't think about the CCTV. When you're inside the shop, you think,

"I'm going to hide my face", but when you're out of the shop,

you're hot and exhausted from running round the shop.

And then you come out of the shop

and you pull down your bandana or hood or whatever

and then there's cameras outside the shop.

I was on the precinct myself. I was putting cameras out of action.

Cos these kids are going to get themselves arrested. Just pushing the cameras into the air, CCTV.

So they couldn't be caught, obviously.

I don't want them getting arrested. Half of them are probably like myself,

just came outside to see what was going on and got dragged into it.

ALARM BLEEPS

A trolley! Supermarket sweep!

Supermarket sweep! Go, Dale! Go!

HE LAUGHS

For one rioter, the looting was an opportunity to take revenge.

I targeted the ones that I had the problems with.

That's what I targeted.

All the people that take the piss about me looking young

and not getting served cigarettes and taking the piss, their shops got fucked up.

They always ask me for ID, like.

The thing is, "I've showed you ID before, don't need to show you my ID again."

And they'll get rude after I say that.

So I'm like, "Cool, one day your time will come". And their time come.

JD Sports, I looted JD Sports

because they didn't want to recruit me when I tried to find a job.

So I just got them back for what they done, basically.

Next, Next, tried to break into it, broke into it, broke it,

lifted it up, I started smashing up the whole place

cos they didn't employ me.

They made me buy new shoes and a new suit for me, for them to say no to me.

No way! No way!

Everything started clicking back that day. Yeah.

Started clicking back. Say "Yeah, you. You."

WOMAN: 'It's absolutely disgusting. They are feral rats.

'Those children should be at home.

'They shouldn't be out here causing mayhem. I'm absolutely livid.'

-What are you thinking whilst you're doing this?

-What was I thinking?!

To be honest, I wasn't thinking anything.

-What was your motivation then, to do it?

-Cos everyone else was doing it.

Say for instance, you're standing outside a bank, yeah,

there's no police or nothing, and you see people going in the bank

and come back with wads of money in their hand, what would you do?

I don't think I would have gone in it. I don't think so, no.

I wasn't there and I can't say 100%, but I don't think I would.

-I would go in.

-I know. That's what you're telling me.

That's what I'm saying.

-So it was just an opportunity that presented itself.

-Yeah.

Opportunist. I had to grab it.

You don't get to run riot like that every day.

More than 2,500 businesses were attacked across England.

The total cost of the riots to the country has been estimated

as high as half a billion pounds.

Most of those who have appeared before the courts

were charged with burglary and theft linked to looting.

But a few of the rioters didn't just target shops.

They also attacked passers-by.

Are they actually helping him up?

Oh, my God.

He just took something from his bag.

Dickhead.

And amongst the rioters themselves,

some of the strong targeted the weak.

I went there to see how they were getting things.

And they were sliding underneath the shutters and that.

So I think to myself,

"I'm not getting on my hands and knees to get no goods."

So I just thought, came up with a cunning plan, yeah?

And I stayed outside, yeah?

I waited for someone to come out with something that I wanted

and I just take it from them, the car was round the corner

and I just put it in the car. I come back and do the same thing.

Me and Becky, we had a touchscreen computer and we got robbed,

we had a laptop, that got robbed.

Um... What else did we have?

We had something for an Xbox, that got robbed.

People just came up to us and said, "Let me have that."

And cos they're big boys, you're scared to say no.

If you say no, they'll just grab it out of you.

"You're moist, give it, give it."

-So you were stealing from people who were stealing?

-Yes.

So if I were to go underneath the shutters in Currys

and I come out with a television and you're on the other side,

why am I going to give you my television?

You have no choice, I'll just take it.

Just put it in the car, round the corner, and come back.

Were people not arguing with you?

How can they argue, bruv? It's free goods.

Me and Becky would turn around and be like, "We took it, so it's ours,

"it's nothing to do with you, get your own things."

So me and Becky, yeah, we did get robbed.

For some, the looting was a shameful distraction from what they felt

should have been the real target.

Tottenham was for a cause, a well-known cause.

The others was just mimic. Brixton, Hackney, they had no cause.

Because they were stealing.

If they were out there pelting the police and not looting the shops,

I would say, "Yes, this is a good war to have with the police."

But what I see and how I saw theirs happening was, they're stealing.

They was just naturally going out there to do theft. It wasn't called for.

Violence towards the police would be a factor

in nearly all the riots across England.

More than 300 officers would be injured tackling the disturbances.

But why was such anger directed towards the police?

It felt like a battle cos there was police against us,

and for the first time, we felt like we could actually take them on.

Every rock we could get hold of, we were throwing at them.

Stones, chairs, coins, shoes...

First, it was the police I was aiming at.

There wasn't even enough police there that day.

The total tension was, the filth were portraying their strength.

That's all they're doing, suited and booted,

ready to fucking tear your arse off.

-Right.

-So we got ready to tear their arses off. This is war.

-How do you get ready?

-What do you mean? You're all tooled up.

-OK.

Anything goes. You fight with your hands, your fists, anything goes.

-Is that what happened on the night?

-Yeah.

TV BROADCAST: The Met have admitted this morning

that they have been stretched "beyond belief"

in a way never experienced before.

It was like a line of police there, there's bare people throwing stones

and rocks at them, innit. Some wood, To Let signs.

Obviously, I'm pinging all of my friends,

trying to find out where everyone is.

How many police? How many people? What were they doing?

What could you see?

Like, a line of policemen

in full armour with shields.

-Were people shouting anything at the police?

-Yeah.

-What were they shouting?

-Everything.

-SHE LAUGHS

That doesn't tell me anything!

Bastards. Pigs. Na-na-na-na.

-Just...

-Abuse.

Yeah. Basically.

I remember seeing an old white man go and kick a police car.

The burning police car. I said, "I feel like doing that as well."

And because... Suddenly, it brought back to me all the anger

that I feel about the police.

I was going, "I'm entitled to do that as well.

"I need to go and kick that car."

I said, "What happened to you? What's wrong with you?

"Why are you kicking the car?"

-He said, "Those fucking racist police."

-Yeah, yeah!

I can't do his accent, but he was... he was Eastern European, I think,

and he was cursing away.

"Fucking racist police."

-NEWS REPORTER:

-'Despite an extra 2,500 police officers drafted in

'from nine forces around the country,

'the British Transport Police helping,

'the City of London police helping,

'it seems that the police were overwhelmed in many areas.'

Some expressed a hatred of the police shocking in its intensity.

There was one police officer that got fucked up.

He got licked with a brick and it hit his face and he just dropped.

We just ran towards them.

They're trying to grab him, and we're there just stamping on his face.

That felt good. Just the anger.

Riot officers all lie down on the floor.

They were mash up and I was laughing because they had broken foot,

they had cuts, they had bruises.

They were breathing like cows, you know, asthma attack.

I found that very funny, because they deserved it.

It's a pity one of them wasn't gone as well, for Mark's life.

I'm sorry, that's how I feel.

I think it's more about having a go at the police, you know,

for, like, years of abuse off the police. The police do abuse people.

They do, like, they take liberties.

Vans were going past and people were just throwing bricks at it, and you were like, it was funny, really,

because people were like,

there's probably many people who only threw one brick,

but they were chuffed to actually throw a brick at a police van

and, like, nothing happened, you know,

like. They actually had a little bit of a smile,

like they had achieved something once in their life, you know.

A little bit like fight back at the system. It wasn't just a riot, it was a statement.

If it was a statement about the police, what was it saying?

Many claim the way the police had behaved towards them in the past,

stop and search, verbal abuse, violence -

was a major cause of the riots.

But hostility to the police could also be explained

by many of the rioters already being criminals.

Three quarters of those charged with riot-related offences already had a criminal record.

Oi, oi, oi, stand back! Stand back!

Like, it was due to happen. It was due to happen.

Obviously, the police were taking the piss.

They shot some guy in Norwood. They shot some guy in North.

You know what I'm saying? They called it on them own selves. Leave man alone.

If a man's not doing nothing, just leave us, you know what I'm saying?

Stop harassing us for no reason. Let us sell weed, man.

Actually, talking about it, I need a spliff.

Harassing you for no reason. Why?

-You think the police arrest you for no reason?

-They stop and search.

They stop and search us for no reason. You hear what I'm saying?

Wasting their time doing nothing.

That's a hell of a lot of weed there!

I thought you were going to get one little bit of weed out, not 100 bags.

-Do you smoke? You obviously do.

-No.

But anger wasn't just directed towards the police.

Why did rioters also choose to destroy and burn property?

-TV REPORTER: Are you OK?

-INTERVIEWEE OVER PHONE: 'We're running because of the fire'.

Anna, get out of there, and we will speak to you again in a moment.

I can see the most horrendous fires, to be honest with you.

One that is burning out of control.

If the fire brigade don't get here soon,

it's anyone's guess where this will spread.

Yeah, we smashed up the restaurants outside.

Smashed up that car showroom.

And there were a couple of cars there that got...put on fire.

I think it was a Lotus. Lotus... One of them cars on fire.

We had matches.

Everybody had matches, fuel, petrol bombs.

Ambulances were trying to get through

but we was not allowing ambulances to get through. I mean, fire brigades, yeah.

-Why, what were you doing?

-We were blocking it.

We were licking bombs, putting shit in the way, everything,

whatever we can think of in the middle,

just for them not to get through.

Because we wanted to see everything on fire.

To show them, what can you do now? There's nothing you could do.

'I actually feel really emotional about seeing the place

'where I've grown up torn apart like this,

'and these scum should just be sorted out as soon as possible.'

It's just trashing, trashing it for the fun of trashing it.

Not for, like, financial gain or anything.

Some financial gain, but really, they're not going to gain much

when they're breaking into, like,

Cash Converter and pound shops, are you, really?

'I've never seen anything like it in my life.

'You can probably hear how emotional I feel.

'It's absolutely devastating.'

I saw them doing the jewellery shop.

I remember I saw the guy with the petrol can.

I said to the guy, "Why are you burning the shop?"

They said, "DNA, Miss." So I said, "What do you mean?"

They said, "When we pull up the shutters, we get cut.

"The police will arrest us quicker,

"so that is why we are setting these buildings on fire."

But it was their own community they were destroying.

The pet shop, I wasn't having it because that is my pet shop

and I stood firm there. My doctor's, they weren't going in my doctor's,

because my medical papers wasn't going on the street for people's business.

Things that value to me, I was protecting it.

'We were terrified, obviously.

'We could hear them saying they would start fires, and then they

'started to put bottles with rags in and chucking them at the buildings.

'At that point, we just thought, we have to get out of here.

'So we knocked on our neighbours' door and told them that we need to leave now.

I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything major.

Like, I done worse things in my life than rioting.

I tell you that from now.

I prevented Halfords from getting burned down, you know.

-That's what I did.

-How did you prevent Halfords from getting burned down?

Basically, some guy put petrol all over it and he asked me

for a lighter.

If I said, "Yes, I have got a light here for you,"

and given him a lighter, there would be no Halfords.

-And you said no.

-Yeah, I didn't give him the lighter.

-Why?

-Because you didn't want the shop to burn?

-No, bro. I didn't...

You think I wanted Foot Locker to get burnt down, brother?

Like, where am I going to go to Foot Locker, all the way in Croydon?

Or whatever?

'It seems to have calmed down slightly.

'The police have moved on in five or so vehicles.

'That means that the people who were causing all the problems ran away

'from that area, and because of that, they have essentially dispersed.'

By the end of the rioting, five people were dead

and nearly 2,000 crimes of arson and criminal damage had been recorded.

It had taken four days to gain control in London.

The riots outside the capital had lasted two nights.

What made everything stop? The shops ran out of stuff!

Currys went instantly. All the phone shops went instantly.

After all the gadgets, all the electrical stuff went, like.

But me and Becky, we hid stuff in a skip.

And we went back down there in a cab

and we saw there were still people looting the hairdressers.

I was like, "Oh, my God, what are you doing?

"It's like one o'clock in the morning." It's mad. It's mad.

Often loaded down with stolen goods, the rioters made their way home.

We were busting red lights and that.

Roads were derelict, dead. Tumbleweed.

When you're driving like this in the car, what are you talking about?

Well, I was singing, playing music. I was singing, smoking.

-So a happy mood in the car?

-Yeah.

We hadn't killed anyone, know what I'm saying?

I was happy. I was overjoyed. I was so happy, I was like, yeah.

It just felt so good, I don't know. I felt so good, I was like, yes.

There was loads of undercover police and like,

can't really just walk out with two big bags full of stolen goods.

So we had to run all the way from Croydon all the way back here.

It's just scary, because you see helicopters flying about.

Had to hide in bushes and everything. It was crazy.

And you're just scared, because everyone's hooded up

and you're walking through these dark streets,

and because they're all hooded up and everything

and you're thinking, "Oh, my God, they could drag me into a bush

"and rape me and do whatever they want, like."

-I got two plasmas.

-OK.

-So I was satisfied.

I shot it the next day for like, shot it for like £300 each.

I was happy with that steal.

To be honest, at that time,

I didn't think no-one was going to get caught.

I didn't think they were going to wake up in the morning and start nicking these man or these man.

I just thought "Nothing's going to happen."

Know what I'm saying? I just thought "It's in our control now."

But obviously, it flipped.

The riots had ended, but the rioters were not to be left alone.

The Government announced its intention to leave no stone unturned

in its effort to find those who had taken part.

A massive police investigation cranked into action.

'Couple weeks later, I woke up in the morning, about half seven.

'I couldn't get back to sleep,

'so I rolled a cannabis joint to try and get back to sleep.

'While I was smoking it, police knocked on my door.'

Boom, boom, boom, nuh, nuh, nuh.

So then, as I opened the door, I said, "Why, what's this about?"

And they said, "Talk to you once we get in."

-Were you there on your own?

-Yeah.

So I just opened the door, let them in,

and they said that, "I'm arresting you on suspicion of burglary

"of £60,000 worth of phones."

I was like, "60 grand?!"

I said, "What, do you reckon I would be here if I had that?

"Do you reckon that?" I said, "Come on now, man," I said,

"I would have moved out of this country by now."

A couple of weeks later, Becky came to my house and was like,

and said to me, "Oh, I was, I was on...

"There was a picture of me in Croydon."

And I was like, "Oh, my God, if you're there, I must be there, cos I was with you."

So she was like, "Check out this website."

And I was like, "Oh, my God, I'm on it". Like, I'm on it.

It was a photograph of me outside, just, like, ten minutes away,

all from...away from the shops, but I had, like, five,

six pairs of shoes in my hand.

And that was blatantly obviously, they were stolen.

And then someone asked me for a pair and I gave them a pair,

and the street cameras caught my face.

And that's how I got caught.

They got nothing on me. I was all covered up. They can't do shit.

I covered my hands, my face, glasses on. Everything.

And the clothes I was wearing that day,

I was just throwing them in the bin and burning them.

Apparently, there was rewards going round, like money.

That's what I heard.

And I thought, if teacher could see me or anyone,

then basically that would be a worser thing for me.

And then... So I told my mum. I was like, "Mum, are you going to be mad?"

And I think my mum was going to...

I think my mum was going to be like, "What is she going to tell me?

"She's pregnant or something."

I was like, "Mum, don't be mad, but I went looting."

And she was like, "What?!"

She went mad, but after a while, she was like, "Why did you do it?"

-My mum doesn't even know I was in the riots.

-Your mum doesn't?

What does she think I'm talking to you about? What does she think I'm talking to you about?

-I told her what you was talking to me about.

-The riots?

-Yeah.

But she doesn't know that you were a participant?

-No, I just told her that I was.

-Just now.

-Yeah.

-Oh, God!

-Your timing's great, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Over 5,000 would be arrested,

resulting in more than 1,900 convictions,

and over 1,200 going to jail so far.

Rioting was seen as an aggravating factor.

Sentences were longer and more people were sent to prison

than would normally be expected for the same charges under different circumstances.

My friends just decide to go in police station

and told what we'd just done.

And we went to the Crown Court and they decide us,

our sentence will be 12 month.

Judge says us that if it will be normal, yeah,

but it will be like, we won't be imprisoned,

and maybe it will be like community service, something like this.

So I think it is very harsh.

I think the only time I cried in jail was when I first come

and it was my dad's birthday, and my dad's dead, innit?

The best thing to do is not think about it, just have a laugh

and try and have a joke with, like, the person next door in your cell.

I've had people in my school come up to me and like, "Oh, my God,

"your picture's on..." My picture's in the paper, cos most of them

found out I handed myself in or they found out I went looting.

And they're all showing off, like, "Oh, look at my shoes,

"look at my bag, look at my bag, look at the clothes that I got."

And I just thought, like, "You went that low?

"Are you that poor that you can't buy your clothes?

"Like, you went that low?"

As the courts coped with the unprecedented demand on their time,

an examination of the riots began.

What both the authorities

and the public wanted to know was, why had so many people

in so many different areas shown such violence and caused so much damage?

'A report panel received a range of answers,

'from fancying a new pair of trainers

'to a desire to attack society.'

'What in these few days in the summer caused the trouble that spread so fast?

'A series of chance events, opportunism, gangs, Facebook?'

Police drive past this estate, you get me?

Look at me, you get me, like?

We're rats in a lab, you understand?

You get me, like? Come look on us, you get me, like?

We're animals in a zoo and all that, you understand?

We're normal people just trying to make a life for ourselves

-when there's no opportunities out there.

-Opportunities like...?

No job opportunities, no apprenticeships for the youth now.

Youth get frustrated. That's why the riots happen, innit?

You're not only seeing black people rioting.

You're seeing all different ethnicities rioting,

all going through the same pain.

The next day, you're seeing on the news, JDs,

you're seeing middle-class people running in the shop,

all going for it, not just black people.

Everyone is going for it right now, you understand? And that's just what it is.

Some did it for the money. They did it...easy money.

A lot of people talking about the Government.

Nothing to do with no government.

Nobody is thinking about the Government.

When I got the phone call, nobody was thinking about the Government.

No college fees or no bullshit. That's an excuse.

Why are you going to raise tuition fees for?

Put more people on the streets? That's not right.

How many protests have we had, this country had,

and nothing's gone our way?

And then when we turn to violence...

What else are you meant to turn to?

Are we meant to just chill there and speak quietly and say yeah?

So you know what? Fuck this. We'll do it our way.

The exact circumstances surrounding the shooting of Mark Duggan

are still being investigated

by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

His death may have sparked the riots in Tottenham,

but it didn't explain the scale of what happened afterwards.

What I'm really upset about is that they didn't do it right

and there's greedy kids out there who was doing it for pleasure,

and they should have left the shops and concentrate on fighting the police.

They was fighting the police for a rightful cause.

The shops did not trouble them.

That's the shops their mums and their gran have to go to.

The post office now - they've got grandparents -

there's no post office for the elderly.

Should have got it right, man.

I just regret it all. I just feel sorry for all the shops in Croydon.

I just feel like, when I go past and I see Currys all boarded up,

I was like, "I was there on that night."

To think that I went that low to go steal in these shops,

when they're, like...

basically, that's their business.

That's how they're providing for their families,

and we've basically ruined that and they've got to start from scratch.

So that's made me think in life like...

It just made me think twice about what I'm actually going to do,

before I actually do it.

I don't know why people... My God. I don't know why people do this.

'I'm ashamed of myself for being involved, innit?'

I just went there to be a slut. I admit it, yeah?

I know it was wrong and that's why I'm here, yeah?

Because I wanted to be a slut. It's not good, is it?

At least I can tell my kids when I'm older,

like, and my grandkids, like,

I've been involved in a riot before.

Nice little story for them, isn't it?

You know, like World War II and that with my great-grandads and stuff,

I hear about and think, "Oh, I heard about them riots in 2011."

How do you feel about your involvement in the riots?

-I don't feel about it.

-OK, and...

Because if you felt about it, you'd think twice, wouldn't you?

You don't think twice when you go and kill an enemy.

You think about it, it'd stop you, wouldn't it?

What did friends and family think about?

-I don't talk to them about my issues.

-OK, cool.

My mother's dead, my father's dead, my wife died six years ago.

First my mother died, then my father died seven months later,

then my wife died nine months later,

then my dog died a fucking year later.

I don't give a fuck. I've got nothing to lose.

'This isn't about politics, this isn't about poverty.

'It's just sheer evil, it's sheer nastiness.

'There's no conscience about it, either.'

My parents can't control me. I live with them, but they can't control me.

I control myself.

I do not regret it.

If it was to happen again, I would happily join it.

Anything against the police, I would happily join.

Everybody feels happy that it happened. Everyone.

There was no official government enquiry after the riots,

but there were reports by other bodies.

Like the people in this film,

the reports pointed to a range of possible reasons.

Opportunism, social deprivation, discontent with the police,

unemployment and a lack of morality, amongst others.

But none could pinpoint a single overwhelming cause

for what happened over those five days in August.

You know, sitting down here talking about this

is just frustrating as well -

you're talking about it, people are interviewing you, but nothing ain't going to change.

Nothing will change, except for a couple of years down the line,

the next man's going to be dead and we're going to be sitting down here talking about the same thing again.

You get me? There are different people I know that died in the hood,

and look at their case and what's come out of it. Nothing.

Even though I hope some good comes out of it.

I hope good comes out of it.

-Hope is a four-letter word, but it is a big thing.

-Trust.

Go on.

-I'm done.

-Doing good, man.

-I helped you out, man.

No, man, I gave it to you. I'm going home, you know.

I gave you some good lingo there, darling.

Next in this series, a very different story.

The riots through the eyes of the police.

The van was getting constantly pelted.

My colleague screamed, "I'm being attacked."

This machete had just appeared through this hole in the window

and it started hacking at his hand.

# Paint me a picture that I can see

# Give me a touch that I can feel

# Turn me around so I can be

# Everything I was meant to be... #

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