:00:07. > :00:12.Tonight, face to face with Manchester's rioters. For the first
:00:12. > :00:16.time, a police force tells the inside story of the worst disorder
:00:16. > :00:20.in decades. I've certainly never seen that level of violence towards
:00:21. > :00:25.police officers before. We hear from the rioters who took
:00:25. > :00:31.on the police. I just picked a brick up, because obviously I'm
:00:31. > :00:37.scared as well. And from those caught up in the madness on the day.
:00:37. > :00:41.If it was a riot -- if it weren't a riot, then the next day I wouldn't
:00:41. > :00:45.have been arrested. Are tougher sentences the answer? Of course it
:00:45. > :00:48.was right the sentences were handed down. Their behaviour was
:00:48. > :00:58.completely unacceptable. This is the story of the Manchester riots,
:00:58. > :01:05.
:01:05. > :01:10.told bit people who were there. For three days in August, the
:01:10. > :01:14.country held its breath as our biggest cities fell victim to
:01:14. > :01:22.disorder on an unprecedented scale. As London and Birmingham burned,
:01:22. > :01:27.the question was which city would be next? Here in Manchester the 9th
:01:27. > :01:30.August began peacefully, but before the day was out, hundreds of
:01:30. > :01:37.rioters swept through these streets and the neighbouring city of
:01:37. > :01:41.Salford. They attacked police, wrecked livelihoods and callsed
:01:41. > :01:44.millions of pounds worth of damage. Three months on the country is
:01:44. > :01:49.still asking why. Greater Manchester is policed by the third
:01:49. > :01:54.largest force in the country, they accept they were overwhelmed that
:01:55. > :01:58.night bit scale of the scored. -- disorder. Emergency? I need police
:01:58. > :02:05.assistance immediately. They're in the shop, taking everything.
:02:05. > :02:11.They're coming towards us. How many youths are there?
:02:11. > :02:17.Absolutely hundreds. This is my livelihood. Are you safe where are
:02:17. > :02:23.you? I'm in the middle of it all. They're just crazy. What the hell
:02:23. > :02:26.is happening in Manchester tonight? The man who has to answer to
:02:26. > :02:30.Manchester's public is the chief constable, Peter Fahy.
:02:30. > :02:33.Tell us why you think this happened? We think it happened here
:02:33. > :02:36.because a certain group of people saw what was happening in London
:02:36. > :02:39.and decided, they seemed to be getting away with it, the
:02:39. > :02:43.authorities weren't in control. They decided they wanted their
:02:43. > :02:48.opportunity. It was as simple as some guy watching TV and thinked
:02:48. > :02:53.he's got a TV for free, I want one. Absolutely. It was because of what
:02:53. > :02:57.was on the television and that mob hysteria took over. Was it really
:02:57. > :03:03.just copy-cat criminality, which left police facing a damage bill of
:03:03. > :03:07.�9 billion? Where did you hear about the riots? Jeefr where. It
:03:07. > :03:12.was -- everywhere. It was on the news. I went in to get some
:03:12. > :03:16.cigarettes. Or does the explanation lie elsewhere. Everyone's sick of
:03:16. > :03:24.the way things are. They're working a nine to five, in a factory every
:03:24. > :03:27.day. I come out of work and I can't afford what I want to do still.
:03:27. > :03:32.It's four days since the riots started in London, and Manchester
:03:32. > :03:38.has so far escaped unscathed. But rumours are circulating that its
:03:38. > :03:42.luck is about to run out. To reassure the public, police travel
:03:42. > :03:48.in large numbers to Manchester City centre,. For the man in charge on
:03:48. > :03:53.the ground, there is little sign of the mayhem to come. One of the main
:03:53. > :03:57.recollections of the day is that 2.50pm, everything was quiet in
:03:57. > :03:59.Piccadilly Gardens. Little did I realise about 50 minutes later I
:03:59. > :04:03.would be deployed in Salford and that was the start of the things to
:04:03. > :04:09.come for the rest of the evening. Immediately to the west of
:04:09. > :04:13.Manchester's city centre lies Salford, home to 230,000.
:04:13. > :04:22.Predominantly white, with above- average unemployment and ranked the
:04:22. > :04:28.15th most deprived air why in the country. Raaz Fathwilkar live above
:04:28. > :04:32.his electronics shop. So far it was business as usual. It was OK, until
:04:32. > :04:37.about 2pm. Then there was like local people saying there's trouble
:04:37. > :04:42.coming in Manchester. Then I said, there can't be. It looks normal,
:04:42. > :04:46.everything normal. After 3.30pm, suddenly it's changed.
:04:47. > :04:52.The neighbourhood is about to become a battleground.
:04:52. > :04:57.Around Salford's central shopping precinct, anxious shop keepers
:04:57. > :05:03.report threatening behaviour. In back streets like Brydon Close
:05:03. > :05:07.police film youths breaking up bricks and breeze blocks. At 3.35pm,
:05:07. > :05:13.riot police take to the streets. were faced with multiple numbers,
:05:13. > :05:16.in excess of 100. The entrance to the estates all armed with bricks
:05:17. > :05:26.and sticks. As soon as we alighted from our vehicles, we were under
:05:26. > :05:33.attack. Faced with an aggressive mob, Craig
:05:33. > :05:38.Thompson has to respond. Arrests are problematic, because everyone
:05:38. > :05:41.you arrest, it takes two or three officers. So the tactic was
:05:41. > :05:49.dispersal, which we did robustly through initial baton charges with
:05:49. > :05:53.officers. The initial intention, it was clear,
:05:53. > :05:57.was to cause massive disruption and use high levels of violence towards
:05:57. > :06:04.the police. Having worked closely with the Salford community for 17
:06:04. > :06:08.years, Alec McFadden is not surprised at the aggression shown
:06:08. > :06:14.to the police. Salford is one of the most deprived communities in
:06:14. > :06:18.Britain. You have a anti- establishment strong feeling across
:06:18. > :06:23.the whole of Salford, in areas like this, across the country. Whether
:06:23. > :06:29.you're a policeman, whether you're a civil servant, a Social Security
:06:29. > :06:38.or a banker, you're the enemy. Simple as that. As the night-long
:06:38. > :06:44.battle for Salford begins, word spreads that the riots have arrived.
:06:45. > :06:48.In Manchester city centre, police advise businesses to close early.
:06:48. > :06:54.You could feel the atmosphere. Every street corner, every nook and
:06:54. > :06:59.cranny you went down, there were guys with hoods up, looking shifty.
:06:59. > :07:02.We didn't want to stay open, didn't feel safe. The tension in the air.
:07:02. > :07:10.You could tell something was going to happen. But while most people
:07:10. > :07:16.are leaving Manchester, call centre worker Ricky Gemmill is walking
:07:16. > :07:20.through the centre to see his goi. There were people in balaclavas,
:07:20. > :07:24.fully covered up. There were people crying. It was chaos. I think
:07:24. > :07:29.personally it was not intimidating for myself, but for other people, I
:07:29. > :07:38.think it would have been pretty bad. As the last workers flee, the mood
:07:38. > :07:42.turns threatening. I had a black guy on a bike circle me a couple of
:07:42. > :07:48.times. He started laughing. I was just said to him "What are you
:07:48. > :07:53.laughing about mate." He said, "You don't realise how lucky you are. If
:07:53. > :07:56.you weren't black, I'd have robbed you, your keys and your store right
:07:56. > :08:06.now." I started to feel nervous about the situation. The streets
:08:06. > :08:09.are no longer safe. The violence and the looting begin. There were
:08:09. > :08:12.only a couple of people who started ripping the shutters off and
:08:12. > :08:17.everything. Then everybody jumped on the band wagon and joined in.
:08:17. > :08:25.Within an hour, police receive more than 400 emergency calls, many from
:08:25. > :08:30.panicked shop keepers and horrified onlookers. Emergency? A cash
:08:30. > :08:36.generator has been broken into by the rioters. How many broken in?
:08:36. > :08:40.100. Oh, God. In the city centre 120 riot police are trying to cover
:08:40. > :08:47.a square kilometre. A police helicopter keeps watch to
:08:47. > :08:53.coordinate responses. With police on the ground overstretched,
:08:53. > :09:00.undefended businesses are ransacked, as looters seize their chance.
:09:00. > :09:06.I just think people have walked out the shop and guys saying "Go in. Go
:09:06. > :09:11.in." Next thing I know, the police are there.
:09:11. > :09:18.Incident flare aup cross the city centre N broad daylight, a rioter
:09:18. > :09:20.sets light to Miss Selfridge. Then CCTV captures the moment the
:09:20. > :09:27.Arndale Centre, the city's main shopping mall is stormed and
:09:27. > :09:33.breached. Police are quickly on the scene.
:09:33. > :09:38.Standing outside in a precinct is Ricky Gemmell. He's not been part
:09:38. > :09:41.of the looting, but now his way is blocked by the police advance.
:09:41. > :09:45.aim wasn't to go out and riot. It was just to get out of town. I
:09:45. > :09:50.wasn't able to, because of the police. Police try to drive the
:09:50. > :09:54.crowds away from the area and through the precinct. One of them
:09:54. > :10:02.pushed me. I've turned around and said, "Do what you want, don't push
:10:02. > :10:07.me." He said to me, "Just move on you (BLEEP)" Ricky is heard
:10:07. > :10:10.threatening the officer, something he denies. As I turned round the
:10:10. > :10:14.riot police have dived on me and put me to the ground. They've put
:10:14. > :10:17.in the van and took me to the police station.
:10:17. > :10:21.Ricky is destined for a dubious distinction. He's charged with a
:10:21. > :10:30.public order offence and becomes the first in the country to be
:10:30. > :10:34.jailed for involvement in the riots. In Salford the campaign to restore
:10:34. > :10:41.order is faltering. Several fires have been started and the police
:10:41. > :10:44.are now pinned down in unfamiliar territory. Here it's their pitch
:10:44. > :10:48.and their rules. They know the area better than us. Because they've lit
:10:48. > :10:52.the fires, we're answering to them. Whole units are needed to protect
:10:52. > :10:55.the fire crews from attack, which gives looters free run of the
:10:55. > :11:03.shopping precinct. 500 metres away, in the violent struggle around
:11:03. > :11:09.Brydon Close, the police suspect that this is no random mob.
:11:09. > :11:13.I could tell that by the tactics there was a level of organisation.
:11:13. > :11:16.Vehicles were burnt, blocking dual carriageways. They built some fence
:11:17. > :11:24.as cross the road. You felt like sometimes you were being led into a
:11:24. > :11:29.trap. Possibly into an area where lots of weapons had been stored
:11:29. > :11:38.ready for further attacks. Groups were getting larger. The violence
:11:38. > :11:42.had started to escalate to a grand scale. There's between 500 and 800
:11:42. > :11:50.coming towards 30 cops. We need back up now. The police are on the
:11:50. > :12:00.back foot as mob rule takes hold. I've never done nothing like this
:12:00. > :12:10.
:12:10. > :12:14.The streets are now out of anyone's control.
:12:14. > :12:18.It was such an increase in violence towards the police, than I think
:12:18. > :12:22.any resources we would have had wouldn't have been enough. At 7.30,
:12:22. > :12:27.with the fire crews out of harm's way, Craig Thompson gives the order
:12:27. > :12:32.for the police to pull back from the heart of Salford. These new
:12:32. > :12:36.vans at the top end of Salford, get into your vans and withdraw, please.
:12:36. > :12:40.Withdraw from the area. The police are simply outnumbered. They need
:12:40. > :12:45.to regroup and they need more resources. If a unit got isolated,
:12:45. > :12:52.they would have taken a severe punishment, I think from the crowd
:12:52. > :12:57.that were there. Watching the police move out, Raaz Fathwilkar
:12:57. > :13:01.decide today was time to do the same. I was thinking, if I say here,
:13:01. > :13:06.it's danger for the kids. Not about me or my wife, it's the kids. I
:13:06. > :13:11.left the shop from the back. rioters briefly have the streets to
:13:11. > :13:13.themselves and seize their opportunity. Only the police
:13:13. > :13:18.helicopter remains, gathering vital images for the investigation to
:13:18. > :13:23.come. You've got a car on fire on the car
:13:23. > :13:29.park at lidle. There's looting going on at lidle. There's no
:13:30. > :13:35.police there at all. Lidle supermarket is looted and torched.
:13:35. > :13:45.Then a gang breaks into Raaz's shop. They tear his business apart and
:13:45. > :13:47.
:13:47. > :13:56.then move into his family's home, You can see there, there's nothing
:13:56. > :14:04.left. There's no word to say. Human person can't do this, they're evil.
:14:04. > :14:08.Only evil person can do this. you think that Greater Manchester
:14:08. > :14:12.Police failed that night? No, I don't think we failed. I don't
:14:12. > :14:16.think local people feel we failed that night. Are we angry at what
:14:16. > :14:19.happened? Yes. We care passionate about this city. We've agonised
:14:19. > :14:23.over this. I don't think there was more we could have done. It was
:14:23. > :14:27.just down to the size of the mob and the way they organised
:14:27. > :14:32.themselves. You sent 100 officers who were trained in public disorder
:14:32. > :14:35.to London. I'm guessing, as you saw it unravel in Manchester, you wish
:14:35. > :14:38.you hadn't. Not really no. We knew what was critical, there needed to
:14:39. > :14:42.be control of London. That was creating more and more copy-cat
:14:42. > :14:46.violence up here. Because actually you feel you can stop it happening
:14:46. > :14:49.in Manchester if London gets control? With hindsight, if London
:14:49. > :14:59.had been under control sooner, we probably wouldn't have faced the
:14:59. > :15:02.
:15:02. > :15:07.In Salford, Manchester Police are bolstered by officers from 10 other
:15:08. > :15:11.forces. They are preparing to go back out. It is now thought that
:15:11. > :15:17.underworld figures are among the mob, with their own motives for
:15:17. > :15:22.attacking the police. In recent times the police have been
:15:22. > :15:28.intensifying some of their work against organised crime, and they
:15:28. > :15:30.feel they have been pretty successful. There is a view on the
:15:30. > :15:36.street that some of the aggravation could have been linked directly to
:15:36. > :15:43.that, people who had been affected by the clampdown, if you like,
:15:43. > :15:49.retaliating, or, more lightly, winding local people up. Three
:15:49. > :15:53.miles east, in Manchester City Centre, the disorder escalates.
:15:53. > :16:00.Among those who have travelled in from surrounding areas are
:16:00. > :16:08.organised groups alive to opportunity. 1 gang hit Bang &
:16:08. > :16:13.Olufsen, leaving the high end hi-fi out late with a bill for �200,000.
:16:13. > :16:21.The owner returns to try to salvage some stock, when a second wave of
:16:21. > :16:27.looters get there. There was a looter over there, basically saying,
:16:27. > :16:33.pass me the hi-fi system. It was quite frightening to be effectively
:16:33. > :16:42.trapped, because that's our exit. He retreats to the storeroom, while
:16:42. > :16:48.the gang clean out his business. After 15 minutes, a riot squad
:16:48. > :16:52.arrived. The amount of police working in the city was just too
:16:52. > :16:57.many, hitting too many places at the same time. You could see them,
:16:57. > :17:02.they came to my shop, and instantly they had to go somewhere else.
:17:02. > :17:06.Manchester, police regained control by 11pm, and made more than 100
:17:06. > :17:11.arrests. But in Salford, their colleagues could make only 12 all
:17:11. > :17:21.night. There, they are dealing with aggression, the like of which most
:17:21. > :17:45.
:17:45. > :17:49.It's the end of the St! It was like a war-zone. Sergeant Ian Cunningham
:17:49. > :17:53.has been facing the violence for eight hours. Mentally, it affects
:17:53. > :17:59.you. I have certainly never seen that level of violence towards
:17:59. > :18:07.police officers before. But the night is about to come to an abrupt
:18:07. > :18:10.end for Sergeant Ian Cunningham. literally came out of nowhere, it
:18:10. > :18:16.was a large breeze block, and it must have travelled at least 30
:18:16. > :18:26.yards. As it hit my ankle, it knocked my leg from underneath me,
:18:26. > :18:26.
:18:26. > :18:30.sending me to the floor. The crowd started cheering when I was hit and
:18:30. > :18:34.sent to the floor. Sergeant Cunningham is taken to hospital,
:18:34. > :18:38.his body armour saves him from serious injury. His colleagues
:18:38. > :18:47.press on into the night, and finally regain control. Throughout
:18:47. > :18:52.the night, 68 officers are injured by missiles, 40 of them in Salford.
:18:52. > :18:54.Outnumbered, under resourced and fearing for their lives - that is
:18:54. > :18:58.how one Manchester officer described the mood among his
:18:58. > :19:03.colleagues that night. The Chief Constable of Manchester told me
:19:03. > :19:07.that he might never have had the problems he had if London had got
:19:07. > :19:13.control sooner. So, how effective was the policing across England
:19:13. > :19:18.that week? These are testing times for the minister responsible.
:19:18. > :19:22.Clearly, it appeared to the public that at times, the police were
:19:22. > :19:27.standing off. Actually, sometimes the police were explaining that
:19:27. > :19:31.they were waiting forces of friends -- for sufficient resources. But I
:19:31. > :19:36.think it is common ground that the police want to be able to deal with
:19:36. > :19:40.these situations very swiftly, to make sure that there is a rapid
:19:40. > :19:44.response if anything like this happens again. Greater Manchester
:19:44. > :19:49.police are facing budget cuts of �50 million. And they say that even
:19:49. > :19:53.now they have not got enough resources... There will still be
:19:53. > :20:00.something like 6,500 officers in Manchester. To suggest that the
:20:00. > :20:10.cuts play any part in this, you know, it had only just started, so
:20:10. > :20:12.
:20:12. > :20:17.you cannot use that in relation to On Wednesday 10th August, the
:20:17. > :20:23.people of Greater Manchester are waiting -- waking up to find their
:20:23. > :20:28.neighbourhoods ransacked. I need to know who did it. Whoever did it,
:20:28. > :20:34.they need to get punished. response from Greater Manchester
:20:34. > :20:41.Police was immediate. Hundreds and hundreds of people, we have your
:20:41. > :20:49.image, we have your face, we have your acts of wanton criminality on
:20:49. > :20:51.film. We are coming for you from today. In one of the biggest
:20:51. > :20:57.investigations in the history of Greater Manchester Police, 220
:20:57. > :21:04.officers are now dedicated to hunting down the rioters. The man
:21:04. > :21:12.leading the investigation is Detective Chief Inspector Bob Tonge.
:21:12. > :21:15.27 years in the police service, I have never seen anything like this.
:21:15. > :21:18.Did Greater Manchester Police see this coming? Guess, we did. What we
:21:18. > :21:22.this coming? Guess, we did. What we did not expect was the scale. This
:21:22. > :21:27.is just a small selection. This is by no means the number of offenders
:21:27. > :21:32.that we have had. The team is now looking for at least 700 suspects
:21:32. > :21:37.from more than 300 crime scenes. The images on this wall have been
:21:37. > :21:43.generated by a specialist unit. 112 people are studying thousands of
:21:43. > :21:47.hours of video footage, intent on identifying offenders. It is a big
:21:47. > :21:51.challenge for the leader of the team. It is a massive investigation.
:21:52. > :21:57.Normally, we would be looking for five or six offenders, possibly
:21:57. > :22:01.just one. On this occasion, we are looking for hundreds. Many rioters
:22:01. > :22:07.are easily identified, but more experienced law-breakers had taken
:22:07. > :22:10.precautions. You will see a small piece of footage where they have
:22:10. > :22:15.turned a car over in the middle of Salford, jumping on top of it,
:22:15. > :22:21.setting fire to it, but because the camera is quite far away, we cannot
:22:21. > :22:27.get a facial image. This suspected arsonist is tracked on footage
:22:27. > :22:31.throughout the day. He is shown attacking police. The next footage
:22:31. > :22:36.you pick up could even be from somebody's hand-held mobile phone,
:22:36. > :22:40.where they have been able to get a close-up of the face. Images like
:22:40. > :22:44.this go out to the media, and across the force. The meticulous
:22:44. > :22:51.work is paying off, and now some of the faceless, hooded criminals have
:22:51. > :22:58.names and addresses. As soon as they're identified, we will go and
:22:58. > :23:08.get them. Whatever crime they have committed, if they get identified,
:23:08. > :23:18.
:23:18. > :23:24.Police, open the door! In the first eight weeks of the investigation,
:23:24. > :23:34.police made more than 200 arrests. As the culprits are brought in, a
:23:34. > :23:35.
:23:35. > :23:39.picture develops of exactly who took part in the riots. From
:23:39. > :23:44.organised criminals who picked their targets to 12-year-old
:23:44. > :23:48.children caught up in the madness. From the theft of a �5,000 plasma
:23:48. > :23:56.TV to someone stealing a packet of go nuts. What is striking is the
:23:56. > :24:00.range of criminality. But from this chaotic wave of offending, patterns
:24:00. > :24:05.do start to emerge. This matter of Salford and Manchester gives us a
:24:05. > :24:10.rough idea of where the rioters came from. The areas in red are
:24:10. > :24:15.ranked among the poorest 5% of neighbourhoods in the country. If
:24:15. > :24:19.we plot the addresses of the 71 adult offenders so far convicted,
:24:19. > :24:23.around half come from these most impoverished neighbourhoods. Of
:24:23. > :24:28.those brought before the court, 45% are claiming benefits related to
:24:28. > :24:35.being out of work, while more than a third are under 17. Under
:24:35. > :24:39.interview, police start to get answers to the key question, why?
:24:39. > :24:49.This man from Salford, a 20-year- old father, has a history of
:24:49. > :24:54.
:24:54. > :25:04.17-year-old Joshua Penney had no previous convictions, but stole a
:25:04. > :25:11.
:25:11. > :25:16.packet of cigarettes. For him, it While for 18-year-old Michael
:25:16. > :25:20.Fitzpatrick, who had had a private education and aspirations of going
:25:20. > :25:30.to university, stealing from shops like Foot Asylum was about
:25:30. > :25:43.
:25:43. > :25:50.Until political reasoning gives way For me, they have nothing to hang
:25:50. > :25:55.it on, this is just want and criminality. Of the 203 Manchester
:25:55. > :26:00.rioters so far charged, more than 80% already have criminal records.
:26:00. > :26:05.Nationally, that figure is around 75%. The Ministry of Justice says
:26:05. > :26:10.it's the legacy of a broken penal system. But if the system is broken,
:26:10. > :26:13.then why are we simply handing out heavier sentences to the rioters?
:26:13. > :26:18.There is a contradiction, because the solution to the riots seems to
:26:18. > :26:21.be a prison, because the courts brought in longer sentences. You're
:26:21. > :26:26.seeming to imply that because prison is not doing its job
:26:26. > :26:30.properly at the moment, the answer is to stop sending people to prison.
:26:30. > :26:34.That is not the right solution at all. The solution is to say, we
:26:34. > :26:38.have got to make the prison system work. But was it right that there
:26:38. > :26:42.were exemplary sentences handed down for those who took part in
:26:42. > :26:46.these riots, disrupted the community, attacked police officers,
:26:46. > :26:53.of course it was right. Because their behaviour in those riots was
:26:53. > :26:58.completely unacceptable. Ricky Gemmell, who was caught up in the
:26:58. > :27:04.riots, believes that his 16 weeks sentence for threatening behaviour
:27:04. > :27:12.was too harsh. It has cost him his job, and in an area with bleak
:27:12. > :27:16.employment prospects, things do not look good for him. Under normal
:27:16. > :27:20.circumstances, the sentence would not have been that harsh. I do not
:27:20. > :27:26.agree that because it was a riot, that we should get harsher
:27:26. > :27:34.sentences, that's not right. But, for the Chief Constable, tougher
:27:34. > :27:39.sentences for all crimes related to the riots are essential. I totally
:27:39. > :27:46.support the longer prison sentences, to say, if you as an individual go
:27:46. > :27:52.out and shoplift, that's bad, but if you go out in a mob, it is far
:27:52. > :27:55.more serious, because it threatens society itself. We are a thin blue
:27:55. > :28:00.line, as police officers. The system will only work if the vast
:28:00. > :28:04.majority of people observe the law. Footwell hours in August, that Thin
:28:04. > :28:09.Blue Line was tested like never before. The argument over why the
:28:09. > :28:18.riots happened will continue. But today, hundreds of culprits remain
:28:18. > :28:22.at large. If they think they have got away with it, think again. The
:28:22. > :28:28.public want them catching. As long as the public have got a taste for
:28:28. > :28:32.it, we have got a taste for it. Next week, on Panorama, would you