For five days at the beginning of August 2011, it felt like we were on the brink of anarchy. Over the last few days, similar scenes have played out on British streets: shops have been smashed and looted; people attacked; and police officers on the front line have been injured.
There is nothing more frightening than losing control of the streets
Labour’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has vowed that ‘there will be a reckoning’ for those involved in the violence. In order to stop the riots, the authorities will have to adopt a similar approach to that taken 13 years ago. Lessons from that period must be applied now if the situation isn’t to escalate.
During that hot summer of 2011, in towns and cities across England, police appeared to be powerless to stop marauding mobs of protestors, rioters and looters. Thousands of shops, vehicles and houses were damaged or burned, forcing some families to flee their homes; over 300 emergency workers and members of the public were injured; five people lost their lives.
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