It was just two years ago that the populace of London followed by other

major cities watched in stunned disbelief as the rule of law collapsed with
the result that just about every adult in those areas suffered from a range
of emotions that varied from apprehension to sheer terror as it became
obvious that the police had lost control of the streets.
How was it that two years on, no-one in authority has been held to
account for those terrible events that left five persons dead, scores
injured and lives forever scarred. Yes, there were enquiries, commons
select committee hearings and reports including a lengthy, glossy one by
the et but during the aftermath some questions were never as!ed and
others as!ed but never answered as the spin machines of both
government and police went into overdrive.
"ell, the #aiser $hief%s, in their number & hit managed to 'predict a riot%
which suggests that perhaps they should have been running the
etropolitan (olice in )ugust *+&& rather than those senior officers who
had clawed their way up their respective promotion ladders.
,he shooting of ar! -uggan on that fateful ,hursday saw all front line
police officers draw in a sharp inta!e of breath, as did retired police
officers li!e myself. Here we had a blac! male shot dead by police in an
area dominated by powerful street gangs and with a history of racial
tension. .ven officers who were but babes in arms at the time of the &/01
riot when #eith 2la!eloc! was hac!ed to death, !new that the potential
for serious disorder was a reality in the event of 'trigger incident% and here
we had one.
,he barrel of gunpowder was within a centimeter of the blowtorch yet the
etropolitan (olice hierarchy, well at least those that weren%t on holiday
were li!e rabbits caught in the headlights.
It is admitted by the et and I($$ that there was a 'falling out% in the
aftermath of ar! -uggan%s death that left a dangerous vacum especially
in relation to the dealings with the family.
3ront line officers, especially those wor!ing in Haringey drew in another
sharp inta!e of breath when word reached them of a protest march just
two days after the shooting. It was anticpitated that all leave for local
officers would be cancelled but that didn%t happen. 4nly the 2roadwater
3arm 5afer 6eighbourhood ,eam which was frequented by ar! -uggan
were required to wor! and then ironically were forbidden from entering the
estate in case it raised the temperature.
"ith the 2orough $ommander, $hief 5uperintendent 5andra Looby
famously flying out for her holiday in 3lorida, command passed from her to
$ommander $histi yet, on the day of the demonstration itself it was )cting
5uperintendent 5ingh who was involved in tal!s with local community
leaders up until 5aturday lunchtime.
$ommunity leaders, including gang mentor and friend of ar! -uggan%s
girlfriend, #en Hinds insist they made it clear that there was rising tension
in the area. ,he et%s lame e7cuse for not doing what they should have
done on the day of the protest was that there was no intelligence
suggesting the protest would turn violent and only a handful of
intelligence reports relating to the 'critical incident% were received.
"ord circulating amongst ,ottenham officers at the time however was
that a piece of intelligence had in fact been received from a serving police
officer who had relatives living on the 2roadwater 3arm .state. )ccording
to the officer such was the level of tension that his relatives had left their
home to stay with friends.
.ven without any specific intelligence, officers would argue that in a
scenario such as this, the real possibility of spontaneous disorder should
be factored into any ris! assessment.
4fficers at stations which serve a multi-cultural community will tell you
that the officer with responsibility for community relations is worth his or
her weight in gold when the 'wheel is in danger of coming off.%
Looby had only been in post since arch *+&& and could be forgiven for
stating that she was still building lin!s with the community. 2ut where
were those officers who had those essential, strong, established lin!s
with that community and who the community !new and respected8
5hown on the Haringey (olice%s 4rganisational 5tructure published in
3ebruary *+&& is $hief Inspector )idan 9ibson as the officer responsible
for community engagement. ,here is no mention of him in the et%s post
riot report, indeed there seems no mention whatsoever of the et%s
community relations strategy and personnel for Haringey. (erhaps
however the most well !nown figure to the community was -$I :on
5han!s. '5han!sie% as he was affectionately !nown to his officers and the
community, retired shortly after the arrival of 5andra Looby.
)pparently as tensions rose, those from the community were heard
frequently to as!, '"here%s 5han!sie8 )nd indeed that question was being
as!ed by the protestors as they waited outside ,ottenham (olice 5tation.
;uestions as to whether '5han!sie% had intended to retire before the
arrival of 5andra Looby or whether her arrival had precipitated his
departure and indeed in any event whether he could have been persuaded
to stay on until a successor had been groomed or 5andra Looby had
herself become more familiar with the community, surely should have
been answered in the report.
5o it was left to )cting -etective 5uperintendent 5ingh to be in charge at
,ottenham on that fateful day. ,he physical whereabouts of 5andra
Looby%s replacement $ommander $histi is never established during
)ugust the 0th.
6ow here%s a bit of a pu<<le. ,he et%s report stated that the protest
arrived at ,ottenham (olice 5tation at 1.*= pm where one of the
protesters spo!e to an inspector. Yet later in the et%s report it states
that temporary -etective 5uperintendent 5ingh is shown at 1.=+ pm as
giving a full handover to $hief Inspector )dele!an whose main role for the
day was the policing of a friendly football match at 5purs which !ic!ed off
at 1.&1pm. 5o, given the fact that the handover was seven minutes )3,.:
the protestors arrived at the police station, where and how full was the
handover to $hief Inspector )dele!an who, incidentally was to show great
bravery and leadership as the day progressed.
,he suggestion in the et%s report is that the policing of the 5purs versus
)thletico 2ilbao match was somehow factored in to the policing of the
protest. In fact it could be argued that $hief Inspector )del!an should not
have been distracted from his original football match responsibility.
,he match drew a si<eable crowd with a significant contingent of visiting
5panish supporters and the obvious question is what would have
happened if the protest had turned into a riot as spectators were arriving
at the game, or while the game was in progress or even more
catastrophically, as spectators were leaving. "ould, for e7ample,
,ottenham%s hooligan element have joined in with the protestors or
adopted an .nglish -efence League mentality and opposed the protesters.
It was indeed fortunate that most spectators had left the area as tensions
increased.
(resumably 5ingh left the area after the protest reached the police station
and is ne7t shown being on his way bac! to his now beleaguered station
at 0pm.
,he unfortunate $hief Inspector )dele!an got bac! to ,ottenham (olice
5tation at >.&1 pm where he received abuse from some of the protestors.
5hortly after that he was told he was not senior enough in ran! to address
the protestors who clearly wanted to spea! to someone who would !now
or who would be in a position to get detailed information in respect of
ar! -uggan%s death.
,he et, in their report, blamed the protestors for not giving advance
notice of their wishes. ,he :)$ travel planner states that it ta!es =+
minutes under normal traffic conditions to get from 6ew 5cotland Yard to
,ottenham (olice 5tation and of course it would be a lot quic!er on 'blues
and two%s. ,here are more than forty officers of )$(4 ran! ?$ommander
and above@ in the et and on a wee!end when their ran! and file were
holding their breath, would it have been too much to e7pect that one of
them would have been either at ,ottenham itself or at the et%s
headquarters.
)ccording to the et%s version of events, agreement was reached at
A.B>pm that a senior officer would be with them in an hour. ,he protestors
not unreasonable complaint was that they had been waiting for more than
two hours and it this would seem to suggest that the two senior officers of
)$(4 ran! with responsibility for this 'critical incident% were conducting
business over the telephone and were some considerable distance away
from the fulcrum that was clearly simmering.
,he question could also be as!ed as to what, other than tal!ing to
protestors, $hief Inspector )dele!an was doing between between >.&1
and A.B>pm. y guess is that, in addition to obtaining additional riot
trained officers, he was frantically ringing round attempting to locate an
officer senior enough to get to the ,ottenham in order to satisfy the
demands of the protestors.
)t around 0.*+ the first missiles were being thrown. )fter three days of
staggering incompetence by the etropolitan (olice hierarchy,
)rmageddon had begun.
4fficers who were around in &/01 remembered that the 2roadwater 3arm
riot also followed a protest outside ,ottenham (olice 5tation after the
death of $ynthia Carrett during a police raid. ,his was just days after
another major riot in 2ri7ton where $herry 9roce had been shot and
paralysed by police during another search. )gain, the riot started with a
protest outside 2ri7ton police station. 5omehow the events of &/01 only
triggered the alarm bells of junior officers rather than those responsible
for ma!ing those crucial decisions.
,o bring in e7tra officers would mean cost implications as would having
significant numbers public order trained officers discreetly placed close
by in case matters got out of hand.
"hat ?e7pletive deleted@ was the response of those front line officers who
were to ta!e a horrendous battering over the ne7t few days.
Let%s loo! at this wayD if there was no intelligence obtained for a
forthcoming "est Ham versus illwall football match, would it be policed
by a handful of officers8 4f course it wouldn%t and the same argument
applies here.
,he other question is whether the et is telling the truth when it asserts
that there actually no meaningful intelligence in respect of potential
disorder on the day of that protest 8 ,he word is that such intelligence
was obtained in terms of community tension but was discounted. )gain,
how much of this 'discounting% was down to cost.
9ang mentor and friend of ar! -uggan%s girlfriend, #en Hinds, stated that
warned the police of possible trouble at a lunchtime meeting on that
fateful 5aturday presumably with 5uperintendent 5ingh
4thers claim that at meetings called by )cting 5uperintendent 5ingh on
the 5aturday, police were left in no doubt as to the strength of feeling
within the community. ,ensions were clearly rising. 4ne rumour
circulating amongst ,ottenham officers at the time was that a piece of
intelligence had been received from a serving police officer who stated
that he had relatives living on the 2roadwater 3arm .state and they left
their home to stay with relatives such was the level of tension.
,he et%s e7cuse for not doing more to engage with the community was
that the case now belonged to the I($$. "hat complete and utter
garbage.
$learly however there were issues with the I($$ and 5ingh was in contact
with both $ommander $histi and $ommander artin Hewitt but again
e7actly where both these seniors officers were is never stated.
,he protest reached ,ottenham police station and, not unreasonably the
protestors demanded to see a senior officer. )las, with the superintendent
having had enough for the day, the best that could be found was an
inspector. ,he fact that this was the best ,ottenham police could do
suggested that they believed the march had all the potential volatility of a
church parade.
.ventually it would seem that a $hief Inspector was found who was
actually policing a 5purs pre-season friendly match just down the road.
,he fact that he was a blac! officer didn%t seem to mollify the crowd, in
fact quite the reverse.
It would seem that the protest, consisting of &*+ souls reached ,ottenham
(olice 5tation at 1.=+pm. 2y 0.*+pm when the first missiles were thrown,
the et had been unable to provide a senior officer to spea! to the
protestors.
#elvin .aston