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Aggravated shopping

Andrew Fisher
26th August 2011 at 09:12
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My eyewitness account of the rioting in Croydon town centre on 8 August (also appears in September issue of Labour Briefing)

As soon as I heard things were kicking off in Croydon, I headed into the centre of town. The rumours on twitter suggested Allders was on fire. Until that point I had been watching Hackney’s unrest on BBC News 24.

For those who don’t know Croydon, Allders is one of the largest shops in the town centre. I live just under two miles outside the centre of the town, but before I had jogged even a few hundred yards from my door I could see a thick plume of black smoke billowing into the dusky sky.

As I approached the main shopping area, it was clear that Allders was not on fire and the smoke was coming from a couple of blocks further west. Croydon High Street, containing the entrance to the Whitgift shopping centre, was sealed off by a thin line of police at either end, but there was a large group of rioters raiding the shops either side, to the north on London Road and South End, the other side of the police cordon.

From what I could see and reports from elsewhere, there were around 300-400 people on the streets participating in some way. They were overwhelmingly male and looked young (mostly 13-25), but there were also older people, families and a broadly reflective balance of Croydon’s ethnic mix: white, mixed race, black, and Asian.

I walked around for over an hour, saw people looting Argos, very thoroughly, as a thin line of less than ten riot police looked on, Cash Converters, newsagents, off licences, and other small independent shops. Presumably several shops in the Whitgift Centre were also raided, as while the police had sealed off the High Street entrance, the rear entrance on Wellesley Road was smashed and people were piling through and out again with their plunder.

I didn’t see anyone setting fires, although the thirty feet flames from Reeves Corner were testament to earlier arson. I would later learn that small shops on London Road had been torched – and these shops had people’s homes above them – leading to the iconic and terrifying image of the woman jumping out of a first floor window into the arms of police below, as flames engulfed the building.

It is miraculous that no one living in the first floor flats on London Road was killed. But walking through Croydon town centre, I and several others clearly just observing were under no physical threat. While shops were being looted, windows cracked, goods taken and tills smashed open, there was no attempt – that I saw – to mug passers-by or to attack homes on the side streets. It was aggravated shopping.

I’ve been on several protests that have turned violent, but this was unlike any other situation. The looting was mass and brazen. People with large electrical items ransacked from Argos were calling friends or relatives to pick them up in cars. With the booty stashed in the boot, the cars would drive off.

There was a tense lack of interest in the police, who, clearly outnumbered, had decided to stand back to protect the high value chain stores in the High Street. This was entirely the wrong priority. All of the familiar high street chain stores would have been insured and the companies unharmed by a temporary closure of one store. The mostly independent retailers in South End, Church Road and London Road may or may not have had insurance, but their one shop – mostly family-owned – would have been their sole income.

Most important, however, is the fact that there is residential property above the shops in South End and London Road, but not on the High Street. The police protected the likes of House of Fraser, Allders, HMV and Top Shop but effectively let families’ homes and businesses burn.

Tags: croydon (1) | looting (2) | police (3) | riots (4)

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