Enfield Fights Back

But Who Are They Fighting For?

Latest reports from Twitter and Facebook, verified by Sky News, are that the residents of Enfield have finally had enough and have started to fight back against the looters and rioters that have plagued our area for the past few days.  


Many people have reported witnessing large groups of men patrolling the streets, looking for any potential rioters in the area.  The image above is of a pub on Enfield high street.


After the scenes over the weekend, in particular the horrendous burning down of the Sony Centre in Enfield North, this is not surprising.  Residents over here have never witnessed anything like this before and there has been talk over the past few days on social networking sites that it was time we 'took the streets back' from the thugs.


Whilst I would usually condemn all acts of vigilantism and encourage people to let the police do their job, it has become apparent that the police have been overstretched and have been practically helpless from allowing the looting to occur.  It is also good to see the community coming together, especially at a time when the whole notion of community in this country seems to be going down the drain.


I do, however, feel slightly apprehensive about giving my wholehearted support to these vigilantes patrolling our streets.  Some people have commented on a BNP presence amongst this group and, whilst this cannot be verified, these reports coming from the Guardian suggest that there may be a slightly racial element to this group's intentions.


Any attempt to turn this into a 'black vs white' situation is reprehensible and I am slightly worried that many closet racists will use this opportunity to inflame racial tensions in an area that is pretty tolerant and welcoming.  If the rumours are true, I can see the situation getting worse with divisions between races in the area emerging.


Let's just hope that the images coming out of Enfield will scare off any potential rioters tonight and over the coming week and we can go back to a time when we do not need to physically defend ourselves from mindless thuggery.  Instead we can rely on the police to do that for us.


At Team Urbanite all we can do is hope.


Update


This video shows the vigilante group chasing away a group of kids on Hertford Rd.  Although the chants of 'England, England' scare me, I have been told by people who were there that the group was ethnically mixed.  We will have to wait and see if racial tensions do indeed increase.

Warzone

Pictures from the streets....

Unfortunately, this is London. Not a Middle Eastern warzone. We at The Urbanite are disgusted

What is Happening to Our City

So Peckham is on fire.  There have been clashes in Hackney.  Here in North London, there is an eerie silence as all the shops have closed early and people are waiting to see if things kick off again.

All we can do is wait to see when this will end. I am afraid that it will not be any time soon.

The Riots That Will Define My Generation

This Post is brought to you by Talal Rajab, of The Urbanite

Having been bought up and raised in North London, right bang in between Tottenham and Enfield, this weekend’s events have left a sour taste in my throat.  Seeing the streets that you call home in disarray, the shops that you visit burnt down and the community that you love given a bad name hurts.  Shop keepers have lost businesses, people have been made homeless and the decades of community work that has gone in around this area has been rendered meaningless within the space of 48 hours by the actions of idiotic thugs. 

What hurts even more, however, is the misinformation and ill-advised comments that I have witnessed on various media platforms and social networking sites over the weekend regarding the trouble in North London. 

From the shotgun reaction from certain sections of the media, who quickly labelled Mark Duggan a ‘gangsta’ who shot at police without waiting for verification of the facts, to the completely idiotic muppets on twitter and Facebook who called for fellow North London residents to ‘rise up against the f***ing feds’, what we have witnessed here is a merry-go round of claims and counter-claims that has finally escalated into the apocalyptic headlines that we see today.  Some of these claims clearly need to be addressed.