THE people of Tottenham were yesterday considering the implications of the explosive uprising that took place on Saturday night.
The reverend Nims Obunge said: ‘I was here for five hours before this incident kicked off; I was here with the families, I was here with the communities.
‘Now something did happen here on Thursday, a man was shot in our community and the community cried out for justice. it was right that the community cried out for justice, we cannot play that down.
‘We must recognise the voice of this community and the fact that someone in our community was killed and the family came over here to say “give us answers as to why this happened,” – they didn’t get the answers to what has happened.
‘They came and they said “why was our family not supported having had the death in our family,” they did not receive the proper support. For five hours they stood outside doing nothing.
‘Now what I want to acknowledge is what we see behind us is the very people, the heart of our community which has been ripped out and some people have come in to escalate the situation.
‘But what we must recognise is that the people who came here, peaceful protesters, people saying “give us answers for what has happened two days ago”, they didn’t get those answers four or five hours later.
‘Now I think that we’ve got to recognise we need justice, that’s what they’re crying out for. what you hear over there is what people need, they’re crying for justice, and we can’t ignore that.’
Local workers and youth spoke to News Line at the scene yesterday.
Stephen Bill said: ‘None of this would have happened if the police were listening, there were two hundred people here but no-one would come out. One police officer told the BBC they were gangsters and cannot be talked to.’
He stressed: ‘It wasn’t a race thing, it has nothing to do with race this time. The young people feel they are not being listened to, sometimes police stop a young man in the street, take him to the police station and take his fingerprints and DNA.
Worried
‘All these boys are hurt, they are really worried about what is going on.’
Ruby Holness, 21, said: ‘I live just off the High Road. I understand the anger at the police. Why didn’t they shoot that man in the arm or leg, they shouldn’t have killed him. But things went too far after that.’
Her friend Shakira Williams, 19, added: ‘They’re cutting everything, even the youth club, there’s nothing for young people, they’re cutting the EMA, people have got no money. I understand why people are angry.’
Ruby added: ‘I saw the march, it was peaceful, people were just standing there.’
One local resident told News Line: ‘What about us who live here, police are always putting pressure on young people, my daughter told me that. And they shouldn’t have brought in so many Territorial Support Group and the dogs and horses.’
Dion King from east London was among the crowd gathered at the scene, he told News Line: ‘I’ve come here to have a look and see the damage for myself. They’ve made a lot of fuss about it, there’s not a lot of small shops damaged it’s the massive commercial ones.
‘I feel sorry for the family who lost their relative the other day, it’s not a race issue. Everybody is frustrated with the current climate. There’s no jobs, people don’t have a future at the moment.’
News Line received reports yesterday afternoon that the police were telling employers to send workers home early, as there would be more fighting in the evening.
