NOTE: Saturday 6th August 2011 in Tottenham is when the decent law-abiding Black Community died replaced by extremism, drugs, crime and violence

It came as a surprise to many that the peaceful protest on Saturday evening would erupt in the worse disturbances since the Broadwater Farm riots in 1985.

The spark was the shooting dead by police of Mark Duggan on Thursday 4th August after an exchange of gunfire between the victim and police. What we know is that the man was carrying a gun and he shot at police, before the police returned fire.

Be in no doubt that the vast majority of black people in this country are sick and tired of gun and knife wielding gangsters destroying and terrorising our communities.

It might not of come to many people notice that in the early hours of Saturday morning another black man was gunned down in South London. A murder statistic to add to the numerous other fatalities of men, women and children in our community.

I find it inconceivable that any other section of society in this country would allow their brothers and sisters to murder one another in such numbers. However, the black community are strangely apathetic and indifferent to the high murder rate that we inflict amongst ourselves.

The only time that some of us become animated over a death is when we can attach our prejudices and grievances to an authority (like the police), as in the case of the police shooting of Mark Duggan. As I say most of the black community want the likes of Duggan and his ilk off our streets. But there is an extremist minority who ferment anger and disinformation to stir up certain sections of the community. They have hijacked our community for their own nefarious objectives to tear down our neighbourhoods through violence, mayhem and looting. And on Saturday 6th August 2011 they succeeded in their endeavours.

Be in no doubt this large-scale rioting was not spontaneous; it was planned with young people coming from all parts of London and beyond. What is so depressing is that we have a generation of youths who have grown up in dysfunctional families with no male role models. They move into gangs, rejecting the norms and values of society and who see crime, drugs and violence as the rule. These teenagers, some as young as seven, have become the foot soldiers of the extremists. Hence you saw gangs of black youths on Saturday night setting buildings on fire (not giving a damn if residents were still inside), looting and robbing without constraint until the early hours of the morning.

The extremists would say and have said that the unprecedented disturbances is a direct consequence of years of heavy handed policing within the area, and the shooting of Mark Duggan was the final straw. People have also alluded to the recent deaths in police custody i.e. David Emmanuel (aka Smiley Culture) as other factors, along with poverty, deprivation and unemployment.

This is all complete nonsense. Most people who rioted would not of known who Mark Duggan was. For many it was an opportunity in the dead of night to go on a destructive spree.

Extremists have stated that the behaviour of law enforcement is the root cause. Again this is not true. The police are not the issue here and never have been. The problems lay deep-rooted within the black community. It stems from the self-destruction of the traditional black family. Young men growing up without father figures alongside a growing and seemingly unstoppable gun and knife sub-culture. The traditional work ethic and education are rejected out of hand substituted with greed, instant materialism and obtaining these rewards at any cost either individually or in gangs. As yet the black community are unable or unwillingly to solve this devastating problem. The residents of Tottenham, as in most inner city areas of London live in complete fear of these feral youths.

The police are between a rock and a hard place. They are there to stop these gangs killing one another. But with the availability of guns and black people willing to use them indiscriminately, the incident that occurred last Thursday is inevitable. With so many young black people descending into drugs, crime and violence the future looks very bleak. In so many ways we have not moved on and in fact gone backwards since the disturbances of the early 1980s.

The Duggan case has gone to the IPCC for investigation. However the supporters of Mark Duggan would not accept any outcome other than the fact he was murdered in cold blood execution style by the police. The IPCC are in a no win situation.

What is another sorry disappointment is that many black leaders have simply acquiesced to the extremists within the community. These eminent spokespersons of various organisations talk in reverential terms about Mr Duggan as if was a respected pillar of the community instead of a thug who carried a gun.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel not even a flicker as I am afraid similar riots will occur again. The extremists know full well, all they need to do is to exploit a situation of a black death in police custody or a police shooting. They will use inflammatory language and disguise their protests as seeking justice for the victim. But all along their agenda are chaos, anarchy and making areas no go zones for police. When the burning, looting and robbing is over the extremists will have the effrontery to speak on behalf of the black community and say why everybody else, apart from them, was to blame for the widespread rioting.

In the aftermath the decent law-abiding black citizens have to pick up the pieces of their shattered communities, which took years to build and nurture, but only a night to destroy by gangs of marauding youths. The other negative fall out is that race relations between blacks and other races have deteriorated permanently. Other communities fear black people. When you have fear hate quickly follows. Black people have now become pariahs in this society.

We have a struggle on our hands as to the soul of the black community. As Saturday night clearly illustrated the fanatics have won and the honest, hard working Afro-Caribbean majority in this country have been cast adrift. Truly, the criminally insane have taken over the asylum.

RIP: Black Community – 6th August 2011