What are all the riots about in the U.K.?

What is going on in London? The ONLY reason I could find for all these riots was that police had shot & killed a man. My question is Why? Was there a stand-off? Was this guy a popular person? Or did the youth of England simply choose this incident as a reason to go wild?

torpex20022011-08-10T04:27:00Z

Favorite Answer

There's no one single reason, it's almost certainly numerous factors.

The guy who was killed, was apparently pointing what did turn out to be a loaded gun, at armed police officers, who acted WITHIN the law by responding to what they deemed to be a threat to human life.
That's their job - that's what they did.

The PROTESTS were about public distaste of how things are.
The RIOTS are simply about greed, theft, anarchy, adrenalin and yobs being yobs.

Anonymous2011-08-10T11:32:39Z

A man was killed in london , the police said they were returning fire but have now admitted that the man was not firing at them
add to the mix unemployment , people with no money no hope and a pathetic set of politicians who are taking more and more jobs away from their areas and sending much needed work abroad



“A riot is the language of the unheard” quote by Martin Luther King Jnr.

innocence faded2011-08-10T11:35:03Z

The police shot a criminal.

So now other criminals are using it as an excuse to destroy the lives of decent people.

And the cops cannot do anything real to stop it, because they are not allowed to do anything that might harm the people that are harming innocent people.

Hi!2011-08-10T12:00:31Z

That was merely the spark that started the fire