England riots: pressure to scrap police cuts as Birmingham mourns its dead

• Tensions high in wake of killing of three men • Family say they were guarding car wash from looters • Father asks: why do we have to kill each other? David Cameron is facing growing cabinet pressure to rethink the coalition’s policing cuts in the wake of the deaths of three young Birmingham men, who were hit by a car during violent disturbances in the city. As the Police Federation warned of a “catastrophe” if similar riots erupted after the cuts were introduced, a senior government source said the Home Office would be advised to take a fresh look at its plans to cut £2bn from police funding over the next few years. “The optics have changed,” the source told the Guardian. Cameron insisted that the cuts would not lead to a “reduction in visible policing”. He is expected to announce some emergency funding when he addresses the Commons on Thursday, to cover the extra costs of policing this week’s riots, as well as the possibility of insurance claims against police on the grounds they provided no protection to businesses in a riot. But there are fears in Whitehall that the Home Office plan to make savings in the police service could leave an “exposed flank” in any future riots. The London mayor Boris Johnson warned that the case for cuts was “pretty frail” and had been weakened. Meanwhile tensions were high in Birmingham. A murder inquiry was launched and a 32-year-old man arrested after the three men, guarding a petrol station from looters in Winson Green, died from injuries sustained in the incident in the early hours of Wednesday. The Bishop of Aston, the Rt Rev Antony Watson, warned of possible reprisals and events “potentially having an ugly race dimension”, following a heated meeting between local residents at a mosque. West Midlands chief constable Chris Sims appealed for calm saying he hoped the incident would not lead to “violence between different communities”. The three men who died were named as Haroon Jahan, 21, a mechanic, and brothers Shazad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, 31, who ran a local car wash. Ali’s wife is said to be four months pregnant. All were from the Asian Muslim community. Police said information was the car had been “deliberately driven.” The three were said to have been in a group of 80 young men protecting a petrol station and other premises in Dudley Road, after a nearby garage had been looted. One witness said four carloads of young African-Caribbeans had cruised down Dudley Road and suggested there had been no doubt what they were planning to loot. Jahan’s father, Tariq Jahan, made an emotional appeal for calm in the community as he described how he saw the incident, but did not know his son had been hit. Holding a photograph of his son at the door of his Winson Green home, he said: “My instinct was to help the three people, I did not know who they were but they had been injured. I was helping the first man and someone told me my son was behind me. “So I started CPR on my own son, my face was covered in blood, my hands were covered in blood. Why, why?” “He was trying to help his community and he has been killed. “He was a very well-liked kid. I can’t describe to anybody what it feels like to lose a son. He was the youngest of three, and anything I ever wanted done, I would always ask Haroon to sort it out for me. “A day from now, maybe two days from now, the whole world will forget and nobody will care”. In a message to the local community, he implored: “Today we stand here to plead with all the youth to remain calm, for our communities to stand united. “This is not a race issue. The family has received messages of sympathy and support from all parts of society.” Visibly emotional, Jahan added: “I lost my son. Blacks, Asians, whites – we all live in the same community. Why do we have to kill one another? Why are we doing this? Step forward if you want to lose your sons. Otherwise, calm down and go home – please.” But elsewhere anger among residents was palpable. “Of course it was deliberate. No way was it an accident,” said one eyewitness. “The driver went on to the pavement and rammed them. He knew what he was doing”. “If the police don’t sort this one out quickly, there will be race riots,” added the man, who declined to be named, but who has given a statement to police. The family friend said Shazad, who had a degree in business management from the University of Central England, was standing near the petrol station with his brother when they were hit. Appealing on behalf of the family for people not to take the law into their own hands, he said: “It’s really, really sad. The family just want justice to be done.” Mohammed Chowdhri, a family friend said: “I have known Haroon since he was a baby, we are all absolutely devastated. He was fed up with the rioters and the looters and he was determined that they would not destroy our community.” As shoes taken off by respectful mourners formed a growing heap at a local mosque, community leaders moved rapidly to spread Jahan’s message and add words of their own. “These were bright young guys we’ve lost,” said one man. “They knew the meaning of work and got themselves decent jobs. The brothers had a carwash which was another business which might have been targeted, and Haroon worked as a mechanic in a garage. “They were well-known round here. One of them only got married in March and his wife was expecting their first child in four months’ time.” The bishop said that extended families were part of a very strong network in the community – he had met Haroon’s uncle and older brother – which added to the strength of feelings. Sobia Nazia, a cousin to the brothers, said: “They were brothers to everybody. They used to look out for everyone. They were heroes. I heard people describing them on Facebook as brothers to one and all.” Another mourner embraced Sobia and the victims’ younger sister who was welcoming mourners into the house, and said in Urdu: “They died martyrs.” The sister was too upset to reply, but Sobia said firmly: “We don’t want anything more to happen – just the culprits brought to justice. We don’t want other families to suffer. It’s the youth. They have no knowledge, they have no jobs and they are bored.” Warnings of racial violence came ahead of parliament being recalled on Thursday and as Cameron announced contingency plans were in place to deploy water cannon at 24 hours notice if necessary as part of a police “fightback” to contain the rioting and looting that has swept England since Saturday. Home secretary Theresa May ordered chief constables to cancel “all police leave” to deal with the rioting crisis, saying “maximising the police presence on the street must be a priority”, in affected areas. An emergency reserve of riot police has been put on standby as senior police tackle the unprecedented challenges of disorder, which has spread from London, to cities including Birmingham, Manchester, Salford, Nottingham, Bristol and Liverpool. Courts were sitting throughout the night, as the first of those to be prosecuted in connection with looting and violent disorder appeared, including a primary school assistant, and an 11-year-old boy. Visiting Birmingham on Wednesday, Cameron described the deaths in the city as “a truly dreadful incident”, adding that the police were “working night and day to get to the bottom of what happened and bring the perpetrators to justice.” Earlier, as he left a meeting of the government’s emergency committee Cobra, he said every contingency was being looked at and “nothing is off the table” in providing police with the resources needed to tackle the disturbance. Police would get whatever resources they needed, and legal backing for whatever tactics they needed to employ. “We needed a fightback and a fightback is underway.” The riots had shown “pockets of society” were not just broken “but frankly sick”. He said he expected prison sentences for those convicted of violent disorder, and that detectives were going through CCTV. Looters would be tracked down “picture by picture” and he would not let “phoney concerns about human rights get in the way of the publication of these pictures”. In London, 805 people have now been arrested in connection with violence, disorder and looting – with 251 charged. In total across England there have been more than 1,100 arrested. Six forces are now receiving reinforcements as part of the national mutual aid operation set up to deal with the scale of the looting. London, Manchester, the West Midlands, Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire and Avon and Somerset have all been sent officers. Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said if other forces requested help they would be supported. Orde, who has been having regular discussions with the prime minister and the home secretary at Cobra, said: “Clearly these are challenging times. We are in an unprecedented situation but we are determined to do our best to ensure that forces have adequate mutual aid for anyone who requests it.” A mobile reserve of police support units to provide a rapid response for forces, and made up of public order officers across the country, will be kept in one or two geographic locations to be called upon when needed. Cameron and inner-city MPs have been briefed by police chiefs that well- established street gang leaders have been organising some of the worst violence. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, demanded to know why the government had not acted on a substantial report in 2008, which claimed “agencies had missed significant opportunities to work with young people involved or likely to get involved in gangs.” She said: “Community leaders have been warning for some time about a growing gang culture in parts of our cities, and this has clearly been one factor in these appalling events.” She was backed by Labour MPs, including Graham Stringer the MP for Manchester Blackley and Broughton who claimed known members of the criminal underworld, gang leaders were present directing small groups of five or six where to go”. He claimed as many as 48 gang leaders operated in Manchester, but the fight against them had been weakened as police resources had been switched to fighting Muslim extremists.” While West Midlands police forensic teams prioritised the Winson Green incident, the force said that 11 other people were suspected of involvement. The chief constable said: “Like everyone else in Birmingham, my concern now will be that that single incident doesn’t lead to a much wider and more general level of distrust, and even worse, violence, between different communities.” But it was clear, feelings were at fever pitch. Describing the mosque meeting, Watson said: “There was a feeling that policing was soft, that’s been quite a common theme, and that discipline at home is too soft. There was quite a lot of anger that was hard to control, some people were saying ‘we should retaliate’. Others saying ‘we shouldn’t’. The tricky thing is it’s perceived as a race issue, that it’s part of an ongoing issue between blacks and Asians.” UK riots Police Metropolitan police Crime Boris Johnson Tax and spending Birmingham London Manchester Patrick Wintour Martin Wainwright Riazat Butt Sandra Laville Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 10, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.