The first night of rioting took place on 7 August 2011 after a peaceful protest in Tottenham, following the death of Mark Duggan, a local man from the area, who was shot dead by police on 4 August 2011.[12] Police failed to notify Duggan's family of his death and no senior police officer was available to meet the protest, creating anger at perceived disrespect. The immediate spark for violence was when large numbers of police arrived to disperse the demonstration and a 16-year old girl, who police claim was brandishing a bottle, was pushed and allegedly punched by several officers. Several clashes with police, along with the damage of police vehicles, magistrates' court, a double-decker bus, homes and businesses, began gaining attention from the media. Overnight, looting took place in Tottenham Hale Retail Park and nearby Wood Green.
As you can see, a protest turned into a riot. Which means, protesters showed up to protest, and before they left, they were rioters.The first night of rioting took place on 7 August 2011 after a peaceful protest in Tottenham, following the death of Mark Duggan, a local man from the area, who was shot dead by police on 4 August 2011.[12] Police failed to notify Duggan's family of his death and no senior police officer was available to meet the protest, creating anger at perceived disrespect. The immediate spark for violence was when large numbers of police arrived to disperse the demonstration and a 16-year old girl, who police claim was brandishing a bottle, was pushed and allegedly punched by several officers. Several clashes with police, along with the damage of police vehicles, magistrates' court, a double-decker bus, homes and businesses, began gaining attention from the media. Overnight, looting took place in Tottenham Hale Retail Park and nearby Wood Green.
There's no official declaration of martial law, no curfew, none of this is established in the timeline I'm looking at here. The riots are riots because criminal youths burned down a post office, threw rocks at busses and police cars, and robbed a couple of supermarkets while police were too busy to respond. They're riots because of increasing frequency and severity of ordinary street crime.
But an illegal protest that doesn't disperse when ordered to is just another type of streetcrime. In other words, an illegal sit down strike is just another riot, in the eyes of the law.
Anyway, because no curfews or martial laws were declared during the british riots, people still had every right to the same protections as normal. One of those rights? Not getting assaulted by police officers.
One of the kids that got assaulted by police officers in the video you linked appeared to hop off his bike and talk to them, whereupon he was rushed and beaten up with clubs. It appeared they let him go afterwards, rather than detain him, making the entire thing completely useless.
I don't find that kind of crime - the one perpetrated by the police officers in that video - hillarious. I find it unsafe and dangerous, and I find that it grossly oversteps the authority with which police is allowed to act in that situation.
I'm not blaming the individual coppers - I understand why they do it and how threatened and powerless they feel - I blame the politicians and media who put them in that position in the first place, who haven't provided them with the investigative tools to identify, fine and possibly detain these individuals...And I blame those who think it's ok for something like this to happen, because they're the root cause of why it does happen. Public acceptance of the police response, public acceptance of the methods used, is ultimately the reason they're used.