'Bleeding, I Called 999.

A Tired Man Told Me To Go Home' --- "Unlike Los Angeles or Paris, the riots are not happening in ghettos where nobody goes. They are happening amid the organic gastropubs and latte bars. The hardening of liberal opinion in London is palpable"



London riots: 'Bleeding, I called 999. A tired man told me to go home'

Andrew Gilligan reports on his own experiences of the lawlessness that swept across much of London and elsewhere.

A car is set on fire in Hackney Photo: GETTY IMAGES

By Andrew Gilligan

 

 

It was one of those microseconds when you know exactly what is about to happen, without the slightest chance of stopping it.

 

The big black boy rode his bike straight at me, crashing me off my own and leaving us both tangled up on the ground. Then four more of them were racing towards me, clawing at my legs to get them off my bike, kicking me in the head as I tried to hold on. Two minutes later, it was all over. Ten minutes later, no doubt, it was being used to loot a newsagent’s.

 

Bleeding a little, I thought I might as well call 999. It was a recorded message. After four and a half minutes, a tired man answered. “There’s nothing we can do,” he said. “You know what’s going on. We have to give priority to saving people’s lives. I suggest you just go home.”

 

He was right, of course. I was in Hackney - which, that evening at least, was a law-free zone. That’s the worst thing about riots. Across much of London on Monday night, if someone had decided to break down your door and rape your daughter, there would have been nothing to stop them. There would have been no one to call.

 

When I was mugged, I was on my way home from a day in Tottenham, listening to the stories of the people who had lost far more and been at far greater risk than me, burned out of their homes at 30 seconds’ notice.