In August of 2011, the British government—a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition led by David Cameron—discovered just how tenuous its grasp on law and order really was.
The most serious urban riots in a generation were kicked off by the death of a mixed-race man called Mark Duggan on August 4 in Tottenham, north London. Armed police intercepted the car Duggan was traveling in and shot him. The officers said they believed he had been carrying a gun, and a converted pistol was found at the scene; tight gun laws in the UK mean criminals often convert deactivated pistols and starter guns into live weapons. Initial reports claimed there was an exchange of gunfire, but the story quickly changed. Duggan wasn’t holding the gun at the time he was killed. It took until 2014, and a full judicial inquest, to establish that Duggan had indeed been lawfully killed.
