It's actually not connected to the riots, as his family were keen to point out, but before continuing I should say that Mark Duggan's death in Tottenham is very sad and I am looking forward to the full IPCC investigation.
What followed was nothing to do with protesting or politics and everything to do with thieving and vandalism. The Labour MP Karen Buck put it nicely in Parliament this afternoon: "no-one marched with a manifesto".
Anyway, everyone is hopeful that we've seen the end of this crazy period and certainly people are starting to pay the price for their crimes already. Particularly good to see, on BBC News, that a man has been charged in connection with the injured Malaysian student who was mugged by people pretending to help him.
Plenty has already been said and written about the riots, but I would like to say just one thing - about rumours and the fear of crime.
Here in Muswell Hill, we were fortunate that we didn't suffer any looting at all. In the early hours of Monday someone did attempt to break into the Carphone Warehouse (as you can see in the photo, they broke the window but didn't get close to getting inside the shop). There were one or two burglaries from shops - perhaps taking advantage of police being distracted elsewhere - but these do happen from time to time anyway.
However, there were plenty of rumours around on Twitter that there had been riots and looting in Muswell Hill. As a local resident, who walked around the shopping area after each night and at other times, and as a councillor who had briefings from the council and a face-to-face briefing with police officers including the area commander for North London, I know that these were just rumours. I tweeted a fair few replies to people to set people straight - although some weird people refused to believe me!
Some of the rumours sprang from the fact that a small number of businesses in Muswell Hill took the decision to board up the front of their shops - places like Art for Art's Sake and Crocodile Antiques (see photos) and Foxtons. I knew that they had NOT been damaged or looted, but many people walking past them assumed that they had been. Later on, the owner of the first two did put a notice on the boards which did include an explanation that they were up as a precaution - which was helpful, but most people will not have read that.
Why is all this important? Well, clearly, actual damage to property and injury to people is much more important - but these rumours and misconceptions add to people's fear of crime. At a briefing with the council and the police, I asked for clear information about the extent of the riots to be publicised in due course. Because in places like Muswell Hill, some people think that "youths" ran riot and looted - they did not. It is not helpful if, because of boarded up windows and rumours (some well meaning, some less so) on Twitter, people have the impression that every shop across the whole of London was smashed up.
I'm not trying to downplay the seriousness of the last few days, but it helps if people are given the full facts and can be reassured that the whole city was not overrun - terrible though it was for residents in those parts where violence and looting did happen. I think that is helpful for everyone to know the facts - those in areas that were badly hit, as well as those that were lucky like Muswell Hill.
The communities in Tottenham, Wood Green and across London are strong and will rebuild and grow stronger. There may have been plenty of thugs and thieves about, but they were still a small minority. London is a great place to live.
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