The Liverpool riots, one year on
It's being claimed communities in Liverpool have drawn closer together in response to last year's riots. It's a year today since the disturbances spread to the north west. More than ninety people in the city were brought before the courts over the violence.
The summer riots of 2011 began after Mark Duggan was shot dead by the police. The 29-year-old father-of-four was killed on the 4th August in Tottenham, north London. Within days riots broke out there which then spread to other parts of London before moving north to Liverpool and Manchester.
The outbreak of violence started in Toxteth where huge riots had broken out 30 years before. The town was still shaking off the stigma of eight days of trouble the 1980's following the perceived heavy handed arrest of black man Leroy Alphonse Cooper.
Over several nights the violence spread to parts of Wirral and Sefton over two consecutive nights. Rioters torched cars and hurled missiles at police and firecrews on Smithdown Road and Lawrence Road, in Wavertree, as part of 'copy-cat' rioting they'd seen in London.
Almost 200 crimes related to the riots were recorded over those nights before peace was returned to the streets.
After that came the hunt for those responsible code named Operation Derwent by police with more than 90 people dragged before the courts.
Rioter speaks out - 'for me it was political'
