LONDON ””mdash; UCLA students and faculty in England for study abroad programs were largely unaffected by an outburst of violent riots in the country last week, officials say.
Londoners flocked to the metropolitan police station on Aug. 6 to protest the killing of 29-year-old Mark Duggan by police officers during an operation to reduce the number of firearms in the city. Initial reports have stated that Duggan started the gunfire, but the police have admitted that Duggan did not shoot at the officers.
After initially peaceful protests, riots broke out on Saturday evening and continued throughout the rest of the week, peaking on Aug. 8 with widespread reports of looting and vehicles set aflame. Although the rioting began in London, incidents of civil unrest began to pop up in other major cities, such as Birmingham and Liverpool.
By the time order was restored on Aug. 10, more than 900 people were arrested in connection to the riots in London alone.
The Tottenham neighborhood where the riots began and where much of the looting and violence took place has been placed off-limits, said Sergio Broderick-Villa, associate director for study abroad at UCLA’S International Education Office. Broderick-Villa added that in geographic terms, the center of the violence in Tottenham is as far removed from the hotel where the students are staying as the San Gabriel Valley is from Los Angeles.
Though unaffected by the violence itself, the students in the Shakespeare travel study program have been impacted by intensive media attention. Third-year English student Rebecca Trees said that finding out about the riots through news programming has left her a bit uneasy.
She has been checking televised newscasts regularly to stay up-to-date on recent developments.
“It’s scary because (some of the riots have) been so close,” Trees said.
In central London, a typically safe area, Michael Fong, a fourth-year English student also in the program, said the violence was unexpected.
“I’ve been slightly disappointed (by the riots),” Fong said. “This is something you would expect … to see in less developed countries, not in central London.”
English professors Albert Braunmuller and Jonathan Post have been involved with the Shakespeare travel study program since it was introduced nearly two decades ago. Throughout its history, the program has never encountered a situation quite like this, Braunmuller said.
Braunmuller doesn’t see the riots themselves as a particular threat for tourists, however.
“The causes, or the goals, of the riots have nothing to do with us,” he said. “The motivation of (the rioters) is not to hurt people.”
The riots, he said, have been more focused on physical destruction and looting, though people have been harmed in the process.
Post and Braunmuller have still taken strides to appease apprehensive students, delivering briefings on the situation as well as necessary safety precautions.
Like Braunmuller, Fong doesn’t see the rioting as a direct threat for students. Many media outlets, Fong said, have distorted the events, putting more of an emphasis on injuries and fires rather than the actual looting.
Fong has had to reassure worried family members that the riots aren’t happening on “every street corner” in London, as coverage has portrayed.
“The riots have certainly been exaggerated overseas,” Fong said.
Trees said her mom was worried because she did not call on her first day in London.
To some degree, Trees said the riots have heightened her anxiety a bit. She said she initially thought a recent hotel fire drill had some connection to the riots.
“There’s a bit of a fear to go out at night too,” she said. “But I feel pretty safe. It’s not (to the point) where I’m freaking out.”
She’s mainly concerned that riots will spark other, unrelated crimes.
But the anxiety is not all bad, Trees said ““ she has become more conscious of safety concerns while walking around London.
“(The riot situation) is good because you’re more aware,” she said. “It’s better to have that fear than none at all.”