Daily Mail
January 11, 2014
![Demonstrators yelling abuse outside The Royal Courts of Justice in London Demonstrators yelling abuse outside The Royal Courts of Justice in London](/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Demonstrators-yelling-abuse-outside-The-Royal-Courts-of-Justice-in-London_thumb.jpg)
After the deeply disturbing scenes of Wednesday evening, when supporters of Mark Duggan yelled abuse and ran amok in the Royal Courts of Justice, the politicians spent yesterday urging calm.
Of course, it is understandable that David Cameron and his ministerial colleagues should wish to tread carefully in the wake of the inquest jury’s conclusion that Duggan was lawfully killed by a police marksman.
They are acutely aware of Tottenham’s troubled history, and how in 2011 Duggan’s death triggered the worst rioting in England for a generation.
But isn’t there a grave danger that, in the determination of ministers and others not to offend perceived racial sensitivities, the facts of the case will become lost?
Mr Cameron spoke of how there was ‘more to do’ to address racial prejudice on the streets of London and elsewhere.
Yet, while there are on-going concerns over issues like the disproportionate use of stop and search on young black men, there is no evidence that the shooting of mixed-race Duggan had anything to do with colour.
![Labour MP Diane Abbott should be ashamed of her decision to attack the jury's decision Labour MP Diane Abbott should be ashamed of her decision to attack the jury's decision](/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Labour-MP-Diane-Abbott-should-be-ashamed-of-her-decision-to-attack-the-jurys-decision_thumb.jpg)
Rather, the police stopped and shot him for no other reason than he was a known criminal who had just collected a firearm from a fellow gangster, and they believed he was en-route to carry out a ‘hit’.
The inquest jury heard from 93 witnesses before deciding that the officer – under unimaginable pressure when he fired the lethal shot – was right to fear Duggan posed a threat to life.
With depressing predictability, Left-wing campaigners are seeking to make political capital out of Duggan’s death.
Indeed, the Labour MP Diane Abbott should be ashamed of her decision to attack the jury’s conclusion – delivered amid the kind of intimidation no one should face when performing a civic duty – as ‘puzzling’.
But most offensive – and potentially dangerous – is the idea that Duggan’s death was an act of violence against the entire ‘black community’ and that his supporters speak for the local population as a whole.