Black Culture

This is Soooooo worth reading to the

end…dont let the long text discourage you, its truley worth it…………Enjoy

 It seems that an article was written to Sister 2 Sister magazine by a Caucasian woman who requested a response from black men. I’m so glad she got what sheasked for (and more) !!!

 Dear Jamie: I’m sorry but I would like to

challenge some of your Black male readers

 I am a White female who is engaged to a Black male-good-looking, Educated and loving. I just don’t understand a lot of Black females attitudes about ourrelationship.. My man decided he wanted me because the pickings amongst Black women were slim to none. As he said they were too fat, too loud, too mean, too argumentative, too needy, too materialistic or carrying too much excess baggage.

 Before I became engaged, whenever I went out I was constantly approached by Black men, willing to wine and dine

 me and give me the world. If Black women are so up in arms about us being with their men, why don’t they look at themselves and make some changes.

 I am tired of the dirty looks I get and snide remarks when we’re out in public.. I would like to hear from some Black men about why we are so appealing and coveted by them. Bryant Gumbel left his wife of 26 years for one of us. Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, the model Tyson Beckford, Montell Williams, Quincy Jones, James Earl Jones, Harry Belafonte, Sydney Poitier, Kofi Anan, Cuba GoodingJr., Don Cornelius, Berry Gordy, Billy Blanks, Larry Fishburne, Wesley Snipes…

 I could go on and on. But, right now, I’m alittle angry and that is why I wrote this so hurriedly. Don’t be mad with us White women because so many of your men want us. Get your acts together and learn from us and we may lead you to treat your men better. If I’m wrong, Black men, let me know.

 Disgusted White Girl, Somewhere in VA

 RESPONSE

 Dear Jamie: I would like to respond to the letter written by A Disgusted White Girl.

 Let me start by saying that I am a 28-year old black man. I graduated from one of the most prestigious universities in Atlanta, Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Management. I have a good job at a major corporation and have recently purchased a house. So, I consider myself to be among the ranks of successful black men.

 I will not use my precious time to slander white people. I just want to set the record straight of why black men date white women. Back in the day, one of the biggest reasons why black men dated white women was because they were considered easy. The black girls in my neighborhood were raised in the church. They were very strict about when they lost their virginity and who they lost it to. Because of our impatience to wait, brothers would look for someone who would give it up easy without too much hassle. So, they turned to the white girls. Nowadays, in my opinion, a lot of brothers date white women because they are docile and easy to control. A lot of black men, because of insecurities, fears, and overall weaknesses, have be come intimidated by the strengthof our black women. We are afraid that our woman will be more successful than us, make more money than us, drive nicer cars and own bigger houses. Because of this fear, many black men look for a more docile woman. Someone we can control. I have talked to numerous black men and they continuously comment on how easy it is to control and walk over their white women. I just want to set the record straight. I want A Disgusted White Girl toknow that not all successful black men date white women.

 Brothers like Ahmad Rashad, Denzel Washington, Michael Jordan, Morris Chestnut, Will Smith, Blair Underwood, Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds, Samuel L. Jackson, and Chris Rock all married strong black women And, to flip the script, there are numerous white men, in and out of the spotlight, who openly or secretly desire black womenover white women.. Ted Danson, Robert DeNiro, and David Bowie and Robin Thicke, to name a few..

 I just don’t want a disgusted white girl to be misinformed Stop thinking that because you are white that you are some type of goddess. Remember, when black Egyptian Queens like Hatsepshut and Nitorcris were ruling Dynasties and armies of men in Egypt, you were over in the caves of Europe eating raw meatand beating each other over the head with clubs. Read yourhistory!

 It was the black woman that taught you how to cook and season your food. It was the black woman that taught you how to raise your children. It was black women who were breast feeding and raising your babies during slavery.

It is the black woman that had to endure watching their fathers, husbands, and children beaten, killed, and thrown in jail. Black women were born with two strikes against them; being black and being a woman. And, through all this, Still They Rise!

 It is because of the black women’s strength,elegance, power, love and beauty that I could never dateanyone except my black Queen. It is not just the outerbeauty that captivates and draws me to them. It is not thefact that they come in all shapes, sizes, colors and shades; it’s that I love them.

> Their inner beauty is what I find most appealing about black women.. Their strong spirit, loving and nurturing souls, their integrity, their ability to overcome great

obstacles, their willingness to stand for what they believe in, and their determination to succeed and reach their highest potential while enduring great pain and suffering is why I have fallen in love with black women. I honestly believe that your anger is geared more toward jealousy and envy more so than snotty looks. If this were not so, then> why do you continuously go to tanning salons to darken your skin? If you are so proud to be white, then why don’t you just be happy with your pale skin? Why do you continue to inject your lips, hips, and breasts with unnatural and dangerous substances so you can look fuller and morevoluptuous?

I think that your anger is really a result of you wanting to have what the black woman has..

 BOTTOM LINE: If I were looking for a docile woman, someone I can walk over and control, I would give you a call. But, unfortunately, I am looking for a Virtuous Woman.Someone that can be a good wife and mother to my children. Someone who can be my best friend and understands my

struggles. I am looking for a soul mate. I am looking for a sister and; unfortunately, you do not and CANNOT fit the bill.

 No offense taken, none given. Signed, Black Royalty

*Jerry Sandusky, former football assistant to Nittany Lion’s head coach Joe Paterno, was obviously someone who was trusted at Pennsylvania State University. He founded theSecond Mile Foundation, a group home for troubled boys, in 1977, which serves over 100,000 at risk youth.

But Sandusky was arrested and led away in handcuffs last week in a child sex-abuse scandal that has rocked Pennsylvania State University and sparked a grand jury indictment over an alleged cover up.

The national scandal has also resulted in the firings of Lion’s head coach Joe Paterno, Penn State’s beloved head coach, as well as Pennsylvania State’s university president and two top administrators.

A Special Commonwealth Pennsylvania grand jury described in findings that Sandusky was a relentless sexual predator who took advantage of at-risk children and their disadvantaged single parents.

The case was broken by one of Sandusky’s victims, cited as “Victim Number 1” who reported Sandusky to authorities.

Reports are also leaking out that the eight victims may have been poor inner city black boys.

Edward Wyckoff Williams, a columnist for the Grio, points out that many sex abuse cases in recent years have involved high profile leaders and victims of sexual abuse, who have been young black males.

Within the grand jury’s findings was an incident in 2002, when assistant coach Mike McQueary, the team’s wide receiver coach, witnessed Sandusky allegedly raping a boy, estimated to be about 10 years old, in the shower of Penn State’s locker room.

According to the Washington Post, McQueary told Paterno—and Paterno told athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president for finance Gary Schultz, who, in turn, reported it to university president Graham Spanier.  None took allegations to police.

The Pennsylvania Statewide Investigating Grand Jury stated that Sandusky selected the eight boys from the populations served by the Second Mile Foundation.

Poor children became easy prey for Sandusky, who would start with mentoring, then move on to hosting the boys for overnights in the bedroom at his home and then initiate copulation, anal sex, according to the grand jury report.

The report indicates that Sandusky may have raped and molested at least 8 young boys between the ages of 10 and 15 from 1994-2009. He is free on $100,000 bail and is awaiting his first hearing on Dec. 7. He has been charged with 40 counts of abuse, but maintains his innocence, according to his attorney.

If convicted, he would face a maximum punishment of life in prison.

Unbelievably, Sandusky, 67, was twice investigated on charges of sexual assault.  Neither investigations resulted in either organization terminating Sandusky’s employment or access to facilities.

Investigators are also looking into rumors that Sandusky may have been procuring at-risk youth for foundation donors. The foundation raises millions of dollars a year from corporate and individual donors in Pennsylvania.

The scandal has raised questions over whether Penn State officials put the interests of the university and its celebrated football program over those of children who were victims of sexual abuse.

One of the mothers of the victims, whose voice was disguised and recently spoke to Good Morning America in silhouette, said, “There was a time when my son started acting out.  He was angry about something, we didn’t know what.”

No doubt more victims will come forward as the scandal continues to unfold.

….One Unit….Four Ranges. Approximately, eighty inmates who are “supposed” to be kept separate from each other. Where one is placed depends on who they can be around. While one range is on LOCKDOWN twenty-three hours a day, the other three are “suposedly” awarded two-hours in the unit’s common area or outside rec.

In here, you’re LOCKED in a cell; either across, below or above your ENEMY. Some of us have enemies we don’t even know about. Now, we can easily “rig” these doors or slip the handcuffs in order to get the opposition. But this isColorado’s SMU Program where LEVEL 3 and 4 inmates are housed. And, for the most part, we’re striving to return to GENERAL POPULATION. Putting our differences to the side, we even communicate with the opposition; something we like to call “keeping it gentlemen like.”

Seriously, what good is it ….mean-mugging and selling death behind a door? But while we’re keeping it respectful, our real enemies cannot stand anything that resembles unity. Our real enemies hate to see interaction between races, showing each other respect. Our real enemies will even use conflict of interest in order to gain self-satisfaction.

Our real enemies are the guards.

While we’re working hard at trying to progress, these guards are staging fights…stabbings…and the possibility of death. It’s no secret, these guards know who can and cannot be around one another. This is the purpose of division whithin the ranges. This is their job. So, how do you explain a brother being stabbed by another when they live on different ranges? How do you explain these brothers being out at the same time, unrestrained? The worst part of it all, how do you explain these “enemies” being locked in a cage together? This is just one of the many staged incidents that go on in the B.O.P.

There may be some of us who resemble Wesley Snipes and many who are big as Ving Rhames, but we’re not actors. None of us are undisputed and this isn’t a movie. This LIVE FROM LOCKDOWN.

“What happens when your options are taken away and death is within arm’s reach?”

Ox a.k.a. The Black James Patterson

http://quaheemoxedwards.livefromlockdown.com/

The Ohio Parole Board unanimously recommended against clemency for a mother who lied about her residency so her children could attend school tuition-free in another district.

Kelly Williams-Bolar admitted in a July hearing that she was wrong to enroll her two daughters in the Copley-Fairlawn school district from 2006 to 2008 under her father’s address when she lived in subsidized housing in Akron. She claimed she did so because she did not want to leave her daughters home alone after school while she was attending classes at The University of Akron, fearing for their safety after a 2006 burglary.

The eight-panel board concluded that she could have investigated other options, such as looking at other districts, asking friends or neighbors to babysit, or actually moving into her parents’ home. Instead, she chose “a pattern of deceitful behavior,” the Board wrote in its clemency report, released Friday.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/02/ohio-mom-who-put-kids-in-wrong-school-was-deceitful-parole-board-says/

By SAM DOLNICK

PATERSON, N.J. — The red roof of an old fried-chicken restaurant peeked out above the floodwaters. A roiling current marooned a furniture shop, while the manager of a 99-cent store watched boxes of diapers bob like buoys in her basement.

Nearby, a resident named Vendetta Wilson, 45, looked at her apartment building on the wrong side of the newly impassable Passaic River. She had just spent a night in her truck and several more with relatives after her complex, on one of the river’s banks, was evacuated.

“I just want to go home,” Ms. Wilson said. “It’s sad. It’s just really sad.”

 On Wednesday, this working-class city in North Jersey was fighting back the highest floodwaters in over a century. At least 6,000 people here have been affected, Mayor Jeffery Jones said. Roads have been destroyed, and stores have been wrecked. Whole blocks lie beneath waters that have swallowed stop signs as easily as skipping stones. Four of Paterson’s five bridges crossing the Passaic River were still underwater, Mr. Jones said.

“It’s just complete devastation,” he said. “We’ve lost our businesses, and folks are wondering what’s available and where the help comes from.”

Paterson, which has about 150,000 people, once thrived because of the river, which powered mills that made textiles, giving the city a worldwide reputation for manufacturing. The mills are gone, and now that same water has brought destruction. The damage from the storm is so severe that the White House announced on Wednesday that President Obama would visit Paterson on Sunday, in his first trip to survey the storm’s impact.

Paterson shares an unlikely bond with rural hamlets in the Catskills and Vermont that were similarly walloped by the storm. But Paterson’s inundated streets show that urban floods pose different challenges, and carry different detritus, than rural ones.

“There’s garbage floating everywhere,” said Rickeya Rogers, 28, a lifelong Paterson resident who left her house when the power was shut off and the water reached her front stoop. “You’ve got fishes, you’ve got garbage,  you’ve got turtles!” She said she saw two big turtles on Jefferson Street.

 There have been no reported deaths from the floods, which were beginning to recede on Wednesday, and many parts of the city appeared untouched.

For some, the flooding has been almost exciting. Great Falls, a local attraction, was roiling like a world-class rapid, attracting delighted squeals from residents and visitors.

But the low-lying neighborhoods along the river were struggling.

An alarm blared from a vacant storefront on Market Street. Flotsam still covered the sidewalks of Memorial Drive, which was itself underwater when the river was at its highest on Tuesday. Lifelong residents walked down the hill to see the waters for themselves, their conversations punctuated by roaring sirens.

Gov. Chris Christie, who visited Paterson on Wednesday, as well as other damaged areas, said the Passaic River would remain dangerously high for several more days.

 “We’re clearly not out of the woods yet,” said Mr. Christie, who was joined by Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary.

 Paterson was far from the only city in New Jersey to be hit by floods. Little Falls, Woodland Park and Wayne, among others, suffered extensive damage from swollen rivers.

 Officials said it would be days before the waters fully receded, and the scope of the damage could be determined.

 “There are people in our town who have never had a drop of water during a flood whose basements are six or eight feet high with water,” said Keith Kazmark, a former Woodlawn Park councilman and a member of the local Office of Emergency Management.

Let me tell you of a place
Where abundance occupies the space
It is not in Africa, where you can find diamonds
It is not in the Far East where there is oil
Yet, it is placed deep within nature’s soil
You need not look far to find its location
Millions go there to take a permanent vacation
A place where there are enough resources to leave legacies
But none of them were discovered
So now they are history
The wealthiest place on earth is the cemetery
Where the world greatest talents, ideas and abilities lay buried
Potential is only energy standing still
But for those who let fear overcome their will
Like their bodies, their dreams remained still
Many go to their grave with their ideas and talents
That the world never got a chance to be exposed to
Now that they lay dormant
Many believe that they can tiptoe through life
To gain a sense of security
But in fact they risked nothing
And to do so is the greatest jeopardy
Do not let your impulse to dream die
Do not let your right to wealth be denied
A person doesn’t die when he or she reaches the grave,
They die when their dreams do
So instead let your dreams live and your fears die
And continue on your pursuit.

-Jean Clervil @jeanclervil

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) Libyan rebels may be indiscriminately killing black people because they have confused innocent migrant workers with mercenaries, the chairman of the African Union said, citing the fears as one reason the continental body has not recognized opposition forces as Libya’s interim government.

“NTC seems to confuse black people with mercenaries,” AU chairman Jean Ping said Monday, referring to the rebels’ National Transitional Council. “All blacks are mercenaries. If you do that, it means (that the) one-third of the population of Libya, which is black, is also mercenaries. They are killing people, normal workers, mistreating them.”

He added: “Maybe it’s looters, uncontrolled forces. But then the government should say something, condemn this. We want to see a signal that the African workers that are there, they should be evacuated.”

Ping’s comments follow concerns from international rights groups about beatings and detentions of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

“I really fear vigilante justice and retribution and attacks by civilians against other civilians,” said Richard Sollom, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, who is back from a June fact-finding mission in Misrata, Libya.

Sollom said Monday that his Boston-based group knew of about 500 Darfuris “who are desperately trying to get out of Libya. They have no money, they are basically homeless because they are from Darfur, and they very much fear for their lives because of the color of their skin.”

Guest workers from Sudan, Chad, Darfur and other sub-Saharan African locales have been targeted in part because Gadhafi did hire foreign African mercenaries, Sollom said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Sunday that the evidence it has collected so far “strongly suggests that (Moammar Gadhafi’s) government forces went on a spate of arbitrary killing as Tripoli was falling.”

So far, there have been no specific allegations of atrocities carried out by rebel fighters, though human rights groups are continuing to investigate some unsolved cases.

Reporters for The Associated Press have witnessed several episodes of rebels mistreating detainees or sub-Saharan Africans suspected of being hired Gadhafi guns, including an incident where about a dozen black men were detained and some were punched.

Council spokesman Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga denied Ping’s claims that rebels were responsible for such killings.

“These allegations have been made during the early days of the revolution,” he said. “This never took place.”

He added: “If happened, it will be the Gadhafi forces. Until now, we keeping finding mass graves of the newly liberated cities.”

Libyan rebels appear to have secured the capital after a week of fierce fighting with loyalists to Gadhafi.

“It is over. The NTC took power … they won,” Ping said. “And now it is time for both sides to stop all the killing.”

The AU has so far refused to recognize the council, although some of its member states, including Nigeria and Ethiopia, have done so. The United Nations has urged the AU to “encourage Libya’s new leadership” and help unlock billions of dollars in frozen assets that the Libyan rebels say they urgently need to provide social services.

But many African nations have long-held ties with Gadhafi and the AU has had difficulties taking a unanimous position on Libya.

Ping also called for an immediate cease-fire and the formation of a coalition government that reflected the diversity of Libya. He said the world had ignored the AU’s suggestions about Libya’s crisis but that their roadmap — which calls for a cease-fire but not for Gadhafi to step down — was still relevant.

Ping said some of the Libyan rebel leaders insulted African countries by saying they have favored Gadhafi.

“The (rebels’) attitude has been negative all along. I went to Benghazi. We have treated them equally,” he said.

Ping said the AU will work with the U.N. and any other partners, including NATO, to find a political solution for Libya that leads to democracy.

http://news.yahoo.com/au-head-libya-rebels-may-killing-black-workers-153142974.html

After a long legal fight, the Cherokee nation ousted thousands of descendants of black slaves who had long been official members of the tribe.

The Cherokee Supreme Court (the tribe is a sovereign nation) ruled this week a 2007 constitutional amendment that required Cherokee blood in order to belong to the tribe could stand.

“This is racism and apartheid in the 21st century,” Marilyn Vann, the lead plaintiff in the case and a freedman leader, told Reuters.

The controversy over the freedmen’s status is at least in part about money. The Cherokee nation, the second-largest Native American tribe in the country, receives money from the federal government and earns money from its stake in the lucrative gambling industry, which totaled $26.4 billion for all tribes in 2009. In the run-up to the 2007 amendment vote, some proponents of expelling the freedmen suggested that more blacks might apply for membership to receive tribal money.

In the 1800s, the U.S. government passed a law forcing members of the Cherokee nation from their ancestral lands in the Deep South to make room for white settlers. The Cherokee — as well as their black slaves — were forcibly marched west of the Mississippi River to the Oklahoma territory during the “Trail of Tears,” resulting in the deaths of thousands of Native Americans.

After the Civil War, the Cherokee formally admitted by treaty their slaves’ descendants into the nation.

Before the 2007 passage of the amendment, some descendants of the freedmen said the vote on their status within the nation expressed a desire by many tribe members to paper over their slave-owning past. But the tribe’s leadership disagreed. “It’s a basic, inherent right to determine our own citizenry,” a Cherokee leader told the Washington Post. “We paid very dearly for those rights.”

New Jersey

African American Book Store
216 1st St.
Hackensack, NJ 07601-2400
201-343-0277
Contact: Tom Manning

Books ‘n Things
Cross Keys Plaza
3501 Rte 42
Turnersville, NJ 08080
(856) 740-2395

Horizons Bookstore
171-169 B Market Street
Newark, NJ 07102

Kujichagulia Book Store
150-154 Ellison Street
Paterson, NJ 07505
973-278-0919
Contact: Darlene Morris or Jacqueline Smith

Mind & Soul Bookstore, Inc.
449 S. Broad St.
Trenton, NJ 08611
609-695-6606
609-695-2225
Email: mindandsoul@email.msn.com

Netu Khisa Books and Gifts
131-133 South Orange Avenue
South Orange, NJ 07079
973-761-5669
Contact: Joshua and Tawana

Our Story Bookstore
1318 South Avenue
Plainfield, NJ 07062
908-755-8800
Contact: Andre Kelton

Penn Station Bookstore
1 Raymond Plaza West
Newark, NJ 07102

RIGHTEOUS MIND BOOKS
39 N. HERMITAGE AVE.
TRENTON, NJ 08618


Sacred Thoughts Bookstore
30 Mall Drive West
Jersey City, NJ 07310

Serengeti Plains
615 Bloomfield Ave.
Montclair, NJ 07042
973-783-2828
973-783-2886 fax
Contact: Charles Thompson or Phyllicia Smith

Tunde Dada House of Africa
356 Main Street
Orange, NJ 07050
973-673-4446

New York

Aframerica Book Store
163 Mamaroneck Ave.
White Plains, NY 10601
914-328-7212
Contact: Donna Chambers

Indigo Cafe and Bookstore
672 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217
718-488-5934

Brownstone Books
409 Lewis Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11233
718-953-7328
Contact: Crystal Bobb-Semple

A&B Books
1000 Atlantic Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11238
718-783-7751
Contact: Sherry Ann Baker

Complete List of Black Owned Book Stores in the United States.

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LONDON (Reuters) - London braced on Sunday for more violence after some of the worst riots seen in the British capital for years which politicians and police blamed on criminal thugs but residents attributed to local tensions and anger over hardship.

Rioters throwing petrol bombs rampaged overnight through an economically deprived district, setting police patrol cars, buildings and a double-decker bus on fire.

“There is Twitter conversations that people are being asked to meet again down in Tottenham so we are all concerned but clearly we will be much better prepared this evening,” Richard Barnes, London’s Deputy Mayor, told BBC TV.

Police Commander Adrian Hanstock told Reuters there was “a lot of ill-informed and inaccurate speculation on social media sites” that could inflame the situation.

“Should we receive any indication that there will be any further violence or offending, there is a robust policing plan in place and we will respond appropriately with the resources available to us,” he said.

BOMBARDED WITH MISSILES, BOTTLES

Police said 26 officers were injured as rioters bombarded them with missiles and bottles, looted buildings including banks, shops and council offices, and torched three patrol cars near Tottenham police station in north London.

The riots erupted after a street protest over the fatal shooting of a man by armed officers this week turned violent.

Residents said they were forced to flee their homes to escape the trouble as mounted police and riot officers on foot charged the crowd to push rioters back.

As day broke, the Metropolitan Police, which will handle next year’s London Olympic Games in what is expected to be Britain’s biggest peacetime operation, faced questions about how the trouble had been allowed to escalate.

The disturbance was only finally brought under control on Sunday after hours of sporadic clashes. Buildings were still smouldering, bricks littered the roads and burglar alarms continued to ring out.

At a nearby retail park, electrical stores and mobile phone shops had been ransacked, with boxes for large plasma televisions discarded outside, along with CDs and glass from smashed windows.

“They have taken almost everything,” said Saad Kamal, 27, branch manager of retailer JD Sports. “Whatever is left is damaged.”

APPEAL FOR CALM

Local member of parliament David Lammy said they did not know if everyone had escaped flats above shops that were gutted by fire. “A community that was already hurting has now had the heart ripped out of it,” he told reporters.

Police and community leaders said the community had been horrified by what happened and appealed for calm amid fears that further rioting could break out or spread to other areas.

The trouble broke out on Saturday night following a peaceful demonstration over the shooting of Mark Duggan, 29, who was killed after an exchange of gunfire with police on Thursday. Duggan’s death is now being investigated by the independent police watchdog.

The riots also come amid deepening gloom in Britain, with the economy struggling to grow amid deep public spending cuts and tax rises brought into help eliminate a budget deficit which peaked at more than 10 percent of GDP.

“Tottenham is a deprived area. Unemployment is very, very high … they are frustrated,” said Uzodinma Wigwe, 49, who was made redundant from his job as a cleaner recently.

“We know we have been victimised by this government, we know we are being neglected by the government,” said another middle-aged man who declined to give his name. “How can you make one million youths unemployed and expect us to sit down?”

Tottenham has a large number of ethnic minorities and includes areas with the highest unemployment rates in London. It also has a history of racial tension with local young people, especially blacks, resenting police behavior including the use of stop and search powers.

NOTORIOUS RACE RIOT IN 1985

The disorder was close to where one of Britain’s most notorious race riots occurred in 1985, when police officer Keith Blakelock was hacked to death on the deprived Broadwater Farm housing estate during widespread disturbances.

Locals said there had been growing anger recently about police behavior.

“I’ve lived in Broadwater Farm for 20 odd years and from day one, police always pre-judge Turks and black people,” said a 23-year-old community worker of Turkish origin who would not give his name.

Fingers were also pointed at the police for failing to anticipate the trouble, although Commander Hanstock said there had been no hint of what was coming. He said they expected to add to the 42 people already arrested.

The London force has been heavily criticised for its handling of recent large protests against austerity measures, while its chief and the top counter-terrorism officer have quit over the handling of the News Corp phone-hacking scandal.

“I’m concerned that what was peaceful protest … turned into this and it seemed to go on for many hours before we saw the kind of policing that I think is appropriate,” Lammy said.

Politicians said criminals and thugs, rather than those with genuine grievances, had taken advantage of the situation.

“The rioting in Tottenham last night was utterly unacceptable,” a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said. “There is no justification for the aggression the police and the public faced, or for the damage to property.”

The capital also saw riots at the end of last year when protests against government plans to raise tuition fees for university students in the center of London turned violent with police and government buildings attacked.

During the most serious disturbances last December, rioters targeted the limousine belonging to heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, kicking its doors, cracking a window and reportedly jabbing Camilla with a stick.