Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
ReStyle barbers on Green Lane namechecked in Guardian riot blog
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/09/london-riots-violence...
This dispatch, from my colleague Jasmine Coleman in north London, illustrates the lengths to which some shopkeepers in the capital are going to protect their businesses:
More than 200 shopkeepers - joined by friends and relatives - were out in the street in Green Lanes, Haringey, from 8pm last night, according to those workers getting back to normal today.
Among them were three members of staff from Re-Style Hairdressers.
They told me they had armed themselves with baseball bats specifically in response to last night's continuing riots across the capital."I was here with my brother and my boss waiting for them until about midnight," said 16-year-old Huseyin Beytar, who lives in Enfield, one of the worst hit areas in London.
"We had to look after the shops and stop them breaking windows. If some guy ever breaks a window in this street, all the Turkish Kurdish people come down to protect the shops. We're like a family."
The salon's managing director, who asked not to be named, said he had heard looters were planning to target the nearby retail park - as they were in the neighbouring borough of Hackney.
"We heard about Hackney and two or three hours later we saw it coming true. We thought it would happen here too."
The workers in this predominantly Turkish Kurdish area of north London told me last night's vigilante defence of businesses was a reaction to failures from police in the past to respond to emergency calls.
"They don't come, they don't do anything," said Huseyin. "We have to do things for ourselves. We are a bunch of people and can look after each other."
As people across London and the UK wait to see when the unrest will end, traders here are ready to take to the streets again tonight and have issued a strong warning.
"If they come here there will be a fight, a big fight," said Huseyin.
Tags for Forum Posts: london troubles
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by ElleCarumba on
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Jasmine Coleman sends more from Green Lanes in north London, where she has been talking to shopkeepers who have told her they feel forced to fight for their livelihoods:
Many of the independent Turkish and Kurdish grocery shops, takeaways and hairdressers in the street do not have shutters or security guards. So closing early and going home just isn't an option.
Workers, friends and relatives stood on guard — some with baseball bats — outside the businesses yesterday evening after word spread at about 4pm that a loot was being planned.
In the end, the rioters didn't arrive. But many business owners fear they are the ones that would be punished by police if fights did break out.
"We were outside ready and expecting them," said the manager of the Turkish Food Market, who asked not to be named.
"I felt very panicky because we are not safe from either the rioters or police. We put all of our efforts into this shop. It took 20 years to get it like this. But we do not know about our rights. I'm scared that the police and the government will attack us if we defend our businesses. We are being squeezed between the two dangers."
Huseyin Yavuz, the manager of another grocery store and off licence across the road, told me two nearby businesses had been burgled in the early hours of Sunday morning, after first riots in Tottenham, and their owners had been told there were no officers available to respond.
But when workers later took to the streets with bats to defend the shops, they were warned by police that they could be arrested."We just have to go inside and wait," he said.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Good to see Turks and Kurds are all one family. Y'know, I always suspected that.
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