This article is from page 11 of the 2011-08-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
AN ENNIS woman now living in London has recalled the “psychotic” scenes that developed near her home when riots flared across England last week.
Actress Denise Gough (31) lives in the Hackney area of London, which suffered from rioting and looting last week. Speaking on Wednesday, as law and order was being restored to the city’s streets, Denise described the damage done to homes and properties as “awful”.
She said, “I was at home on Monday all day and I noticed there was lots of helicopters and it was kind of noisy. I didn’t leave the house ‘til about 4pm and when I walked out my front door there were loads of buses that had been abandoned, lined up on the street. Then further down there were rows of police in riot gear.
“It’s quite grim. There is a really strange atmosphere. People don’t re- ally know what to expect. Yesterday there were people boarding up their shops. It was really sad to see all these small shop owners having to board up their buildings. It was really depressing. Then I heard last night in the area near me, London Fields, there were people being pushed off their bikes and being robbed. It just kind of seems like a free-for-all.”
Denise has lived in London for 16 years, acting in a string of theatre and TV roles. She said the scenes of last week’s riots were unlike anything she has ever seen in the city.
She explained, “The damage was awful. There’s a shop near the area where I used to live, which is on a place called Clarence Road, they just destroyed it. They even took his milk and his microwave from the back of the shop and these are people that have worked for years. That’s the sad thing. It’s not big conglomerates that these guys were targeting, these were small family shops.”
Denise added, “People say it’s young kids with nothing to do and I do understand the frustration of the government cuts in the poorer areas. The Government has slashed the funding for initiatives for keeping young kids out of gangs, but you can’t justify a mass mugging. That’s what happened. People stealing things like cigarettes, alcohol, phones, trainers; they’re all going down the sports shops nicking trainers. It’s so bad. It just looks psychotic.”