London (and beyond) riots

[nike]

armies, armies, armies wherever you look:

Fourth night of car arson prompts terror debate
Arsonists set fire to cars in Berlin for a fourth straight night, destroying at least 11 vehicles in the early hours of Friday morning.
The wave of multiple arson attacks has prompted a sharp political discussion, with some lawmakers comparing those responsible with the terrorists of the 1970s leftist Red Army Faction (RAF).
Police said they were searching for at least three suspects, and have offered a €5,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of those responsible.
“The police can’t do it alone,” said Rainer Wendt, head of the DPolG police union, who called for a “zero tolerance” attitude. He said officers needed better equipment, including more thermal imaging cameras and helicopters.
Yet they do not share the widespread assumption that left-wingers or anarchists were responsible for the torching of more than 50 cars across the city this week alone. Nearly 160 have gone up in flames this year so far.
The capital’s Social Democratic mayor, Klaus Wowereit, set to defend his position in the September 18 state election, appealed on Thursday for people to keep their eyes open and report any suspicious activity to the police. "This is a case of pure vandalism and criminality," he said.
But others have made stronger comments. Wolfgang Bosbach of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union compared the arson attacks with the start of the RAF terror campaign.
“The RAF terror also began with ‘only’ arson at on point,” he told the N24 television station on Thursday. “Therefore the danger is present that the violence is one day aimed against people.”
Dieter Wiefelspütz, interior policy expert for the centre-left Social Democrats, also told the Bild newspaper the arson attacks were the first step towards terrorism.
But the facts speak a different language, the police said. “The extreme left scene is not behind these actions, and has declared themselves not in agreement with them,” said police president Margarete Koppers. “These actions are rather frowned upon. They also have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism. There is no serious political aim cannot be determined.”
And although many of the burned cars are Mercedes, Audi or BMW, the wrecks left smouldering in the morning also include older models with child seats in the back, or others full of tradesman’s tools. Next to these, new, expensive jeep-type Japanese cars remain untouched.
“For us this is a sign that there is only a pseudo-political motivation, used by copy cats, and that there is also a pyromaniac background.”
She said the last far-left attacks were against police stations, after which the groups responsible published boasting statements. The torching of family cars in other areas of the city did not fit into the picture, she said.
But with the Berlin state election just four weeks away, the CDU has adopted the topic in its campaign literature, with state party leader Frank Henkel demanding more “intelligence service resources against the militant left.” He said the state government’s suggestion that a lone firebrand was a political distraction manoeuvre.
Yet the more excitable newspaper reports suggesting that the situation in Berlin could turn into riots comparable to those recently seen in London were dismissed by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"I hope and am fairly confident that we in Germany will be spared from the events that we saw recently in London and other cities in Britain," she said.
The police are waiting for the arsonists to make a mistake. “Serial criminals in particular are easy to catch because they always strike again, and make mistakes,” said Koppers.
The Local/DAPD/DPA/The Local/hc/mdm

my personal fav from the comments:

Looks like German hoods want to be like British hoods, thats sweet. After all, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

[butcher]

Looks like German hoods want to be like British hoods, thats sweet. After all, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

but ze germuns have been burning cars for years...

[nike]

but ze germuns have been burning cars for years...

purely out of self-defence, now maybe somethings going on after the brits gave an brave example, hamburg city is in anticipation of tomorrows "Schanzenfest" - the whole Schanzenviertel is already officially declared off limits and 2500 cops and 15 horses on red alert...
right wing media is running high about the riders of apocalypse:
leftwing rioters, terrorists, local hooligans and swiss ultras, aliens from outta space...

official fan-site, sorry german only:
http://www.pi-news.net/2011/08/vorbild- ... ore-206964

[butcher]

but ze germuns have been burning cars for years...

purely out of self-defence, now maybe somethings going on after the brits gave an brave example, hamburg city is in anticipation of tomorrows "Schanzenfest" - the whole Schanzenviertel is already officially declared off limits and 2500 cops and 15 horses on red alert...
right wing media is running high about the riders of apocalypse:
leftwing rioters, terrorists, local hooligans and swiss ultras, aliens from outta space...

official fan-site, sorry german only:
http://www.pi-news.net/2011/08/vorbild- ... ore-206964

Its the return of the Barbarian hordes! Oh noes!

[butcher]

inregards: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7419&start=40#p51023
She's been freed on appeal:
Manchester woman jailed for accepting looted shorts freed

but ze germuns have been burning cars for years...

purely out of self-defence, now maybe somethings going on after the brits gave an brave example, hamburg city is in anticipation of tomorrows "Schanzenfest" - the whole Schanzenviertel is already officially declared off limits and 2500 cops and 15 horses on red alert...
right wing media is running high about the riders of apocalypse:
leftwing rioters, terrorists, local hooligans and swiss ultras, aliens from outta space...

official fan-site, sorry german only:
http://www.pi-news.net/2011/08/vorbild- ... ore-206964

yeah, machine translation means i lose all context.
What is the Schanzenfest? And why do ppl think there will be london model riots?
the story on the car burnings looks like the usual, pollies say: 'we dont know who dun it, blame the anarchists', add a healthy dose of paranoia ('if we dont crack some skulls now we could have a london on our hands!!') and hey presto! News.

[nike]

What is the Schanzenfest?

the schanzenfest is justa regulary social event in the schanzenviertel in hamburg, one of the oldest left-alternative gatherings in the country - so the fest is most of the time completely non-violent/peaceful - but in the years since 2003 the after-time of the fest became more and more militant, kinda answer to the increasing police pressure on the people, resulting in attacks against banking and nobel-businesses in the vicinity.
since 2004 the organisatiors refuse to ask the authorities for the official permits because the administrative constraints are intolerable, so the schanzenfest is kinda temporary liberated zone (fuck the state & hakim bey too), defended very successful in july 2009 by more than 1000 activists, the same action was repeated in september 2009, because the july-fest was disturbed - resulting in a daring attack on a police station and serious fighting against a large contingent of uniformed clones.

schanzenviertel in hamburg - http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schanzenviertel (german/french)
collection of pics and vids - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categ ... uselang=de

And why do ppl think there will be london model riots?

people over here are really pissed about the brit's relapse into open class injustice, especially the weird media-campaign, so the parole of "asymmetrical warfare against the people" is going round and heating the athmosphere up.
cops and officials are nervous too - berlins reports increased id-checks and cop-patrols on the streets, rumors about gagging orders about the car-actions backgrounds are going 'round too.
hamburgs is getting nervous because of the schanzenfest tradition and the increasing numbers and militancy of the activists gathering together and i still have to find some information about vague reports of hooligan-riots after some league-soccer games - sumhow a quite interesting combination of possiblities.

some more about the arson wave in berlin - from the leading libleral news magazine:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/ger ... 23,00.html

[gobbledigooks]

official fan-site, sorry german only:
http://www.pi-news.net/2011/08/vorbild- ... ore-206964

Sorry, but I think this kind of gallows humor is a bit tooooo much - the site is one of this ultra-right-wing shit head jerk offs, promoting every pop fascist from geert wilders up to thilo sarrazzin and the next crusade against the muslim apocalypse:
Maybe somebody is so kind and removes that link for me???!!!
Nica Michailowna, you loose at least 99 anarchist points, report urgently for punishment!

[nike]

official fan-site, sorry german only:
http://www.pi-news.net/2011/08/vorbild- ... ore-206964

Sorry, but I think this kind of gallows humor is a bit tooooo much - the site is one of this ultra-right-wing shit head jerk offs, promoting every pop fascist from geert wilders up to thilo sarrazzin and the next crusade against the muslim apocalypse:
Maybe somebody is so kind and removes that link for me???!!!
Nica Michailowna, you loose at least 99 anarchist points, report urgently for punishment!

after some discussions with comrade gobbleze i agree, linking up this site wasn't the best idea, t'was simply plain stupid and i hope not too many people took a look and raised this fascist sides' traffick - we shouldn't do their PR for them, i learned a lesson and I'm sorry, sorry, sorry.

[horrorpunk666]

.

im sure... i just decided to respond to the original question instead of getting involved in someone elses debate.. and whats with highlighting my metaphore? i was actually pretty proud of that one

[butcher]

Is it just me or is Zizek's Party Dictatorship tendencies getting worse?
-
Shoplifters of the World Unite

Slavoj Žižek on the meaning of the recent riots in England's cities.

Nevertheless, he still does pose some interesting questions:

There is an old story about a worker suspected of stealing: every evening, as he leaves the factory, the wheelbarrow he pushes in front of him is carefully inspected. The guards find nothing; it is always empty. Finally, the penny drops: what the worker is stealing are the wheelbarrows themselves. The guards were missing the obvious truth, just as the commentators on the riots have done. We are told that the disintegration of the Communist regimes in the early 1990s signalled the end of ideology: the time of large-scale ideological projects culminating in totalitarian catastrophe was over; we had entered a new era of rational, pragmatic politics. If the commonplace that we live in a post-ideological era is true in any sense, it can be seen in this recent outburst of violence. This was zero-degree protest, a violent action demanding nothing. In their desperate attempt to find meaning in the riots, the sociologists and editorial-writers obfuscated the enigma the riots presented.

The protesters, though underprivileged and de facto socially excluded, weren’t living on the edge of starvation. People in much worse material straits, let alone conditions of physical and ideological oppression, have been able to organise themselves into political forces with clear agendas. The fact that the rioters have no programme is therefore itself a fact to be interpreted: it tells us a great deal about our ideological-political predicament and about the kind of society we inhabit, a society which celebrates choice but in which the only available alternative to enforced democratic consensus is a blind acting out. Opposition to the system can no longer articulate itself in the form of a realistic alternative, or even as a utopian project, but can only take the shape of a meaningless outburst. What is the point of our celebrated freedom of choice when the only choice is between playing by the rules and (self-)destructive violence?

namely, why did these riots appear to have less clearly articulated revolutionary, class-struggle praxis (as distinct from a revolutionary tendency) than previous class riots in the UK? What this has to do with the End of History is beyond me but; although it does point to a weakness in our politics or organisation (or both).

[lil'apple]

We are told that the disintegration of the Communist regimes in the early 1990s signalled the end of ideology: the time of large-scale ideological projects culminating in totalitarian catastrophe was over; we had entered a new era of rational, pragmatic politics.

guess he refers to francis fukuyamas "The End of History and the Last Man" (1992):

"What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."

so clever people and crackademics got the idea that the western "liberal" state is kinda eternal elysium now, unassailable after the fall of communism and any other socio-political system competeting with democracy and capitalism.

The protesters, though underprivileged and de facto socially excluded, weren’t living on the edge of starvation. People in much worse material straits, let alone conditions of physical and ideological oppression, have been able to organise themselves into political forces with clear agendas.

so seeing just another only(?) "underprivileged and de facto socially excluded" guy shot in the street - in an area known for cop-brutality and open racism - isn't enough reason to run riot and claim back the streets and the area for at least some time? do we really expect a public statement before the battle is brought back to the cops who started it again, some press conferences before the barricades are manned? manned by a disciplined "anarchist army?" (how gruesome...)
something happened in tottenham and elsewhere, it happened for more than one fucking bloody reason - and we are still discussing shoplifted tv's and streetfighters in addidas gear?
oh yess, the marxist's enigma - bit from bakunin anybody:

A popular insurrection, by its very nature, is instinctive, chaotic, and destructive, and always entails great personal sacrifice and an enormous loss of public and private property. the masses are always ready to sacrifice themselves; and this is what turns them into a brutal and savage horde, capable of performing heroic and apparently impossible exploits, and since they possess little or nothing, they are not demoralised by the responsibilities of property ownership . . . they develop a passion for destruction. this negative passion, it is true, is far from being sufficient to attain the heights of the revolutionary cause; but without it, revolution would be impossible. revolution requires extensive and widespread destruction, a fecund and renovating destruction.
Bakunin, Statism and Anarchy, 1873

i still wonder where the "true revolutionaries" and other "conscious" people have gone after the student-riots last year, oh sorry i forgot that Mark Duggan wasn't a student...

[nike]

hamburgs schanzenfest wasn't really following the brit's example, coordination problems, massive check-ups and controls by the cops, lots of orders to leave the scene, many people were refused to enter the area.
the guests of a pub were pushed and pepper-sprayed back from the street into the pub and besieged there for over an hour until they were allowed to leave the building one after the other.
ca. 30 people were arrested and some of them were refused to contact parents or lawyers, 7 people were injured but refused any medical treatment. several lawyers complain about being hindered to do their job by the cops in the police station stresemannstrasse.

a bank branch was attacked with stones, some fires were lit up in the streets - one woman made her 15-minutes fame barebreasted feeding a fire and was celebrated by the tabloid press, a crowd of people refused to enter the field by the uniformed clones started a street soccer game right in front of the cops line.
t'was a try...

[butcher]

@nike, better luck next time!

@lil' apple, yeah the whole end of history thing is bizarre, especially consider Fukuyama himself don't even subscribe to it no more. He distances himself from it in his ten year review, albeit thru the bizarre claim that he was wrong because we are now transhumans (!). So, like, cyborgs are destroying neoliberalism and skylab is go.

Yeah, the claim that there was no organisation is weird. If I go and like start breaking windows, will thousands of ppl in various locations stop everything and join in? The State's idea to shut down social medias in future incidents proves this even more. Moreover, the forms of organisation are a cause of jealously for this jaded ozzie. I remember a call out for an organising meeting for some 'direct action' environment convergence stated that it would operate by people turning up as individuals and then were broken up into 'affinity groups' of ten (seriously), suffice to say I stayed well clear, and this ain't an isolated incident neither . Poor yoof looting in groups that go to school/live next to/grew up together is kinda like an anarchists wet dream, proper affinity stylez, no?
moreover, they had a pretty clear political agenda too. Bash the pigs, get some of the good things in life denied them, well good.

( We know what sorta organisation Zizek wants, and it ain't good. )

nevertheless, some shit things happened in the riots, such as setting fire to stores that have people's houses above them, and most things I read seem to suggest with a greater frequency than in previous class riots in them parts (a greater frequency being from fuck all to slightly more than fuck all, i get the impression they are still marginal occurrences). This is a problem. And although its not the lack of us 'conscious' vanguard that is the problem (as we're likely as marginal in these ones as in many previous ones i can think of), it is still worth looking at. That's probably the only thing I took from this dose of Zizek nonsense.

i still wonder where the "true revolutionaries" and other "conscious" people have gone after the student-riots last year, oh sorry i forgot that Mark Duggan wasn't a student...

They was making appeals to the looters (from a safe distance): 'come and join us in our campaign for student and trade union rights!'
Talk about relevancy!

[gobbledigooks]

t'was a try...

Well, it isn't kinda competition, isn't it?!

The expected large-scale street battles between police and left-wing radicals after Hamburg's Schanzenfest did not materialize on Saturday night, though the entrance to a bank was destroyed. The police had 2,100 officers on duty.
Masked people lit a number of fires on the streets of the city, while police used three water cannons during the night. Five policemen and a journalist suffered minor injuries, while 31 people were detained, and ten taken into custody.
The clashes followed the peaceful Schanzenfest, an annual left-wing alternative street party celebrated by 10,000 locals and visitors in the Schanzenviertel district of Hamburg. But young people began throwing fireworks later in the evening and set fire to piles of rubbish on the roads. Passers-by put the fires out.
A branch of the Sparkasse bank was attacked not longer afterwards, with around 20 rioters smashing up the entrance with iron bars. Several more fires were also lit.
A video journalist filming one of the fires was attacked by a group of rioters who chased him into a cafe, trampled on his camera and hit him in the face.
The Schanzenfest has been running since 1988, and while the festival itself is almost always peaceful, violence has become traditional in the night following it. In 2010, 14 people were injured and 42 arrested.
Hamburg police, who brought in hundreds of officers from several states in preparation for the event, received praise from the city's Interior Minister Michael Neumann, who said they had successfully prevented much worse violence.
DAPD/The Local/bk

and the car arsons have driven some less flattering butts out of the television chair:

Citizen patrols mooted to stop car arsons
As night-time car arsons in Berlin continue unabated, some citizens are calling for neighbourhood groups to prowl the streets looking for culprits, an idea that appears to be gaining ground.
The idea for citizen patrols has gained support during the week-long spate of arson in the German capital, which have left dozens of cars, mostly expensive models, burned out.
More than 300 vehicles have now been set alight since the beginning of the year, including five overnight Sunday.
Police have struggled to deal with the crisis, but the city actually assigns more people to give out traffic tickets than track down the car arsonists, according to the daily newspaper Die Welt.
Many people told the newspaper they were ready to join citizens’ groups to combat the attacks, because the government isn’t doing enough.
Some have suggested that neighbours begin carrying weapons and go on the hunt for perpetrators. Others have suggested a less vigilante-style response with simple unarmed neighbourhood patrols.
One 72-year-old who lives with his wife in the Berlin’s Westend district told Die Welt that residents have been debating what to do over the last few days. His idea is for a citizens’ patrol to go out for about an hour per night per night. It would alert police if it sees anything suspicious.
“Some residents here want to arm themselves,” he said. “What we need here is a kind of militia.”
Some people appear to be looking to London as a model, where many community groups lost confidence in police and formed successful vigilante groups to combat recent riots.
In Berlin, Burkhard Dregger, a politician with the centre-right Christian Democratic Union has long called for a special auxiliary police made up of volunteers that would have uniforms, batons and handcuffs.
But others have raised concerns about the idea, even as they acknowledge that police are struggling.
Klaus Eisenreich of the GdP police union said the local government has “failed” to find a solution. But, he said, bringing an end to the burnings should still be the responsibility of the police.
The Local/mdm

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110822-37103.html
The Germans' favourite child as the saying goes is their car.

[SenI]

“We are not involved in the looting and unlike the knee-jerk right or even the sympathetic-but-condemnatory commentators from the left, we will not condemn or condone those we don’t know for taking back some of the wealth they have been denied all their lives.”

North London Solidarity Federation

“This is counter-productive behaviour whose only results will be division amongst working-class communities and an excuse for the state to step up its use of force.”

Post on the blog of UK libertarian socialist group the Commune

“It is not for communists to condemn the riots. They are a sign of capitalism’s crisis and decay. Neither do we romanticise the riotous act as an effective form of struggle against capitalist exploitation.”

Internationalist Communist Tendency

The potential for communism today is not centered in the orderly struggles of well off minorities of the class to defend their privileges against encroaching restructuring. Struggles all too often draped in national flags, defined by whiteness and speaking in the discourse of democracy. The coming social revolution will not be an orderly civil affair resolved upon by a majority vote in Syntagma or any other square peacefully occupied by the indignant and naive.

No on the contrary our hope for the future lies in the real majority of the class which is excluded, unemployed, precarious, malnourished, and “criminal”. Not in the hopeless demands of unionized workers for the restoration of a lost social contract or in populist movements for reform which take the moral high ground on a terrain defined by the mass media and petty bourgeois notions of what is “respectable”.

The systematic looting and destruction which has swept England is of course completely insufficient in and of itself for the development of autonomous proletarian politics. It is however a thousand times preferable to the demands for democracy which buried the Arab Spring in a cosmetic restructuring of the state. The mass appropriation of Nikes and Iphones without explanation or justification is like any struggle for higher wages and fewer hours of work a direct assertion of the material needs of the class-and as such immeasurably closer to the living content of communist politics then any nationalist and reformist movement with a “coherent” message.

Those who identify more with the vigilante gangs of the petty-bourgeois defending their small enterprises (where proletarians are exploited, humiliated and cheated everyday), then with working class youth carrying out the dictatorial expropriation of the social wealth show clearly that they are not revolutionaries but cops in waiting-and should be treated accordingly.

Link: http://signalfire.org/?p=13188

[nike]

very good post seni, Спасибо, хорошо!

Those who identify more with the vigilante gangs of the petty-bourgeois defending their small enterprises (where proletarians are exploited, humiliated and cheated everyday), then with working class youth carrying out the dictatorial expropriation of the social wealth show clearly that they are not revolutionaries but cops in waiting-and should be treated accordingly.

a bit too hard judging people still struggling for their living with small enterprises, and there's the other dire problem of destroying someones home and personal property too - but i agree, a militant revolt, not to mention a violent revolution isn't the may-parade on the red place in moscow and there's always the possibility to compensate people in need for their loss out of solidarity.

and for those still proposing vanguards and militant spear-heads, signalfire links to "german guerilla" and the story of the r.a.f. -
that's another sad story of going over the top...

[SenI]

Yeah... Agree with about RAF. What is most surprising of course the RAF to formed a cult popularity among left-wing of young people. You can see how much about them make a film and written books.

[vAsSiLy77]

and for those still proposing vanguards and militant spear-heads, signalfire links to "german guerilla" and the story of the r.a.f. -
that's another sad story of going over the top...

this sad story was more about "rescue the heroes of stammheim", not to mention their final goal... the may parade in berlins.

[nike]

Yeah... Agree with about RAF. What is most surprising of course the RAF to formed a cult popularity among left-wing of young people. You can see how much about them make a film and written books.

they actually did something while the "intellectual" left vanished from the streets to discuss things privately in circles and sects - and the german state supported the RAF's image as "public enemy no.1" to justify the growing political pressure on the people, so "Baader (& Ensslin) and Meinhof" became superstars, okay, Ulrike Meinhof was kinda left-wing top-writer even before that.
the less terrorist, mainly anarchist "movement 2. june" went never that popular in the culture of resistance and opposed the claim to leadership the RAF made.

[butcher]

Fucking pig bastards are at it again:

Inquiry as rugby league player, 25, dies after he was pepper-sprayed and arrested by 'ELEVEN officers'

An amateur rugby league player collapsed and died after being overpowered with pepper-spray as he was being arrested by up to eleven police officers.

Jacob Michael, 25, was sprayed in the face inside his home in the Widnes area of Cheshire, but managed to flee officers before being brought down on a verge 30 metres away.

He was taken to a police station where he became unwell and was rushed to hospital by ambulance. He was pronounced dead two hours later.

Police watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed it had begun an investigation into Monday's incident. Tests are due to be carried out into how Michael died.

The dead man - who was known as Jake - had been with his family and is believed to have dialled 999 himself over a threat made to him when police arrived at the semi-detached home at 5pm.

Police said they were arresting him on suspicion of affray but there was a struggle and Michael was blasted in the face with the spray.

Despite him being temporarily blinded by the effects, Michael managed to run out of the house and got to a grass verge before being tackled and brought to the ground by other police officers who were waiting nearby.

Neighbour Ann Blease, 40, said: 'I didn't know Jake that well but he seemed like a good lad, he was pleasant and good with all the kids, very friendly and happy-go-lucky.

'As far as I know he didn't have a job but lived with his parents and was just a really popular guy who knew a lot of people.'

The mother-of-three claimed: 'What the police did was outrageous. He was handcuffed, on the floor with his legs restrained and they didn't even have the decency to pull up his pants.

'They seemed to be kneeing him in the back of the head. I counted 11 cops. They were all sat on him, giving him a kicking and giving him side digs. There was one woman officer, the rest were men, and she was getting her kicks in as well.

'They were chasing him in the street. I saw it because they chased him in front of my house.

'His mum told me Jake was the one who rang the police himself, saying that someone was threatening him with a gun.

'They started chasing him and hitting him in the back of the legs with batons. They said, "Why don't you stand up and give yourself some dignity," to him. But he couldn't even stand up after they'd hit him with the batons.

'It was so upsetting to see. I couldn't believe the police could do that. It was like something you see on those TV cop shows.

'I went to speak to his mum. She didn't know what happened. She was mortified when they knocked on her door those hours later and told her, "Your son's died".

'They had banged his head on the floor and they were giving him punches. He was already handcuffed and he was restrained when I saw him. I don't know what happened in the house, I just saw when they were on the street.

'He was shouting, "Help me, help me". He wasn't coherent. I don't know why they were bringing him in for affray. It doesn't matter, he didn't deserve that.

'He's never been in trouble before as far as I know.

'The officers threw him into the van by his arms and legs after they beat him. He was shouting for help. We were saying afterwards with the neighbours, nobody saw him get sprayed.

'It's an absolute disgrace. I don't think the police realise how many eye-witnesses there were. We were all shouting, "Get off him".

'We were scared for him. They weren't listening, they didn't seem aware of us, or that there were kids watching.

'It lasted for 15 minutes that I saw, and he was handcuffed the whole time. I don't know why they kept hitting him. All he was doing was shouting for them to get off him.

'His parents are absolutely mortified. Jake was a popular, well liked lad. He was a friend of a friend of mine and was house sitting for her this week. She's absolutely distraught.

'It's a waste of a young life. It's a disgrace.'

Michael's father, a retired businessman who is also called Jacob, emerged from the property with his daughter after police officers spent 30 minutes speaking to them.


Mr Michael Snr said: 'I cannot say anything at this stage because it's far too early to say what happened and we need to know how Jake died.

'All I want to know is what happened to my son and I'm sure everyone feels the same about that. All I can say is that the whole family are devastated at Jake's death and we need time to reflect on it before we say anything about it.'

Floral tributes with messages saying: 'RIP Jacob' were left at the scene.

Appealing for calm Philip Thompson, the Assistant Chief Constable of Cheshire Police, said today: 'I wish to express our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mr Jacob Michael.

'I believe it is important for the community to know that the detailed post mortem examination found no physical injuries on Jacob that could be attributable to a cause of his death.

'Whilst pepper spray was discharged during the course of his arrest, there is no evidence that the use of pepper spray was the sole factor or indeed a contributory factor to Mr Michael becoming unwell some time after his arrest or as a cause of his death.

'These are amongst the reasons why further extensive tests will be required to establish an exact cause of death. I appeal for people to remain calm to allow the IPCC to conduct their investigation effectively and swiftly before making any judgement on this matter.'

A spokesman for the IPCC confirmed they were investigating the death.

'Investigators have been deployed to Widnes to begin gathering evidence and gain initial accounts from police officers.

A Cheshire Police spokesman confirmed: 'The Independent Police Complainants Commission has been informed and will independently investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.'

Pepper spray is an inflammatory product which causes immediate closing of the eyes, difficulty breathing, runny nose, and coughing.

The duration of its effects depends on the strength of the spray but the average full effect lasts around thirty to forty-five minutes, with diminished effects lasting for hours.

Although considered 'non-lethal', it may be deadly in rare cases, and concerns have been raised about a number of deaths in Britain where being pepper sprayed may have been a contributing factor for those people suffering from asthma.

Last week bodybuilder Dale Burns, 27, became the first person in Britain to have died from a police Taser after officers shot him three times with the powerful 50,000-volt gun after reports of a disturbance at his bedsit in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.