Riots Across England; The Economic Impact of the Riots
QUEST: Police across the United Kingdom are on alert tonight after the violence that began in London has now spread to cities across England. There have been copycat riots on Tuesday night, fires and looting in cities in the West Midlands and Northern England. Vigilante groups are now mobilizing across the country. The far right English Defence League has called on its members to turn out and provide what they say is physical presence against rioters. One of the cities hit by violence was Birmingham. Three men there were killed after being hit by a car, which police are treating the incident as murder. A cleanup is underway in London. The capital streets have been calmer. Sixteen thousand officers were deployed on Tuesday night. And the British prime minister, David Cameron, said it was time to get tough.</s>DAVID CAMERON, BRITAIN PRIME MINISTER: We needed a fight back and a fight back is underway. Whatever resources the police need, they will get. Whatever tactics the police feel they need to employ, they will have legal backing to do so. What -- we will do whatever is necessary to restore law and order onto our streets. While they're not currently needed, we now have in place contingency plans for water cannon to be available at 24 hours notice.</s>QUEST: Dan Rivers is in Birmingham in the British Midlands this evening, in the England Midlands tonight -- Dan, let's just have an overview before we get to the causes and what's gone wrong. What's happening this evening?</s>DAN RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right here now, it's very tense but -- but calm. This after the death of three British- Pakistani men who were killed by a car right here where the flowers are being laid. I don't know if you can see that. Mowed down by a car that locals say was being driven by a black man who they suspect was coming here to loot the area. The three young men were out trying to protect these local businesses. Now, we've got, as you can see over here, you know, a big crowd of people on the streets. The father of one of the dead men has spoken, appealing for calm. But obviously, this is a very delicate situation because there are fears, clearly, that this could be twisted and manipulated by extremists in both the black and Asian community into something about race rather than something about looting and criminality, which is how this all started. But at the moment, things, you know, are calm. They're -- they're staying here at the -- there are appeals from lots of people that -- you know, for both sides in this just to -- to stay calm and go home. There's no signs at the moment of any other violence or looting, which is great. And there are about 1,000 police out on the streets of Birmingham this evening, trying to -- to make sure that that continues.</s>QUEST: Let's talk on the wider issue, if we may, Dan. And I realize you're in a pretty spot where you are. The idea that this is some disenfranchised youth being affected by austerity and by the measures with no hope versus a bunch of wanton hooligans and criminality, where is the truth in both of those views?</s>RIVERS: You know, I -- I think that the vast majority of the looting and criminality that we've been reporting on for the last three or four days, was just that, was looting and criminality and was opportunistic and -- and there was a lot of copycat crime going on. I think they were emboldened by the fact that they saw, initially on Monday, that the police weren't doing anything to stop it. They weren't intervening, perhaps because the police felt so thinly stretched and under -- under powered in some areas. And that emboldened the -- the looters to just go on a rampage. Very few of the people that we've talked about have mentioned that shooting in Tottenham. Very few of the people -- of the -- of the young kids in hoods have -- even know the name of the person, Mark Duggan, that was shot last Thursday. The issue of whether this is about social deprivation and feelings of alienation, well, maybe there is an element of that. But there is some sense that some of these people feel like they, you know -- you know, have been locked out of sort of mainstream society, there aren't jobs and so on for them. But there was a big element, as well, of sheer criminality and copycat violence, where they just were watching this unfold and thinking, this is my opportunity to go and steal something.</s>QUEST: Dan Rivers joining us from Birmingham this evening. Many thanks, Dan. Loose is -- looters and activists have done their worst to hurt businesses across the country. In some cases, the effects will be felt for weeks or even months. One warehouse that burnt down in South London may cripple some small British film companies, for example. Leone Lakhani reports.</s>LEONE LAKHANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the smoke billows from this warehouse, the economic costs of the riots that have swept across London are being counted. This site, operated by Sony, has 25 million DVDs and entertainment products owned by European film companies, as well as CDs and games. (on camera): This Sony warehouse was set alit on Monday night. Now, nearly three days later, firefighters are still working round the clock to put the fire out. Now, no one was hurt, but hundreds of thousands of DVDs, films were all stored here. They've all now been destroyed. And that's left many of Britain's independent film distributors reeling. (voice-over): David Wilkinson is one such distributor and says this is going to be a huge dent to his business.</s>DAVID WILKINSON, CHAIRMAN, GUERILLA FILMS: I had about 65,000 DVDs, across -- around about 70, 80 titles.</s>LAKHANI (on camera): Is that all your titles?</s>WILKINSON: That's all my titles, yes. Luckily, I wasn't holding as much stock as some people. I mean I have other labels that I know that were in there, they had 10,000 or 15,000 units per title.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a country devastated by war...</s>LAKHANI (voice-over): All of David's video material, like the others in the warehouse, are insured. They will be replaced, but that may take weeks, even months. And for independent film companies, time means money.</s>WILKINSON: The day of the fire, I had one title that was due to sell 32 units to someone. Those 32 units are now lost. And you multiply that between every title I've got and then with all the different labels, we're all going to lose a lot of money.</s>LAKHANI: The British Film Institute, the UK's leading film body, says DVDs and Blu-ray discs are the industry's largest single source of revenue, bringing in more than $2 billion a year. For independent films, that's an even greater chunk of their profits.</s>RICHARD COOPER, IHS SCREEN DIGEST: In terms of physical video, consumers in the U.K. spend around twice as much on video products than they do being -- going to the cinema. Now, for independents who were releasing films over the next, even a few months, any advertisement spending that they've done, any anticipation of revenue from that bit, is completely lost.</s>LAKHANI: One of many businesses paying the price. Leone Lakhani, CNN, London.</s>QUEST: When we come back, let me update you with the New York markets. And I do assure you, they're a lot better than they were.