In Enfield, where a gang on Monday night torched a Sony warehouse, residents declared a ‘looter free zone.’
Nick Davidson, 27, a computer shop owner said: "Everybody supports the police but we can see their hands are tied. We're good people but we're not having this."
In Southall, west London, hundreds of Sikh men stood guard outside their temple and mounted street patrols, armed with baseball bats.
In Eltham, south east London, a crowd of 200 men gathered in the streets, promising to protect their neighbourhood from looters and arsonists following rioting in nearby Lewisham and Woolwich.
“We won't stand for it. If anyone wants to come down here and start looting tonight, let them try - we'll be ready for them,” said one.
"We're here to protect the town. What went on last night was a disgrace. It shouldn't be allowed. We're taking a stand."
On Monday night, the Turkish business owners in Stoke Newington, North London, chased a gang of rioters out the area and yesterday men stood guard last night with baseball bats and fire extinguishers. In Whitechapel groups of Muslim men gathered outside the East London mosque to defend it and repelled looters from a bank.
But there were concerns far-right groups were seeking to take advantage of the disorder.
Stephen Lennon, the leader of the far-right EDL, said he spent yesterday in Enfield and claim to have 100 supporters on the streets of the town.
Lennon said the group had encouraged all its members to take part in street clean-ups. He said members would launch street patrols in Bristol, Manchester, Luton and Leicestershire over the coming days in an attempt to talk young men out of rioting.
"If they tried to smash up Luton town centre I’d know every one of them. I can go into any working class community and talk to them.”
Footage emerged last night of a gang of white men chasing an alleged looter through the streets of Enfield. One bystander shouts: “We’re chasing blacks.”
Nick Griffin, the British National Party leader, claimed the men in Eltham had chanted ‘BNP’. He said the situation was in the town was a “race riot”.
The Telegraph
