The police called the pub at 8:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 8, with a warning, telling the manager of the Grove to close up. Two hours later, says the manager, who declined to be named, “it was pure bedlam. There were just hundreds of them.” Gangs began looting and setting fires to the main shopping areas in town. After they were through, says Emilian Sokoli, the deputy manager of the ransacked William Hill betting shop, “the place looked a bit like a war zone. I couldn’t believe it. This is Ealing.”
Ealing is a western suburban borough of London. Its unofficial nickname is “Queen of the Suburbs”: very middle class, with many large Victorian houses and a big Polish community that dates back to World War II, when Poles flew with the Royal Air Force located in the area. It is home to Britain’s iconic Ealing Studios. Ealing may not have been as badly treated as Croydon, in south London, but it took more than a fair share of hits. (See pictures of the fiery London riots.)
Patrick, a middle-aged electrician, says he was on his bike heading for home when he ran into the gangs. He says there
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