The United Kingdom may be spending the first few days of its summer holiday season in a state of shock at the speed and scale of rioting and looting in London and other major cities such as Liverpool, Bristol, and Birmingham. Leading politicians have returned early from family holidays, Parliament has been recalled, and more than 16,000 policemen will be out on London streets on Wednesday. The trigger for the current rioting may have been the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, aged 29, when police stopped the car carrying him in Tottenham area, one of London's poorest neighbourhoods, on the night of August 4. The following day events went out of control at the end of a peaceful gathering by Mr. Duggan's family outside a local police station — and within hours, rioters were on the rampage. Since then, mobile phones and other electronic gadgets have been used to specify meeting points for more violence and looting across London and elsewhere. Chain stores have been targeted, but so have local shops and businesses of long standing and good reputation, in what amount to bouts of consumerist looting. There is growing public anger against the failure of the police to act effectively and in time, and even calls for vigilantism.