The riots in London, which were sparked off by the shooting of a man by police in Tottenham, spread to other parts of London over the weekend.

According to The Daily Mail, “Mark Duggan, 29, was in a car being followed by police during a covert operation on Thursday. But Duggan, a known offender from London’s notorious Broadwater Farm Estate, became aware that he was being followed and opened fire on the officers. He shot the officer from Scotland Yard’s elite firearms squad CO19 in the side of his chest with a handgun.

“The bullet lodged in the police radio that the undercover officer was carrying in a side pocket.

“Armed officers shot the gunman dead seconds later.”

Since then, however, conflicting reports have suggested that Duggan did not fire his gun and that the police acted too hastily. The shooting was followed by a peaceful protest by the community which quickly turned into a widespread riot, which has since been followed by copycat riots in Brixton, Enfield, Walthamstow and Islington. As the police force tried to contain the violence, it quickly became apparent that these new riots were of a different nature.

Hundreds of young men have been arrested for violence and looting as what started off as anger towards a police shooting seems to have developed into widespread anarchy by youths who are breaking into shops and stealing Plasma screens, trainers and other expensive items.

As calls for an independent inquiry are under way, media commentators are trying to grapple with the implications of these sudden riots. The sight of those young teenage men with their faces hidden by their trademark ‘hoodies’ has underlined the existence of a subculture which exists in the UK: A whole generation of unemployed, frustrated youth, who, lacking any sort of real family structure have formed gangs which prowl the streets looking for trouble. The viciousness and almost senseless nature of the vandalism points to a whole sector of young people who are directing their rage against what they perceive to be the ‘enemy’, those whom they perceive to have it all, as opposed to themselves, the ‘have nots’.

Colin Brazier, a blogger on the Sky News website has highlighted another possible reason for the emergence of this violent gang culture: The absence of fathers. “In parts of London a majority of young men in gangs will not be brought up by their biological fathers, any father in fact. They are not set boundaries by a male role model,” he points out.

Certainly, that is one viable explanation. But as London attempts to come to terms with what happened this weekend, others are blaming the Cameron administration for the impending cuts to the Welfare Bill, which will directly affect this demographic of low-income families. It has not helped matters that the Prime Minister and other leading politicians were nowhere to be seen because they were all on holiday at the same time, and no one seemed willing to cut short their vacation to deal with the trouble back home. No wonder leading UK journalists are asking: “Where’s the government?”