American students taking part in an overseas study programme based in Trinity College were reportedly told not to venture outside the college gates on Wednesday night, in case the rioting seen in other parts of the country spread to Oxford.
Although the porter on duty was unable to confirm this when contacted by Cherwell, the report claimed that those in charge of the programme, which caters for students from four US universities, decided that it was safest to keep all the students within their respective living quarters.
Though Oxford has not yet seen widespread riots like those in the UK’s larger cities, it has experienced several ‘copycat attacks’.
An attempted arson attack on the Headington branch of McDonald’s took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning, and two youths, aged 18 and 16, have been arrested in connection.
Fires were also lit around Oxford on Tuesday evening. A 48-year-old man was hospitalised after a blaze outside a block of flats in Cowley, a bin in Botley Road and a skip in Mansfield Road were set on fire, and police officers found an Audi A4 in Great Clarendon St with a damaged petrol cap and a rag stuffed into the fuel tank which had been set alight but failed to spread.
Meanwhile, Oxford students have told Cherwell of their experiences in other parts of the country. Joseph D’Urso, a second year PPE student at New College who lives in Birmingham, described Monday night’s riots in his home town, saying, “a huge number of people gathered, and started rampaging through the city centre, smashing up shops and looting. Public transport was cut at about 10pm and it was impossible to get taxis so the entire inner ring road was like a warzone, poorly policed and with no transport. Looting continued until 3ish.”
Dominic Parikh, a second year at St John’s, spoke of his dismay at seeing images of brutality in a familiar neighbourhood, telling Cherwell, ‘I used to live near and travel through Clapham Junction and it was sickening seeing the area trashed so mindlessly. I was pretty disappointed that there weren’t enough police to do anything more than watch.”
Alex Coupe, an English student at Corpus Christi, described the atmosphere of tension in South London following Monday night’s riots, saying that there is “lots of smashed glass in Brixton and empty shops, a few of which are burnt.” He added: “it’s just eerily quiet, with most shops in Wimbledon and Tooting closed and shuttered. I saw two guys get off a train with what seemed to be looted computers. A man confronted them, saying, ‘Are you f***ing happy now, greedy p****s?’ That kind of reflects the general mood.”
A second year student at Brasenose who watched violence take place in Ealing in West London on Monday night commented, “What we have here is just a bunch of anarchists trying to get their hands on as much money as possible. I don’t think they have any particular political message”. He called for a harsh punishment on those involved, insisting, “I really want to see these people humiliated, since they have brought shame to our capital and have brought pain to so many people’s lives.”
James Lawson, President of the Oxford University Conservative Association next term, also refused to ascribe any political motivation to the rioters, commenting, “This has nothing to do with protest and is simply opportunist criminal action: a classic example of the ‘Broken Britain’ the Coalition has to repair.”
Nicola Sugden and Colin Jackson, co-chairs of the Oxford University Labour Club, though condemning the riots as “unnecessarily destructive”, described them as “manifestation of the valid fears many of Britain’s youth have about their futures”.
