I don't really agree with the responses in this thread. I live in an area that is by far BAME majority in London. People I know do not trust the police to be there for them. I lost my own cousin, an innocent black man, to an incident with the police. And not only do people not trust the police here, but there's also fear - not the jovial relations that people are describing. Me (mixed race woman) and my partner (Pakistani man) have been pulled over by the police because they suspected us to be running drugs! I've never committed a crime in my life, but it's just how it is in my area.

I don't doubt that people have better police-community relations elsewhere, but that's not representative of the communities where such protest/rioting could take place in my opinion!