The 2011 London riots were the worst breakdown of order since 1780

Evidence

On August 9, 2011, around the same time that cheers erupted in Apple’s conference room, 16,000 police officers flooded the streets of London, determined to quell “the most widespread and prolonged breakdown of order in London’s history since the Gordon riot of 1780.” The rioting had begun four nights earlier when a peaceful vigil triggered by the police shooting of a young man suddenly turned violent. In the days that followed, the number of rioters swelled as looting and arson spread to twenty-two of London’s thirty-two boroughs and other major cities across Britain. Over four days of street action, thousands of people caused property damage of over $50 million, and 3,000 people were arrested. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 130