Through ethnographic research in north London and a situational analysis of video footage of the riots, I aim to explain the occurrences of violence against police in 2011. The research responds to causal simplifications by the media/politicians which posit individual pathology rather than systemic dysfunction; a relative lack of in depth qualitative study of the social conditions and experiences which shaped the subjectivity to riot; and to a theory of violence, which proposes analysing the situational dynamics but also excludes background/social factors as causally irrelevant.