'Professor Gus John of the University of London, a Grenada-born academic who has written extensively about race issues in Britain, said dismissing the rioters as thugs was "fatuous" and failed to acknowledge the deeper issues.
"Such labels don't solve anything," he told AFP.
"The question is, what disposes these young men to be like that? Why is the largest section of the young offender population in Britain young and black?"
