London riots anniversary: Mark Duggan's family and Black Lives Matter activists to attend Tottenham rally

Mark Duggan's family is expected to join hundreds of other activists, including from Black Lives Matter, on a march to Tottenham Police Station this weekend to mark the fifth anniversary since his death.

Under the banner "Tottenham Remembers", they will retrace the route taken by friends and family members after Duggan was shot dead in a minicab by police on 4 August, 2011.

In the days that followed his killing – later found to be "lawful" by an inquest jury – London descended into five days of violence and looting, leaving more than £200m of damage and five people dead.

But organisers and police say they expect Saturday's event (6 August) to be peaceful, saying it is a time for "action, remembrance and community healing".

They also dismissed media reports last week claiming rival gangs were planning to hijack the event with "revenge" violence.

Walking from the Broadwater Farm estate where Duggan grew up, the march will end with speakers, including Duggan's aunt, Carole, outside Tottenham Police Station. She and other family members continue to fight, in their words, "for justice" over Duggan's death. They rejected the jury verdict and have filed for a judicial review at the High Court.

The route from Broadwater Farm to Tottenham Police Station has been well-trodden by activists rallying against police killings for decades.

Saturday will also remember four other Tottenham residents – Cynthia Jarrett, Joy Gardner, Roger Sylvester and Jermaine Baker – killed by police since the infamous 1985 Broadwater Farm riots, which led to the killing of PC Keith Blakelock.

The narrative over how Duggan came to be shot twice by a police marksman while unarmed has become part of a wider campaign against police violence.

Despite pledges to improve police relations since the 2011 riots, behind the scenes there has been growing concern over recent disorder on London's streets.

Unmesh Desai, vice-chairman of the London Assembly's police and crime committee, recently wrote to the Mayor of London to warn there was a "bubbling resentment toward the police at the moment". He told Sadiq Khan that problems had been fuelled by tension in the United States between some black youths and police.

His letter said: "Without a strong community policing approach, relationships between the MPS and black and ethnic minority communities could worsen."

Black Lives Matter, the protest movement which has grown out of police shootings of predominantly black men in the US, has now spread to the UK.

On Friday, its activists chained themselves together on the M4 spur road in a peaceful protest to block an entrance to Heathrow Airport.

The group has urged its activists to join Duggan's family at Saturday's event, saying: "We have chosen today for our action to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Mark Duggan's death at the hands of the Metropolitan Police. We stand in solidarity with the families and friends of all who have died at the hands of the British state."

Last week, the Met Police has moved to quell fears London could see a "summer of violence" following media reports claiming officers were on high alert over Saturday's rally.

The Times, citing an unnamed source, claimed police had been warned rival gangs in London could be planning revenge attacks in Tottenham this weekend, and on the weekend of the Notting Hill Carnival (28 - 29 August).

But Stafford Scott, an anti-racist campaigner and close friend of the Duggan family, who is attending on Saturday, said he didn't expect any violence. "This is five years on, we've done it every year," he told the Huffington Post.

"The media seems to think this is the first time we're doing it. I can't think of a reason why there would be trouble. Everyone that comes here Saturday is simply here to support the community, a resilient community."

This week Tim Newburn, an LSE professor of criminology who carried out the leading research on the 2011 riots, said many of the underlying conditions that helped cause them had now worsened.

This included, he said, rioters feeling like they were being harassed by police, and that they had limited opportunities compared to others.

"There's no real sign that things have improved for the lives of the kinds of people who were involved and caught up in the riots. Certainly it's not implausible that there could be more riots. But that's not the same thing as expecting riots," he told the Guardian.