I think Soros was pegged for the other riots. Wouldn't surprise me if he had his grubby litttle fingers on this one too. He was just recently in the news saying something he wanted to do....
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/09/london-riots-day-four-live-blogLondon riots and UK unrest: day four live coverage
• PM announces 16,000 police will be deployed London tonight
• First fatality as man shot in Croydon, south London, dies
• Firearms officers may use non-lethal plastic bullets
• England friendly against Holland at Wembley cancelled
• Twitter movement #riotcleanup gets under way
• Send us your footage of the riots
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Burnt-out cars are removed from a residential street in Hackney today after a third night of London riots. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images
4.42pm: The British Retail Consortium has put out a press release condemning what it calls "the shocking levels of lawlessness breaking out across the UK". "Those responsible must be prosecuted and punished. Retailers and their staff are particularly vulnerable and need protecting."
4.41pm: Our colleagues Lisa O'Carroll and Caroline Davies have been looking at the dangers facing journalists and photographers who are trying to cover the riots.
One war reporter, who has just returned from the frontline in Libya, was mugged by three hooded looters outside Curry's in Brixton on Sunday night with £2,500 worth of video equipment stolen.
Another photographer was kicked to the ground and beaten by four youths on the Pembury Estate in Hackney yesterday while in Birmingham two photographers being mugged, one suffering a vicious attack by an angry mob of more than a dozen.
A video journalist in Tottenham needed 10 stitches after an angry mob broke into his home and started bashing him with bottles left in his hallway for recycling.
A Mail on Sunday photographer had £8,000 worth of equipment robbed by a gang during what was described as a "lawless" scene near Bruce Grove in Tottenham.
Guardian reporter Paul Lewis who has been covering riots late into the night says photographers and journalists are being set upon despite their best efforts not to stand out.
Anyone even taking pictures with mobile phones was liable to be confronted and asked if they were "feds", said Lewis.
4.40pm: A fairly dramatic statement has just reached us from Peter Marks, chief executive of the Co-operative Group. He is furious at how his staff — and stores — have been treated during the violence of recent days:
There is no justification for this wanton and senseless violence, which has endangered people's lives and destroyed property ... Two members of staff were attacked during looting at one of our petrol forecourts in Streatham and staff in other locations narrowly escaped mob violence, which is completely intolerable.
4.24pm: Mark Brown's latest dispatch from Hackney, east London:
There's something of a battening down the hatches feel to Hackney. The pub on the park at London Fields is boarding up windows. McDonald's, the last place open, has now shut. Lots of police, Geordie and Welsh, no bother.
4.22pm: Shops in East Dulwich are closing their doors, according to reports on Twitter.
4.19pm: Patrick Barkham was present for Boris Johnson's bittersweet address to the people of Croydon earlier this afternoon.
Patrick writes:
If local rioters craved attention in Croydon, it worked. An hour after David Cameron visited, Boris turned up to look at destroyed shops.
"I'm very sorry about what happened. Thank you very much for coming," he told a crowd of 200 people.
Not everyone was pleased to see the mayor.
"He's not the hero. Don't love him, bruv," shouted one young man, who said people were struggling to pay their mortgages or fill their cars with petrol. "If shops are getting burst and people are walking past, take that shit, because no one is giving you shit."
The mayor grinned and fled beyond the police cordon.
4.14pm: Boris Johnson is speaking in Croydon now. He says he felt "ashamed" that people could feel such disdain for their neighbourhood as to burn down buildings there.
It's "just amazing" to see how a "tiny minority" in London can let down and frighten the rest, the mayor says. He says there is no "ideological justification" for the rioting, and repeats his view that he does not want to hear socio-economic reasons for the violence.
"London will cope brilliantly with the Olympics," he says. He calls this a "dark day" for the city – yet everything functioned perfectly on the day of the royal wedding, he says.
He says he wants rioters "to experience punishments that they will bitterly regret", and says "we will do our utmost to make sure nothing like this ever happens again".
4.13pm: Shops are shutting across Birmingham. The Bullring shopping centre is to close at 5pm.
4.12pm: Here is some more sports news, courtesy of PA:
Everton are waiting to discover whether Saturday's Barclays Premier League opener at Tottenham will go ahead after three nights of rioting in London. The borough of Haringey, in which White Hart Lane is situated, witnessed the start of the trouble on Saturday night and this weekend's game could join tomorrow's England friendly in being called off if police resources are needed elsewhere.
4.11pm: A taxi firm in Stoke Newington High Street has told Jasmine Coleman that police have asked them not to take more than four young people in their vehicles at a time.
They also say lots of their drivers are nervous about taking jobs — particularly to areas such as Lewisham and Enfield.
Manager Emre Agca said he was among the more than 100 people who chased down a group of 30 rioters at Dalston Junction at about 10.30pm last night. He also said he was ready to do it again tonight.
We saw police just getting attacked for nothing and they weren't able touch the kids so we ran towards them and they just ran away. I don't think they will come to Stoke Newington and Dalston again but we will be out again tonight.
4.03pm: Jessica Shepherd is in Notting Hill where shops are putting down the shutters after advice from police. Pubs, boutiques and cafes are closing. Some, like Pepe Jeans, didn't even open today, she says.
4.00pm: The London mayor, Boris Johnson — who was forced to return from holiday early by the riots — visited Clapham Junction, scene of some of the worst unrest, where he came under severe criticism from local residents complaining that they hadn't had enough protection from the police, Caroline Davies reports.
Straining to make his voice heard over the heckling, he thanked everybody who had come to clear up.
"That is the real spirit of London," he said, before telling those who owned a shop or business in the area "how very sorry I am for the loss and damage you have suffered".
But the local people gathered refused to be placated by his words shouting over him: "What happened?" and "where were the police?"
Shouting above them, the mayor tried to continue with his set speech, saying: "I also want to say to the people who have been involved in instigating these riots, those who have been robbing and stealing, that they will be caught, they will be apprehended and they will face punishments that they will bitterly regret."
But the heckling continued. "I know there are questions about the police response and about police numbers," he shouted over the noise. "I understand that, and we are certainly going to be dealing with those".
A woman interrupted: "You talk about robust policing. What does that actually mean?"
"Tonight we are going to have huge numbers of police on the streets," he replied.
"But where were they?" shouted another woman. "By 5pm we knew they were going to hit. I was in my salon when a brick came through the window, and no one was there to defend me".
The mayor replied: "I know, I know, I understand; that is why we are putting many more police on the street."
He continued: "It's time that people who are engaged in looting and violence stopped hearing economic and social justifications."
Further down the street he received a warmer response from up to 300 residents brandishing brooms and waiting for police to finish forensic examination and open up the road for cleaning.
They cheered him as he thanked everybody "for coming out today to help clear up the mess of last night".
When asked by one angry resident why he had not come home from his holiday earlier, the mayor replied: "I came as fast as I could."
3.58pm: The Metropolitan police has put up a "most wanted rioters" webpage, all from West Norwood and Croydon.
3.53pm: Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, has sent an email out asking parents in her constituency to keep their sons and daughter at home over the next few nights.
3.51pm: As Alex Hawkes reported earlier, businesses and home owners who have suffered losses as a result of the riots can claim it back, but they will have to act quickly, writes Maya Wolfe-Robinson.
According to David Turner QC, who specialises in professional liability, the situation does not need to be officially described as a riot for the Public Order Act 1986 to kick in. Section 10 provides that the terms "riot" and "riotously" in the Riot Act 1886 is when "12 or more persons who are present together use or threaten unlawful violence for a common purpose and the conduct of them (taken together) is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present to fear for his personal safety, each of the persons using unlawful violence for the common purpose is guilty of riot."
Under the 1886 Act, the Metropolitan Police Authority will be liable to pay compensation to those whose property has been damaged, destroyed or stolen in the rioting within London borders, but claims have to be made within 14 days after the day when the damage, destruction or theft occurred.
However, it is unclear whether "consequential losses" will be covered, ie where the loss of profit incurred as a result of property damage.
3.49pm: Sheila Pulham says many shops in the Nag's Head shopping area of Holloway are closed, including banks, mobile phone shops and the post office as well as Marks and Spencer and the James Selby department store. No cars are being allowed into the car park of the Morrisons store on Holloway Road, and there are five police officers at the nearby branch of Waitrose.
3.43pm: Alok Jha, who's on his way down Walworth Road towards Camberwell and Peckham, says things are very quiet, with almost every shop closed and a few groups of police here and there.
3.41pm: Computer hackers have defaced the official website of BlackBerry owner Research In Motion, in a retaliatory attack over the company's pledge to assist the police investigation into the London riots.
Our colleague Josh Halliday has more details:
The Inside BlackBerry blog was hacked into on Tuesday afternoon by a group calling themselves TeamPoison. In a statement posted on the BlackBerry website, the hackers said:
Dear RIM;
You Will _NOT_ assist the UK Police because if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all, the Police are looking to arrest as many people as possible to save themselves from embarrassment ... if you do assist the police by giving them chat logs, gps locations, customer information & access to peoples BlackBerryMessengers you will regret it, we have access to your database which includes your employees information; e.g – Addresses, Names, Phone Numbers etc. – now if u assist the police, we _WILL_ make this information public and pass it onto rioters…. do you really want a bunch of angry youths on your employees doorsteps? Think about it…. and don't think that the police will protect your employees, the police can't protect themselves let alone protect others….. if you make the wrong choice your database will be made public, save yourself the embarrassment and make the right choice. don't be a puppet..
p.s – we do not condone in innocent people being attacked in these riots nor do we condone in small businesses being looted, but we are all for the rioters that are engaging in attacks on the police and government…. and before anyone says "the blackberry employees are innocent" no they are not! They are the ones that would be assisting the police.
The hackers said they defaced the website "in response" to this statement made by RIM on Monday: "We feel for those impacted by the riots in London. We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can."
A spokesman for RIM said the firm was looking into the apparent website hack.
3.37pm: Here is a gallery of pictures you have sent us from the riots.
3.33pm: More than 30 people charged in connection with the riots have already appeared in court, Scotland Yard said today.
The latest figures released by the Metropolitan police show that 32 cases have already been heard in court, with 18 people remanded in custody.
It comes as a senior officer revealed that police and the CPS are considering using "virtual courts" to deal with high numbers of offenders.
In total, 525 arrests have been made across London in the last few days, and of those, 99 individuals have been charged.
3.28pm: This blog shows pictures of the damage in Croydon and the superstores of Purley Way.
Earlier in Peckham, Ed Miliband said issues that needed to be looked into were to do with "parenting, aspiration, and prospects for people ... but there is never any excuse" for this violence and the "immediate priority" was to restore public order.
He was asked whether he felt scared. He said:
The area I grew up in, Camden, the area I used to walk to school, has been one of the areas partially affected ... We cannot allow parts of London to have no-go areas.
3.26pm: My City colleague Rupert Neate tells us that Visit Britain, the UK's tourism authority, has pulled a video promoting Britain with the tag line "You're invited" from adverts running alongside BBC iPlayer programmes overseas.
A spokesman for Visit Britain said: "We have taken the videos down; they are not appropriate at this time."
The spokesman said there had been no reports of tourists leaving Britain early or cancelling trips to visit the capital. "At the moment these are isolated incidents occurring away from tourist attractions," he said.
3.23pm: Nick Clegg has been heckled and told to "go home" during a visit to Birmingham. Boris Johnson is still being aggressively heckled in Clapham Junction.
3.21pm: Henry McDonald, our Ireland correspondent, says that if the English police start firing plastic bullets to quell the rioting engulfing cities in Britain then they potentially risk opening a Pandora's box.
Paradoxically the reluctance thus far to deploy the anti-riot control weapon only confirms the view in Northern Ireland especially in working class republican communities that there is one law for one side of the Irish Sea and one law for the other in the United Kingdom.
According to the main indices of Ulster Troubles' deaths 17 people have lost their lives after being struck by rubber and latterly plastic bullets. Worrying still is the fact that eight out of these victims have been children.
Even during this summer's Ulster loyalist marching season the Police Service of Northern Ireland continued to deploy plastic baton rounds during riots in Belfast. Dozens of plastic bullets were fired during two night's of rioting at the edge of the republican Ardoyne area of north Belfast.
As the PSNI riot squad heavily protected in ninja-style armour and helmets with visors started letting off baton rounds and deploying water cannon on a small but dedicated gang of young republicans opposed to a loyalist march passing by Ardoyne on 12 July, a local priest contrasted the attitude of police in his city to those handling last autumn's violent student protests in central London.
"There would be an outcry if these types of weapons were used on the streets of Brixton, Toxteth or any English city," noted Fr Gary Donegan whose Holy Cross church was caught in the middle of the violence over those 48 hours.
We now await to see if the authorities in England are prepared to follow the PSNI's strategy in coping with rioters or not.
3.20pm: Julia Timms, a reporter from Channel 9 in Australia is in Streatham and says there is tension in the air. She said:
We've just seen seven or eight silver and ordinary police vans tearing down the street. Everybody in Streatham is boarding up and closing down. People are chucking water over the wood in case people set fire to their premises. It is very tense.
3.17pm: Reports say eBay will remove listings linked to the looting.
3.16pm: The Guardian has created a Crowdmap to connect people needing and offering help.
3.14pm: Theresa May, the home secretary, is speaking to people in Clapham Junction. She called the level of looting and violence "appalling". Police will be arresting people now because people need to know their actions have consequences, she says.
Boris Johnson is there too. The mayor says: "The city has been completely let down by a tiny number of people. We've got to reclaim the streets."
3.13pm: Ed Miliband, who's been to Peckham to visit riot-affected areas, has called for "firm action" from the police. The Labour leader said:
There must be no no-go areas and public order is the immediate priority. The public safety of our citizens, the ability for them to go about their business in a lawful way, is an absolute priority for any government and for any country.
There can be no excuses for the violence and the intimidation of people that we have seen over the last few days.
He also appealed for parents to keep their children at home:
Everyone has been shocked by the age of some of those involved in violence in recent days. Parents, many of whom will now be incredibly anxious, have a big role to play.
I say to mothers and fathers, make sure you know where your kids are, make sure they are at home tonight, away from any violent activity and safe.
3.12pm: The Metropolitan police is preparing for "mass disorder" this evening, according to Vikram Dodd.
3.11pm: My colleague Michael White has just sent over this statement from Jenny Jones, Green member of the London assembly and the party's candidate for mayor in 2012:
What we are seeing is mindless vandalism, spreading first within London, and now in other cities, with no regard at all for the safety of other people. Violence, arson and looting can never be justified. The actions by rioters are endangering people's lives. It's sheer luck that no one has died so far. The priority of the police has to be to protect the public in their own homes and businesses.
The vast majority of young people have nothing to do with this. But we do need to look at why the perpetrators of this violence are so alienated from society. This is about young people who deeply feel that they do not have a stake in society, some of whom were already engaged in criminal activity. Just as we have projects that engage with extremists to draw them back into mainstream society, we need to re-engage with alienated young people in a variety of ways, such as creating employment and training opportunities, advice, youth centres, and community services.
3.09pm: Back to Birmingham now, where, according to Martin Wainwright, the mood is very jumpy with shutters coming down over shopfronts and rumours of trouble swilling around:
The majority of local businesses are open but with groups of burly men standing outside, constantly on the phone, texting or tweeting.
"Pretty much everyone came down this morning determined to open," said one of a group outside Chohan jewellery shop. But you can see things aren't quite right with all these shutters and people open one minute and closed the next."
On the corner of Grove Road, police tapes sealed off the Handsworth branch of Lloyds bank whose staff have rather superfluously pasted the windows with notices saying: "Closed due to circumstances beyond our control."
Two policewomen chatted with passers-by in hot sunshine beside the ripped-out frames of the bank's two cash machines which had otherwise resisted a mob's attempts to break them open.
The area's mixture of normality and edginess was shown by the other two banks near the junction. The Nationwide is open as usual with only low profile security, but the NatWest is closed an shuttered.
The high street's Asian greengroceries were all trading busily, with families out shopping in the warm weather and plenty of children on school holidays darting about. Council benches in an area full of optimistic promotions of "Hands-On Handsworth - keep it clean and green" were full of older locals.
One of them, Theo Parker, a retired bus driver, said: "We're just like most people, bro. Just enjoying the lovely weather. This stuff last night, it's all to do with drugs and youth getting bored. Most of us get along here fine and that's the way we want it."
3.07pm: The family of Mark Duggan has given a statement following the opening of the inquest into his death. They said: "We want to establish the truth about Mark's death. The disorder going on has nothing to do with finding out what happened to Mark." They said they were "deeply distressed" by what had happened.
3.06pm: All is quiet in London Fields, Hackney, according to Mark Brown. Most of the shops have pre-emptively closed but the streets are busy with people going about their normal business.
3.06pm: Adrian Gatton, a freelance TV producer and journalist, has emailed a few stories from south London that seem to have gone unreported today. In Norbury, two dozen shops were looted or damaged along London: jewellers, a petrol station, cash converter shops, takeaways, tool shops, tile shops, a bike shop and a pizza takeaway shop. In West Croydon, kids hijacked cars and drove them at police, and shops were attacked. In Purley Way there was repeated and massive looting of big stores in a retail park. Walworth Road was also quite badly hit.
3.01pm: David Cameron is in Croydon looking at the damage there.
3.00pm: If plastic bullets are used tonight, BBC News is reporting that it would be the first time they are used on the mainland.
2.57pm: Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence party, has just been on BBC News saying David Cameron's announcement that parliament will be recalled on Thursday is almost like permission for 48 hours' more rioting. He is worried about the rest of the UK as officers from around the country are redirected to London, and calls for the army to be called out under police control.
2.57pm: There is reportedly a heavy police presence in Birmingham, where shops are closing early.
2.55pm: Jasmine Coleman tells us that the majority of shops are now closed in Kingsland High Street, Dalston, on police advice. There are a lot of officers around Dalston Kingsland station but no sign of riots yet.
2.53pm: Jacob Mukherjee sends this from Walthamstow, north-east London:
Palpable tension on Walthamstow High Street at the moment. Sainsbury's and Selbourne Walk shopping centre have closed, anticipating trouble. Groups of nervous security guards and shop assistants keep watch outside Sainsbury's and the mall; Asian and Turkish shops remain open, with their own makeshift security force of young and middle-aged men.
Here is a bit more from Ian Sample in Ealing:
Ealing police have drafted in support from areas, including neighbouring Acton, with some officers being called in on days off. An officer at the station on Uxbridge Road said he could not comment for fear of compromising the operation in progress but said the force was stretched. Another officer at Ealing confirmed that shops had been ordered shut as a precaution following intelligence that suggested the area might be targeted again this afternoon.
2.51pm: A few updates from our reporters around London.
Matthew Taylor, who's in Croydon, says shops are closing on police advice and a steady stream of people is heading out of the area via the train station.
Peter Beaumont, in the centre of Hackney, reports hundreds of police near the Empire and the Town Hall. He says he's never seen so many officers in the area — nor so many wearing the uniforms of so many different forces from around the country.
Ian Sample, meanwhile, sends this from Ealing, which is also in shutdown mode:
Fire engines are gathered in Ealing in west London to secure a building burned out by fire last night. Roads in the centre are closed to traffic and police are patrolling the streets as concerns spread of more violence this afternoon.
Earlier this afternoon, police ordered the Ealing shopping centre to shut, with hundreds of people being turned back into the streets. The centre is now shuttered until tomorrow morning. Opposite, the Arcadia shopping centre remains closed, its windows smashed and a traffic cone lodged in one panel of glass at the entrance.
Workers in hard hats are sweeping up fallen tiles from the burned out building that was set on fire last night.
Meanwhile, one of Liverpool's biggest shopping centres has decided to close early as a precaution:
Following recent events across the country, customers can expect stores at Liverpool One to close from 6pm today, rather than the usual closing time of 8pm, to allow staff to safely make their way home. The top priority at Liverpool One is always the safety of its staff and customers, and Liverpool One will be monitoring the situation closely in partnership with Merseyside police.
2.47pm: Harman says people in her Peckham constituency are saying that the young people out rioting and looting are not speaking for them. It is not a political demonstration, she says. "Nothing justifies somebody robbing an looting somebody else's business and frightening people on their own streets."
She refuses to be drawn on deeper motives or causes for the rioting right now. The first thing to do is sort out the situation. People don't want to hear "excuses", she says.
People are absolutely expecting that whatever measures need to be taken will be taken ... They don't want to have the fear that things are going to kick off in their neighbourhood.
2.45pm: Harriet Harman, the deputy Labour leader, is speaking now on BBC News. She says people's No 1 concern is to feel safe. They do not want to have to close their businesses at three o'clock.
2.44pm: Boris Johnson says he does not want to hear social and economic justifications for the rioting.
2.43pm: Boris Johnson is speaking in Clapham Junction. His message to the rioters is: "They will face punishments they will bitterly regret."
The mayor of London is facing a lot of heckling. People are asking where the police were yesterday.
2.30pm: Good afternoon and welcome to the Guardian's continuing live coverage of the unrest in London and the rest of Britain. The cleanup from last night's trouble is well under way, and preparations are being made for tonight. It's clear that the police, particularly in London, are preparing a far more robust response.
Here's a summary of events so far today.
• The riots that have plagued London for three consecutive nights have claimed their first life. A man shot in his car during last night's rioting in Croydon, south London, died after being admitted to hospital. He was discovered in a car suffering from gunshot wounds at about 9.15pm as trouble flared in the area.
• David Cameron has announced that 16,000 police officers will be deployed in London tonight, in an effort to get a grip on the violence. This is up from 6,000 the night before. The prime minister promised a tough response to any trouble tonight: "I have this very clear message to those people who are responsible for this wrongdoing and criminality: you will feel the full force of the law. If you are old enough to commit these crimes you are old enough to face the punishments."
• Police have disclosed that live baton rounds – non-lethal plastic bullets – may be deployed tonight. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Kavanagh of the Metropolitan police told our crime correspondent, Sandra Laville: "If we need to, we will do so." He said 525 people have been arrested since rioting began on Saturday, and about 100 have been charged.
• Rioting spread to other cities in Britain for the first time, with unrest in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Nottingham. West Midlands police made 138 arrests. Chief Constable Chris Sims said of the looting in the city centre: "This was not an angry crowd, this was a greedy crowd."
• A clean-up operation has got under way across London, with many residents turning out to help. A number of websites and Facebook groups have been set up to co-ordinate the volunteer forces.