UK police: Cops protected Olympics sites in riots (AP)

LONDON – British police revealed Tuesday that they sent officers to protect major shopping centers and the 2012 Olympics sites after intercepting phone and social network messages saying they were targets for rioters.

Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens of London's Metropolitan Police told a committee of lawmakers that police sent extra officers to London's Oxford Circus, two malls and the Olympic Park on Aug. 8 after seeing messages on Twitter and the BlackBerry devices of people who had been arrested for rioting.

Owens said that "through Twitter and BBM there was intelligence that the Olympic site, Westfields (shopping malls) and Oxford Street were going to be targeted."

"We were able to secure all those places and indeed there was no damage at any of them," she said, according to London's Evening Standard newspaper.

Police and politicians claim young criminals used Twitter and Blackberry's simple and largely cost-free messaging service to coordinate looting sprees during the riots.

The government has said it will debate whether cell phone services could be disrupted or blackouts imposed on social networks during riots — proposals that have already been fiercely opposed by civil libertarians.

The acting chief of London's police force, Tim Godwin, told Parliament's home affairs committee that police had considered seeking approval to switch off such services, but decided against it. He said the legality of such action was "very questionable," and social networks were a useful intelligence asset.

Police have arrested more than 3,000 people over riots that erupted Aug. 6 in north London and flared for four nights across the capital and other English cities.

A 16-year-old boy was ordered Tuesday to stand trial for the murder of a retiree attacked when he confronted rioters in London, as judges and prosecutors used tough punishment and name-and-shame tactics against hundreds of alleged participants in the mayhem.

The government said police would get better training and stronger powers to deal with a new and unpredictable era of street disturbances.

"We will make sure police have the powers they need," said Home Secretary Theresa May — including, she suggested, the power to impose blanket curfews in troubled areas.

A teenager, who has not been named because of his age, appeared in court Tuesday accused of killing 68-year-old Richard Bowes, who was found lying in a street during violence in Ealing, west London, on Aug. 8.

CCTV footage captured Bowes being punched and falling to the pavement after he tried to stamp out a fire set by rioters. He died of head injuries three days later.

The suspect, dressed in a black shirt and with his arms crossed, was charged with murder, violent disorder and the burglary of a bookmakers, a supermarket, a video store and a restaurant.

He did not enter a plea and was ordered detained as he awaits trial at the Central Criminal Court.

The boy's 31-year-old mother has been charged with obstructing the police investigation. She also was denied bail.

So far about 1,400 people have been charged with riot-related offenses. More than 1,200 have appeared in court — often in chaotic, round-the clock-sessions dispensing justice that is swifter, and harsher, than usual.

Although a public opinion favors stern punishment for rioters, a few cases have made headlines and sparked debate. A London man received six months in jail for stealing a case of water worth 3.5 pounds ($5) from a looted supermarket. A Manchester mother of two who did not take part in the riots was sentenced to five months for wearing a pair of looted shorts her roommate had brought home.

Most of the convicted suspects have been sent for sentencing to higher courts which have the power to impose longer terms of imprisonment. Two-thirds of the accused have not been granted bail. The usual rate for the magistrates' courts hearing their cases is 10 percent.

Although Prime Minister David Cameron said last week that those who participated in the riots should go to prison, the government denied trying to influence the judiciary.

The courts service said "sentencing is a matter for the independent judiciary," though it acknowledged that magistrates in London were being told by their legal advisers "to consider whether their powers of punishment are sufficient in dealing with some cases arising from the recent disorder."

May, the home secretary, said she had pressed prosecutors to lift anonymity from underage defendants convicted of riot-related offenses. Defendants under 18 are customarily offered anonymity by law, even if they are convicted.

Five people died during the unrest, including three men hit by a car in Birmingham, central England as they protected local shops from looters. Two men and a teenage boy have been charged with murdering Haroon Jahan, 20, and brothers Shazad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, 31.

Several suspects have also been questioned about the death of a man who was shot in the head during rioting in south London.

The Association of British Insurers has estimated the cost from wrecked and stolen property at 200 million pounds ($326 million) but expects the total to rise.

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David Stringer contributed to this report.

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UK's Cameron: will mend "broken society" after riots (Reuters)

WITNEY, England (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron Monday promised a law and order "fightback" and robust action to mend what he called Britain's broken society after riots and looting last week shocked Britons and tarnished its reputation abroad.

But he faced renewed questions over how far his plans to cut government spending may further alienate the young and the poor.

In a speech full of tough language likely to please his traditional Conservative supporters, Cameron vowed more "no-nonsense policing" and tougher sentencing to tackle gang culture and known troublemakers, and said he would to do more to promote families, boost discipline in schools and encourage hard work.

In north London, where riots began nine days ago, many welcomed his hard line -- but young people ushered in to hear his speech in rural Oxfordshire doubted it would do much to close a growing gap between rich and poor, or heal troubled communities facing his government's deep public spending cuts.

"We have been too unwilling for too long to talk about what is right and wrong," Cameron said in a speech at a youth center in his mostly affluent constituency of Witney, near Oxford.

More than 2,800 people have been arrested since a protest over a fatal shooting by police on August 4 prompted rioting and looting in the poor London district of Tottenham. That spread across the capital and sparked violence in other English cities.

Cameron, who returned from holiday abroad last week after days of unrest, is seeking to tap into widespread public anger over the violence. They came 15 months after he took office at the head of a center-right coalition committed to cuts in welfare and other spending that critics say will hit the poor.

FEARS

"I think he's right," Nicola Pastore, 26, told Reuters as she pushed a pram in Tottenham. "I don't think the police have enough control. My kids are scared to go to sleep at night."

Cameron, who faces criticism for plans to cut spending on police and for his management of the crisis, said the riots had been a "wake-up call" for Britain, whose reputation abroad was tarnished by the images of groups rampaging through its cities.

Behind him as he spoke was a graffiti-style mural centered on characters in the kind of hoods and masks worn by many looters.

The stakes are high for Cameron. Any repeat of last week's lawlessness, in which shops were smashed and set on fire and five people died, will sap public confidence in his government.

However, analysts say the 44-year-old premier, a former public relations executive from a wealthy establishment background, could benefit politically if he provides the tough law and order response some voters are seeking.

Cameron has taken a hard line in rhetoric. His speech on Monday talked of the dangers of indiscipline in schools and family breakdown, succor to traditional Conservatives who feel their young leader has been too liberal on social issues.

CUTS

Cameron and his center-left Liberal Democrat coalition partners will review their program over the coming weeks, looking at issues like welfare and substance addiction in an effort to promote more stable communities.

But the prime minister has ruled out easing spending cuts which some critics on the left say are fuelling tensions in Britain's cities, where the gap between rich and poor is gaping.

Planned austerity has put Cameron on a collision course with the police, still smarting over his criticism of their initial response to the riots. [ID:nL5E7JE04J] Police chiefs say a 20 percent cut in their budget over the next four years will make it harder for them to maintain law and order.

London's Conservative mayor, Boris Johnson, has also said now is not the time for cuts to spending on police.

But Cameron has refused to budge on plans to ease austerity measures, believing jittery financial markets will take fright at any sign of backtracking on plans to erase by 2015 a budget deficit that peaked at over 10 percent of national output.

DOUBTS

At Witney Ecumenical Youth Trust, where Cameron gave his speech, young people questioned how spending cuts squared with his plans to deal with social problems, and felt his speech created even more of a sense of 'them and us'.

Cameron was subjected to hostile whistling on arrival. After his televised speech, he took questions from journalists until a reporter chided him for not responding directly to young people in the audience. The prime minister later left to the sounds of hecklers clucking like chickens to accuse him of cowardice.

"He tried putting it across like everyone who's had a broken family was wrong. It's like he's having a dig at us," said Jesse Day, 19. She and her friends stressed the importance of community organizations like theirs -- a charity which relies on donations and which almost closed a few months ago.

"He says he wants people to get in touch with their families. But for some people, their families aren't there and the youth centre's the only people to talk to," said Ryan Clayton, 15. "But he's shutting all the youth centers."

Others in Witney welcomed Cameron's emphasis on behavior.

"I agree entirely," said 74-year-old Colin Bayliss.

"Discipline's gone out the window. The family identity has gone out the window. There's more single parents around. More people need to take responsibility for their families and their children."

Opposition Labor leader Ed Miliband said a lack of morality was not confined to a "feral underclass" but was also displayed by risk-taking bankers, legislators who fiddled their expenses and newspaper reporters who hacked telephones for stories -- all major topics of debate in Britain in the past couple of years.

"When we talk about the sick behavior of those without power, let's also talk about the sick behavior of those with it," he said in a speech at his old school in London Monday.

It was a line echoed by Cameron. Leaders are conscious that voters, disillusioned by what many see as a failure to punish bankers they hold responsible for the financial crisis, could take unkindly to being lectured by politicians, the press and police, all institutions hit by scandal in the recent past.

(Additional reporting by Keith Weir, Adrian Croft and Avril Ormsby; Editing by Jodie Ginsberg and Alastair Macdonald)

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UK government says must tackle social problems after riots (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain needs to tackle deep-seated social problems following riots and looting in English cities this week, the center-right government said on Saturday, and a U.S. street crime expert it has brought in said arrests alone would not solve the problem.

"There are communities that have just been left behind by the rest of the country. There are communities that are cut-off from the economic life-blood of the rest of the country," Finance Minister George Osborne said.

Prime Minister David Cameron, criticized by some in his Conservative party as being too liberal on crime and punishment, has taken a hard line on rioting in statements this week after returning from his summer holiday and recalling parliament.

He has also come under attack for austerity measures his government is introducing to tackle a huge debt burden.

Osborne said throwing money at the issue was not the answer and the government would press on with deep cuts to the numbers of police, who have been criticized by Cameron for their handling of the riots.

The Conservative mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has said the riots, which broke out a week ago after a demonstration against the police shooting of a suspect, weakened the case for those cuts.

Cameron has said political and economic grievances had little to do with days of looting and violence which followed in which five people were killed, calling it "criminality pure and simple" and saying gang violence lay at its heart.

He enlisted U.S. street crime expert William Bratton on Friday to advise the government on handling it.

Bratton, credited with curbing street crime as police chief in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, said he would offer advice based on his experience tackling gangs.

"You can't arrest your way out of the problem," he told U.S. broadcaster ABC on Saturday. "Arrest is certainly appropriate for the most violent, the incorrigible, but so much of it can be addressed in other ways and it's not just a police issue, it is in fact a societal issue."

Cities were largely quiet on Friday and Saturday. British police flooded the streets again to ensure weekend drinking does not reignite the rioting that shocked Britons and sullied the country's image a year before it hosts the Olympic Games.

More than 1,200 people have been arrested in connection with violence disorder and looting and hundreds have been charged. Police have set up screens in city centers showing pictures of suspects and plan to display them at soccer matches on Saturday.

THANKS

Tariq Jahan, whose 21-year-old son was one of three men who died in an apparent hit-and-run incident in Birmingham on Wednesday, told reporters he was "humbled" by the letters of support from people around the world.

"I also want to thank the young people in Birmingham for listening to what I had to say and staying calm," he said.

Osborne said lessons needed to be learned. "There are very deep-seated social problems which we need to tackle," he said in the interview with BBC radio.

"This about a far bigger challenge for our society which is dealing with people who we have ignored for too long and helping them feel they have a stake in society, feel that they know the difference between right and wrong, understand their responsibilities to other communities, not just their rights."

About 200 people took part in a demonstration on Saturday in north London calling for more support for youngsters living in grim and violent housing estates, a Reuters reporter said.

A ComRes poll for The Independent newspaper showed 54 percent of Britons say Cameron failed to provide leadership early enough to control the riots.

Most offenders are unemployed young men, though they have included a millionaire's daughter, a charity worker, a journalism student and a soldier.

The scale and ferocity of the rioting, not only in inner-city areas but also in some middle-class suburbs, has generated a debate with starkly different views, with many people saying the police should have been tougher.

The former leader of one of London's most feared street gangs said the riots were not the brainchild of gang leaders but, in many cases, the result of a build-up of frustration among young people growing up on grim housing estates with little hope.

"The fire's there, secured in a room, locked away and then someone's opened the door and it's spread through the house," Elijah Kerr, who transformed his gang into an organization helping young people, told Reuters in an interview.

(Additional reporting by Keith Weir and Stefano Abrogi in London and Ray Sanchez and Daniel Trotta in New York; Writing by Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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