The Sun:
Credit to top cops, says PM
DAVID Cameron yesterday backed down in a row with senior cops over who ordered tougher tactics that ended the riots.
The PM admitted it was police chiefs who decided to flood the streets with greater manpower.
On a visit to riot-hit Manchester, he said: "It's right that police took those decisions, changed tactics, and increased the number of officers." And he insisted that he never questioned riot cops' bravery.
Acting Met chief Tim Godwin had said political leaders "weren't there" when he changed tactics on Monday.
And Police Federation vice chairman Simon Reed dubbed any ministers' attempt to grab credit "a cheap shot" that "slighted police officers".
The PM has also asked top US cop Bill Bratton - who crushed LA's gangs - to work as a consultant for the British force.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Ed Miliband said his party's failure to tackle Britain's moral decay when in power contributed to the riots.
He said: "We did better at rebuilding the fabric of the country than the ethics."
Suspect's family are kicked out
A RIOT suspect and his family are being turfed out of their council home in the first case of its kind.
The mother of Daniel Sartain-Clarke, 18, was served an eviction notice by Wandsworth council, South London, yesterday.
The teenager, from Battersea, was remanded in custody charged with violent disorder and trying to loot electrical goods from a Currys in Clapham Junction.
Local authorities have powers to evict tenants if one member of the household is involved in crime.
Council bosses said they want the "strongest possible action" taken against rioters and looters.
Other councils across England are thought to be planning similar legal action.
Sartain-Clarke's mother, who also has a daughter, eight, said the eviction breached her human rights.
THE SAS is on extra alert amid fears extremists will use the riots as cover to launch a terror spectacular
Monday, September 19, 2011
August 13, England riots: Saturday night show of force
Show of force to deter Saturday night troubleBy Richard Hall
U.K. Independent
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Police forces around England will have an increased presence on the streets tonight to counter fears of more drink-fuelled trouble.
Forces in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham – the cities worst hit by riots – will stage shows of force to deter gangs from coming out on to the streets. Speaking during a visit to Enfield, north London, which was hit by rioters on Monday night, Home Secretary, Theresa May, said: "We will be sustaining the numbers for a period of time. We have had some quieter nights, but we are not complacent about that."
Ms May said officers would be brought in from areas not affected by the riots to help maintain levels if necessary. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police could not give exact numbers, but said: "We are operationally ready to deal with any disturbances."
Greater Manchester Police had "no intelligence" on any disturbances, but would maintain the numbers that have been out in the past few nights.
A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said they would have about 6,200 police out on the streets this weekend. "If suddenly we have indication that something is happening then we can increase [the numbers]," the spokeswoman said.
On a walkabout in Croydon yesterday, London Mayor, Boris Johnson, said "the right level of policing" was now in place in the capital.
U.K. Independent
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Police forces around England will have an increased presence on the streets tonight to counter fears of more drink-fuelled trouble.
Forces in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham – the cities worst hit by riots – will stage shows of force to deter gangs from coming out on to the streets. Speaking during a visit to Enfield, north London, which was hit by rioters on Monday night, Home Secretary, Theresa May, said: "We will be sustaining the numbers for a period of time. We have had some quieter nights, but we are not complacent about that."
Ms May said officers would be brought in from areas not affected by the riots to help maintain levels if necessary. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police could not give exact numbers, but said: "We are operationally ready to deal with any disturbances."
Greater Manchester Police had "no intelligence" on any disturbances, but would maintain the numbers that have been out in the past few nights.
A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said they would have about 6,200 police out on the streets this weekend. "If suddenly we have indication that something is happening then we can increase [the numbers]," the spokeswoman said.
On a walkabout in Croydon yesterday, London Mayor, Boris Johnson, said "the right level of policing" was now in place in the capital.
England riots: East End rioters and Olympics
August 13, 2011 India Real Time/WSJ report: [...] In a Thursday editorial, the Indian Express focused instead on what the riots mean for the London Olympic Games. It noted that “it would not be sensible to judge security arrangements for 2012 on the basis” of the recent nights of rioting, since security will be a lot tighter during the Olympics.
At the same time, it saw the rioting as evidence of the government’s failure to transform the spirit and youth of London’s East End, a traditionally working-class and multicultural area of the city. “If the purpose was to rebrand an entire swathe of one of the world’s greatest cities, to demonstrate the vibrancy of the communities that call it home, then the images that have been coming out of East London — particularly Hackney, one of the Games’ major locations — do tend to undermine the Olympic mission,” it said.
While it described the challenges the U.K. government has to face between now and the start of the Games as “susbstantial,” the editorial also said one should “never underestimate the ability of events like the Olympics to, indeed, build solidarity even within communities as stressed as those which produced East London’s young rioters. It seems London did not just want the Games. It needed them, too.”
At the same time, it saw the rioting as evidence of the government’s failure to transform the spirit and youth of London’s East End, a traditionally working-class and multicultural area of the city. “If the purpose was to rebrand an entire swathe of one of the world’s greatest cities, to demonstrate the vibrancy of the communities that call it home, then the images that have been coming out of East London — particularly Hackney, one of the Games’ major locations — do tend to undermine the Olympic mission,” it said.
While it described the challenges the U.K. government has to face between now and the start of the Games as “susbstantial,” the editorial also said one should “never underestimate the ability of events like the Olympics to, indeed, build solidarity even within communities as stressed as those which produced East London’s young rioters. It seems London did not just want the Games. It needed them, too.”
England riots: Egyptians advise British
From August 13 New York Times report, For Egyptians, British Riots Are a Mix of Familiar and Peculiar:
Six months after Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain recommended using the peaceful Egyptian revolution as a model lesson in his country’s schools, his words took on new relevance in the minds of many Egyptians as chaos gripped London, the capital of their country’s former colonial ruler.
“I hope Egyptians will stop calling themselves ‘uncivilized’ now,” Yasmine Gado, an Egyptian-American human rights lawyer, wrote in a Twitter posting about the riots.
Nour Ayman Nour, an activist and the son of an Egyptian presidential candidate, saluted the juxtaposition in a note on his Facebook page: “London Riots = beginning of the end to the sense of civil inferiority Egyptians have to the West :)”
At a British club in the Maadi district of Cairo, a vestige of colonialism in a neighborhood still crowded with Westerners, Sameh Zackaria, 25, an Egyptian doorman, said he felt newly proud of Egypt. “In a rich society like Great Britain, they should do better,” he said.
Many people could not decide which was more astonishing: the apparent avarice of the relatively affluent British rioters, or the uncanny familiarity of Mr. Cameron’s response. On Friday, he suggested restricting online social media like Twitter and Facebook, because they were bringing crowds of hooded young people together to loot and set fires, just as Mr. Mubarak once shut down the Internet in Egypt to stop the wave of protests.
“Mubarak didn’t come from an election box, but Mr. Cameron came from an election box,” Mr. Zackaria said.
Poverty and inequality helped fuel the revolution this winter in Egypt, where about half the population lives on the equivalent of less than $2 a day. But after the Egyptian police withdrew, there was only a night or two of looting in Cairo before people organized their own neighborhood brigades of volunteers to keep the peace.
In a torrent of Twitter postings, many Egyptians suggested the British should take a lesson.
“Dear tweeps in London,” an Egyptian activist, Ahmed Al Ish, wrote in a message to the British, “you can start forming neighborhood patrols to protect yourselves instead of panic on Twitter!!”
Another activist, Omar Barazi, wrote, “Egypt’s protesters are upholding democratic principles, while London’s rioters are holding-up plasma screens.”
Leaders around the region took the opportunity to enjoy the role reversal. In Libya, where Britain is among the leaders of a Western bombing campaign against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the deputy foreign minister, Khalid Kaim, appeared to mimic Western oratory when he told the state news agency that Mr. Cameron had “lost his legitimacy and must go.”
“These demonstrations show that the British people reject this government, which is trying to impose itself through force,” said Mr. Kaim, who called for action by the United Nations Security Council.
In Iran, criticized by British leaders for the brutal repression of protesters after a disputed election two years ago, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sounded outraged at the conduct of the British police. “What kind of a treatment is this for the people who run out of patience because of poverty and discrimination?” he said to reporters, according to the Reuters news agency. “I advise them to correct their savage behavior.”
Some in the streets of Cairo also seemed to enjoy a chance to patronize the British.
“This is an uncivilized attitude, and we as the Egyptian people condemn it,” said Hany Bahana, 44, owner of an importing company who was attending a demonstration on Friday in Tahrir Square, the center of the protests that toppled Mr. Mubarak. “We hope that the English people go back to their senses and reject violence.”
In both Tunis and Cairo, activists joked in Twitter postings that they should send teams of experienced revolutionaries to assist the British rioters. But others were more earnest. With their own struggles with riot police officers still fresh in their memory, many struggled to identify with the cause of the rioters in London and other cities, or even to claim it as one with their own.
“Comparisons with our great #egypt uprising and kids looting at #londonriots bother me,” Simon Hanna, a British Egyptian journalist in Cairo wrote. “But you cant ignore that inequality fueled both.”
“#Tunisia Started it, and #Egypt sparked it to the world,” an Egyptian named Ziad El Adawy wrote on his Twitter account. “ #LondonRiots be aware of your rights.”
Six months after Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain recommended using the peaceful Egyptian revolution as a model lesson in his country’s schools, his words took on new relevance in the minds of many Egyptians as chaos gripped London, the capital of their country’s former colonial ruler.
“I hope Egyptians will stop calling themselves ‘uncivilized’ now,” Yasmine Gado, an Egyptian-American human rights lawyer, wrote in a Twitter posting about the riots.
Nour Ayman Nour, an activist and the son of an Egyptian presidential candidate, saluted the juxtaposition in a note on his Facebook page: “London Riots = beginning of the end to the sense of civil inferiority Egyptians have to the West :)”
At a British club in the Maadi district of Cairo, a vestige of colonialism in a neighborhood still crowded with Westerners, Sameh Zackaria, 25, an Egyptian doorman, said he felt newly proud of Egypt. “In a rich society like Great Britain, they should do better,” he said.
Many people could not decide which was more astonishing: the apparent avarice of the relatively affluent British rioters, or the uncanny familiarity of Mr. Cameron’s response. On Friday, he suggested restricting online social media like Twitter and Facebook, because they were bringing crowds of hooded young people together to loot and set fires, just as Mr. Mubarak once shut down the Internet in Egypt to stop the wave of protests.
“Mubarak didn’t come from an election box, but Mr. Cameron came from an election box,” Mr. Zackaria said.
Poverty and inequality helped fuel the revolution this winter in Egypt, where about half the population lives on the equivalent of less than $2 a day. But after the Egyptian police withdrew, there was only a night or two of looting in Cairo before people organized their own neighborhood brigades of volunteers to keep the peace.
In a torrent of Twitter postings, many Egyptians suggested the British should take a lesson.
“Dear tweeps in London,” an Egyptian activist, Ahmed Al Ish, wrote in a message to the British, “you can start forming neighborhood patrols to protect yourselves instead of panic on Twitter!!”
Another activist, Omar Barazi, wrote, “Egypt’s protesters are upholding democratic principles, while London’s rioters are holding-up plasma screens.”
Leaders around the region took the opportunity to enjoy the role reversal. In Libya, where Britain is among the leaders of a Western bombing campaign against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the deputy foreign minister, Khalid Kaim, appeared to mimic Western oratory when he told the state news agency that Mr. Cameron had “lost his legitimacy and must go.”
“These demonstrations show that the British people reject this government, which is trying to impose itself through force,” said Mr. Kaim, who called for action by the United Nations Security Council.
In Iran, criticized by British leaders for the brutal repression of protesters after a disputed election two years ago, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sounded outraged at the conduct of the British police. “What kind of a treatment is this for the people who run out of patience because of poverty and discrimination?” he said to reporters, according to the Reuters news agency. “I advise them to correct their savage behavior.”
Some in the streets of Cairo also seemed to enjoy a chance to patronize the British.
“This is an uncivilized attitude, and we as the Egyptian people condemn it,” said Hany Bahana, 44, owner of an importing company who was attending a demonstration on Friday in Tahrir Square, the center of the protests that toppled Mr. Mubarak. “We hope that the English people go back to their senses and reject violence.”
In both Tunis and Cairo, activists joked in Twitter postings that they should send teams of experienced revolutionaries to assist the British rioters. But others were more earnest. With their own struggles with riot police officers still fresh in their memory, many struggled to identify with the cause of the rioters in London and other cities, or even to claim it as one with their own.
“Comparisons with our great #egypt uprising and kids looting at #londonriots bother me,” Simon Hanna, a British Egyptian journalist in Cairo wrote. “But you cant ignore that inequality fueled both.”
“#Tunisia Started it, and #Egypt sparked it to the world,” an Egyptian named Ziad El Adawy wrote on his Twitter account. “ #LondonRiots be aware of your rights.”
London riots: Neighbours mount anti-gang patrols
London riots: Neighbours mount anti-gang patrols amid fears of far-right agitation
Homeowners and shopkeepers took to the streets last night to protect their neighbourhoods from the gangs amid concerns far-right groups are attempting to take advantage of community tensions. [...]
Homeowners and shopkeepers took to the streets last night to protect their neighbourhoods from the gangs amid concerns far-right groups are attempting to take advantage of community tensions. [...]
England riots: Pay issues for riot-damaged shops
England riots: Pay issues for riot-damaged shops
12 August 2011 Last updated at 07:41 ET
Businesses that were damaged and closed as a result of riots in English towns and cities might still have to pay the wages of staff.
Only those who have a "lay-off clause" in their contract will have work and pay halted as a result of the problems, lawyers have explained.
And one lawyer said it could be difficult for employers to sack the rioters themselves.
The government has announced a fund to assist businesses to rebuild.
Deadline
The unrest, which began on Saturday before spreading to various areas of England in the following nights, left many homes and businesses damaged. Insurers have promised to get the rebuilding process under way swiftly.
Uninsured firms and householders will be able to make a claim to their local police authority under the Riot Damages Act to cover the cost of getting their property back to normal.
On Thursday, Prime Minister David Cameron said that a £20m support scheme would assist in paying for this, while the deadline for claims would be extended from 14 to 42 days.
But businesses might still have to pay staff, or be "creative" in working around temporary closures, according to Peter Mooney, head of consultancy at the Employment Law Advisory Service Limited.
Many employees would not have a lay-off clause in their contracts and so should continue to be paid.
But employers should talk to these members of staff, perhaps encouraging them to bring forward any paid leave instead, he said.
Meanwhile, Andrew Brown, a senior solicitor in Anderson Strathern LLP's employment unit, said that some businesses might find it difficult to sack anyone involved in the riots or looting for misconduct.
This was because it occurred outside the workplace and might not directly affect the reputation of the business.
12 August 2011 Last updated at 07:41 ET
Businesses that were damaged and closed as a result of riots in English towns and cities might still have to pay the wages of staff.
Only those who have a "lay-off clause" in their contract will have work and pay halted as a result of the problems, lawyers have explained.
And one lawyer said it could be difficult for employers to sack the rioters themselves.
The government has announced a fund to assist businesses to rebuild.
Deadline
The unrest, which began on Saturday before spreading to various areas of England in the following nights, left many homes and businesses damaged. Insurers have promised to get the rebuilding process under way swiftly.
Uninsured firms and householders will be able to make a claim to their local police authority under the Riot Damages Act to cover the cost of getting their property back to normal.
On Thursday, Prime Minister David Cameron said that a £20m support scheme would assist in paying for this, while the deadline for claims would be extended from 14 to 42 days.
But businesses might still have to pay staff, or be "creative" in working around temporary closures, according to Peter Mooney, head of consultancy at the Employment Law Advisory Service Limited.
Many employees would not have a lay-off clause in their contracts and so should continue to be paid.
But employers should talk to these members of staff, perhaps encouraging them to bring forward any paid leave instead, he said.
Meanwhile, Andrew Brown, a senior solicitor in Anderson Strathern LLP's employment unit, said that some businesses might find it difficult to sack anyone involved in the riots or looting for misconduct.
This was because it occurred outside the workplace and might not directly affect the reputation of the business.
Portrait of England rioters emerges from court cases
Portrait of UK rioters emerges in round-the-clock court cases
Arrested include those with criminal records, a gifted runner, college students; nearly 600 charged with violence in London
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 8/12/2011 6:19:10 AM ET 2011-08-12T10:19:10
LONDON — Portraits of those accused of violence, disorder and looting began to emerge Friday after another day of round-the-clock court hearings in London, Birmingham and Manchester for alleged offenders in Britain's worst unrest in decades.
They included suspects with criminal records, but also a teenage ballerina, the mother of a 6-week-old child, college students, and a gifted track and field athlete who has served as a youth ambassador for the London 2012 Olympics.
Meanwhile, police flooded the streets to maintain an uneasy peace. No major incidents of disorder were reported overnight Thursday.
Steve Kavanagh, deputy assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, said 16,000 officers would remain on duty in the capital on Friday. That is their biggest peacetime deployment and compares with a normal figure of around 2,500.
London police said Friday they have charged almost 600 people with violence, disorder and looting. Across the country, more than 1,700 people have been arrested.
Hundreds of stores were looted, buildings were set ablaze and several people died amid the mayhem that broke out Saturday in London and spread over four nights across England.
Victims include three men in Birmingham run down by a car as they defended their neighborhood. Police are questioning three suspects on suspicion of murder.
Detectives also opened a murder inquiry after a 68-year-old a man who confronted rioters on a London street died of his injuries late Thursday. A 22-year-old man was arrested Friday on suspicion of murder.
Grace of a grieving father speaks to a wounded Britain
Little leniency
The court system has shown little leniency in dealing with those accused of the participating in the unrest.
According to The Guardian, most judges considered the maximum punishment available to magistrates in lower courts — six months in prison and about $8,100 — to be insufficient for the alleged offenders. The cases were generally referred to higher courts, where they will be heard before a jury.
Few suspected rioters were granted bail.
Eighteen-year-old Chelsea Ives, a talented runner who has been pictured with lawmakers and sports stars in the House of Commons, was charged with rioting in east London after her mother saw her throwing bricks at a police car on television.
She even boasted that she had "the best day ever," the court was told, according to The Telegraph. In her role as an Olympics ambassador, she has met London Mayor Boris Johnson and London Olympics chief Sebastian Coe, the paper said.
"It was gut-wrenching but it was right. What could normal, honest parents do?" her mother Adrienne Ives told The Daily Express.
Video: Student recovering after attack in London riots
In the northern city of Manchester, 47-year-old Gary Herriot, who has 126 previous convictions, was found with $1,600 worth of jewelry, a court heard. He pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods and is set to be sentenced later, the Express said.
An 11-year-old girl in the central city of Nottingham was accused of being part of a "large scale rampage" when she hurled stones at windows, according to The Telegraph. She reportedly admitted to her part in the unrest and refused to apologize in court.
The girl was referred to a youth offender panel and she and her father were ordered to cooperate with local youth authorities, the paper said.
One person to hand herself in was a 17-year-old girl who had been doing ballet since she was a young child and aspired to be a dance teacher. Although she did not enter a plea, she turned herself in to police after seeing a photograph from CCTV of herself looting an electrical shop in Croydon, south London. Prosecutors say she was pictured stealing flat screen TVs from a store that lost $310,000 worth of property and suffered $24,400 in damages, The Guardian reported.
In south London, 23-year-old Nicholas Robinson, an electrical engineering student with no criminal record, was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to stealing bottles of water worth $5, The Guardian reported.
College graduate Natasha Reid, 24, handed herself in because she was "unable to sleep" after looting a television from an electrical store. She was warned that despite her remorse she could still face jail.
A millionaire's daughter, Laura Johnson, 19, was being held in jail after she appeared in court in Bexley near London after being arrested behind the wheel of a car filled with stolen electrical goods and alcohol worth some $7,500.
Ahmed Farah, 27, a journalism student, was refused bail after being charged with possession of a knife in Hackney, east London, scene of the some of the worst rioting in the capital.
Other cases reported included that of 20-year-old dental nurse Shereece Ashley, who was jailed for three months after leaving her infant son at home to join looters at a London store where she took a television and a DVD player; Linda Boyd, 31, who had 96 previous convictions for theft, will be sentenced next week over accusations that she stole alcohol, cigarettes and cellphone accessories in Manchester; and 16 defendants in northwest London accused of violent disorder for smashing windows and robbing diners at a cafe.
Too soft?
Police, meanwhile, hit back against claims they were too soft in their initial response to the disorder.
Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, acknowledged that police had faced "an unprecedented situation, unique circumstances" — but said it was police themselves, rather than "political interference," that got the situation under control.
"The more robust policing tactics you saw were not a function of political interference," he told the BBC. "They were a function of the numbers being available to allow the chief constables to change their tactics."
Britain's Parliament held an emergency debate on the riots Thursday, with Prime Minister David Cameron promising authorities would get strong powers to stop street mayhem from erupting again.
He said authorities were considering new powers, including allowing police to order thugs to remove masks or hoods, evicting troublemakers from subsidized housing and temporarily disabling cell phone instant messaging services.
Former NYC top cop to be consulted?
Cameron told lawmakers that he would look to cities like Boston for inspiration, and mentioned former Los Angeles, New York and Boston Police Chief William Bratton as a person who could offer advice.
Story: Cameron denies budget cuts caused UK riots
Bratton said in a statement he'd be "pleased and honored" to provide services and counsel in any capacity, adding that he loves London and has worked with British police for nearly 20 years.
A Downing Street spokeswoman denied a British tabloid report that Bratton has been “taken on” by Cameron as an “adviser.”
“The PM might meet with him but I wouldn’t say he’s been taken on in any formal capacity,” she told msnbc.com.
Cameron also said the government, police and intelligence services were looking at whether there should be limits on the use of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook or services like BlackBerry Messenger to spread disorder.
BlackBerry's simple and largely free messaging service was used by rioters to coordinate their activities, Cameron's office said.
Story: UK may disrupt social networks during unrest
Any move to disable the services temporarily is likely to be strongly opposed by civil libertarians.
The scale and ferocity of the rioting — not only in inner-city areas but also in some middle-class suburbs — has battered Britain's image as a civilized and peaceful society.
Reuters, The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
Arrested include those with criminal records, a gifted runner, college students; nearly 600 charged with violence in London
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 8/12/2011 6:19:10 AM ET 2011-08-12T10:19:10
LONDON — Portraits of those accused of violence, disorder and looting began to emerge Friday after another day of round-the-clock court hearings in London, Birmingham and Manchester for alleged offenders in Britain's worst unrest in decades.
They included suspects with criminal records, but also a teenage ballerina, the mother of a 6-week-old child, college students, and a gifted track and field athlete who has served as a youth ambassador for the London 2012 Olympics.
Meanwhile, police flooded the streets to maintain an uneasy peace. No major incidents of disorder were reported overnight Thursday.
Steve Kavanagh, deputy assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, said 16,000 officers would remain on duty in the capital on Friday. That is their biggest peacetime deployment and compares with a normal figure of around 2,500.
London police said Friday they have charged almost 600 people with violence, disorder and looting. Across the country, more than 1,700 people have been arrested.
Hundreds of stores were looted, buildings were set ablaze and several people died amid the mayhem that broke out Saturday in London and spread over four nights across England.
Victims include three men in Birmingham run down by a car as they defended their neighborhood. Police are questioning three suspects on suspicion of murder.
Detectives also opened a murder inquiry after a 68-year-old a man who confronted rioters on a London street died of his injuries late Thursday. A 22-year-old man was arrested Friday on suspicion of murder.
Grace of a grieving father speaks to a wounded Britain
Little leniency
The court system has shown little leniency in dealing with those accused of the participating in the unrest.
According to The Guardian, most judges considered the maximum punishment available to magistrates in lower courts — six months in prison and about $8,100 — to be insufficient for the alleged offenders. The cases were generally referred to higher courts, where they will be heard before a jury.
Few suspected rioters were granted bail.
Eighteen-year-old Chelsea Ives, a talented runner who has been pictured with lawmakers and sports stars in the House of Commons, was charged with rioting in east London after her mother saw her throwing bricks at a police car on television.
She even boasted that she had "the best day ever," the court was told, according to The Telegraph. In her role as an Olympics ambassador, she has met London Mayor Boris Johnson and London Olympics chief Sebastian Coe, the paper said.
"It was gut-wrenching but it was right. What could normal, honest parents do?" her mother Adrienne Ives told The Daily Express.
Video: Student recovering after attack in London riots
In the northern city of Manchester, 47-year-old Gary Herriot, who has 126 previous convictions, was found with $1,600 worth of jewelry, a court heard. He pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods and is set to be sentenced later, the Express said.
An 11-year-old girl in the central city of Nottingham was accused of being part of a "large scale rampage" when she hurled stones at windows, according to The Telegraph. She reportedly admitted to her part in the unrest and refused to apologize in court.
The girl was referred to a youth offender panel and she and her father were ordered to cooperate with local youth authorities, the paper said.
One person to hand herself in was a 17-year-old girl who had been doing ballet since she was a young child and aspired to be a dance teacher. Although she did not enter a plea, she turned herself in to police after seeing a photograph from CCTV of herself looting an electrical shop in Croydon, south London. Prosecutors say she was pictured stealing flat screen TVs from a store that lost $310,000 worth of property and suffered $24,400 in damages, The Guardian reported.
In south London, 23-year-old Nicholas Robinson, an electrical engineering student with no criminal record, was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to stealing bottles of water worth $5, The Guardian reported.
College graduate Natasha Reid, 24, handed herself in because she was "unable to sleep" after looting a television from an electrical store. She was warned that despite her remorse she could still face jail.
A millionaire's daughter, Laura Johnson, 19, was being held in jail after she appeared in court in Bexley near London after being arrested behind the wheel of a car filled with stolen electrical goods and alcohol worth some $7,500.
Ahmed Farah, 27, a journalism student, was refused bail after being charged with possession of a knife in Hackney, east London, scene of the some of the worst rioting in the capital.
Other cases reported included that of 20-year-old dental nurse Shereece Ashley, who was jailed for three months after leaving her infant son at home to join looters at a London store where she took a television and a DVD player; Linda Boyd, 31, who had 96 previous convictions for theft, will be sentenced next week over accusations that she stole alcohol, cigarettes and cellphone accessories in Manchester; and 16 defendants in northwest London accused of violent disorder for smashing windows and robbing diners at a cafe.
Too soft?
Police, meanwhile, hit back against claims they were too soft in their initial response to the disorder.
Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, acknowledged that police had faced "an unprecedented situation, unique circumstances" — but said it was police themselves, rather than "political interference," that got the situation under control.
"The more robust policing tactics you saw were not a function of political interference," he told the BBC. "They were a function of the numbers being available to allow the chief constables to change their tactics."
Britain's Parliament held an emergency debate on the riots Thursday, with Prime Minister David Cameron promising authorities would get strong powers to stop street mayhem from erupting again.
He said authorities were considering new powers, including allowing police to order thugs to remove masks or hoods, evicting troublemakers from subsidized housing and temporarily disabling cell phone instant messaging services.
Former NYC top cop to be consulted?
Cameron told lawmakers that he would look to cities like Boston for inspiration, and mentioned former Los Angeles, New York and Boston Police Chief William Bratton as a person who could offer advice.
Story: Cameron denies budget cuts caused UK riots
Bratton said in a statement he'd be "pleased and honored" to provide services and counsel in any capacity, adding that he loves London and has worked with British police for nearly 20 years.
A Downing Street spokeswoman denied a British tabloid report that Bratton has been “taken on” by Cameron as an “adviser.”
“The PM might meet with him but I wouldn’t say he’s been taken on in any formal capacity,” she told msnbc.com.
Cameron also said the government, police and intelligence services were looking at whether there should be limits on the use of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook or services like BlackBerry Messenger to spread disorder.
BlackBerry's simple and largely free messaging service was used by rioters to coordinate their activities, Cameron's office said.
Story: UK may disrupt social networks during unrest
Any move to disable the services temporarily is likely to be strongly opposed by civil libertarians.
The scale and ferocity of the rioting — not only in inner-city areas but also in some middle-class suburbs — has battered Britain's image as a civilized and peaceful society.
Reuters, The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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