Social media blamed for London riots

A second night of violence has swept London with riots breaking out in different parts of the city, in what has been described as an “organized manner.”
Youths gathered in Enfield in North London, some of them responding to calls on Twitter and Facebook to meet.

Nick de Bois, Conservative MP for Enfield North, said the disorder in Enfield was encouraged via social media websites:

"There seems to have been a very well organized campaign over social media to try to engineer trouble here in Enfield. It has almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy," he told London radio.

"There is no element of injustice that they are here for. They are here quite simply to cause trouble, to hurt local businesses and shops. This is nothing more than illegal criminal behavior and I just hope that if the police conclude their investigation that they do make arrests and those that are guilty receive a serious punishment from the courts."

According to the BBC police have described the second night of rioting as a wave of "copycat criminal activity" following Saturday night’s riots in Tottenham.

Journalist Paraic O'Brien told BBC 5 live he had witnessed widespread looting in Brixton.

He said: "They smashed a William Hill, they set bins on fire….And now what we're seeing as the night progresses is that replicated, sort of flash points all along Brixton High Street.

"I've seen a Vodafone looted, I've seen a Footlocker looted and set on fire, I've seen Marks & Spencers attacked.
"I've seen a striking number of mobile phone stockists that have been targeted.
"I'm standing outside Halfords on the other side of the road and they've just smashed through the doors of Halfords. They're taking bikes out the front entrance.
"I have to say, what really struck me was the small number of police officers that there actually seem to be on Brixton High Street responding to this."

Eight officers were hospitalized after a protest against the shooting death of a young man blew up into a full-scale riot on Saturday, torching a double-decker bus, destroying patrol cars and trashing a shopping mall, the AP reported.