Police say more must be done to prevent looting organised online
In 2011, rioters used the BlackBerry messaging app to organise looting across the country. Twelve years on, and with BlackBerry a fading memory, young troublemakers are now apparently using video-sharing apps like TikTok to arrange public disorder.
These apps make it easy for people to set up mass events – sometimes called ‘flash mobs’ – with a few hours’ notice. Several “shoplifting rampage” events were promoted this way in the early weeks of August.
The messages urged people to turn up to London’s Oxford Street at a specific time. They even suggested a dress code for the event, and said “Don’t come if you can’t run”.
Hundreds of wannabe shoplifters duly turned up, attacking shop staff as they tried to loot stores. Police arrested nine people and gave 34 people dispersal orders to exclude them from around Oxford Street. Similar events were organised in Bexleyheath in south-east London and Southend.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the violence “appalling” and said anyone taking part in future looting will be “met with the full force of the law”.
Some police bosses have blamed social-media sites for not doing enough to prevent users from encouraging disorder. Donna Jones (pictured right), the new chairwoman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and PCC for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, called for TikTok to investigate its role in organising gatherings and harmful challenges.
She said there could be “consequences” for apps if they don’t govern videos effectively, and that fining them is “something the Government should be looking at.”
But she also said parents should “get a grip” to warn their children about the dangers of using social media.
“It’s not for the police to instil a sense of what is right and wrong, it is for the parents,” Jones said. “Parents have a responsibility to sit down and speak to these kids about what is going on TikTok, how these things are not fun, people will die, it is not sensible to do this and don’t feel the peer pressure that you have to.”
“This is taking up much needed ambulance time, police time and of course we can’t afford for that to happen and I think parents need to get involved,” she added. Jones wants magistrates to fine youngsters who join looters so parents realise there is a cost to their behaviou
