Photo by Kenny from KicFM: the Express and Star hasn't got anything up despite its head office being less than 50 metres from the riot. KIC's funding is under threat: go figure.
If you're reading this, rioters, help yourselves to the olives, but please leave the books and records alone.
In all seriousness though, the original cause - the shooting of a man - has been left far behind. We're into the realms of mass psychology. A soup of causes are behind this: pent-up frustration at 'authority', aimlessness, a paucity of proper political outlets, social decay and some latent aggression.
I see a lot of people are claiming that RIM Blackberries are somehow to blame - rather than Twitter or other media - and wonder why that might be. OK, Blackberry Messenger is supposedly encrypted, though you can bet that the police have full access to them. The real reason is very simple: Blackberries are given out free to teenagers on mobile phone contracts to tempt them away from iPhones. Blackberry Messenger is free, whereas Twitter requires a more expensive contract. That's how you can guess the age and economic background of the rioters.
