Riots spread across London - Forbes (blog)

The riots continue and spread:

In Hackney, a multi-ethnic area in east London close to the site of next year's Olympic Games, hooded youths set fire to rubbish bins and pushed them down a street towards police, while hurling bottles and bricks.

Many laughed as they ran back when police charged them. Others shouted into their cellphones telling their friends to join in.

via Riots spread across London on third night of violence – UK – FRANCE 24.

How much longer will the media claim it's all about the economy, as if to excuse this behavior, as if to say "what do you expect when people are out of work?"  Civilized people, ladies and gentlemen, do not burn down buildings, throw bottles at policemen,  and steal from their neighbors just because they cannot find a job.  One wonders, even, how hard most of these kids have even tried.  (My guess: not very.)

Much of the activity is being spread via Blackberry messaging.  Can Blackberry turn off service? Should they? At what point does "free speech" end? When does crying "fire" in a crowded movie theater become the same as setting fire to the streets where the movie theaters stand?

A small group of people said they had barricaded themselves inside the 110-year-old Hackney Empire theatre to escape the violence.

"We are stuck inside," said one person, who did not give her name, in a telephone conversation with Reuters.

"We don't want to be near the windows. They seem to be targeting shops at the moment. It's very scary." "We are in the back of the building, staying away from the front. We have barricaded the doors and put chains on the doors."

(apologies for format glitches)