This is my favorite stupid statement so far, from Kit Malthouse, deputy mayor for policing in London:

He defended Boris Johnson's decision to stay on holiday during the crisis in the capital, saying:

"Should he be reacting to these criminal provocateurs in that way by coming back? I think that is kind of rewarding them.

Yeah. Like they're two year olds having a tantrum.

Money quote:

I think it is worth stressing that this is quite a small group of people within our community in London who have decided to perpetrate violence and who, frankly, are looking for stuff to nick.

"They're picking particular kinds of stores, whether it is because they want a new set of trainers or whatever it is.

::cues Run-DMC's "My Adidas"::

They want to make sure that they make no connection between the unrest in say, Greece, with what is happening in London.

Right. Completely unrelated that when the poorer end of the economic spectrum erupts after being forced to bear the brunt of consequences for high finance shenanigans.

Aha! It's Blackberry's fault!

******

In recent public disturbances such as the Student protests, commentary has focused on the role that social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have played in the planning of demonstrations and coordination of protesters. By contrast in this riot it appears the social network of choice is one provided by none other than BlackBerry.

Blackberry's have been produced by Research In Motion (RIM) since 1999. They were originally associated with busy office executives who needed to access their emails on the move, but in recent years they have become increasingly popular within youth and urban cultures. I have to admit that I found this puzzling. It took my far cooler 17 year old nephew to explain that the main reason for their popularity is due to BBM – BlackBerry Messenger.

BBM as it is known, is an instant messenger system that has become popular for three main reasons: it's fast (naturally), it's virtually free, and unlike Twitter or Facebook, it's private.

So what has all this got to do with the riots in Tottenham?

Well, it appears that BBM messages have been circulating since Thursday's shooting of Duggan by the police. These have fuelled the anger of the youths that have taken to the streets. BBM was also the channel used to spread the word that the riot had started, and from what I can tell on Twitter, it appears to be the means by which communications continue to be shared.

Should he be reacting to these criminal provocateurs in that way by coming back? I think that is kind of rewarding them.

...The fuck?

The mayor of London is a giant asshole, to be fair.

Yeah, I was going to post that thing about Blackberry. Apparently Blackberries are the preferred phone for young people in the UK and the Blackberry Messenger plan is free, unlike SMS. It's also not public, so any coordination that did take place took place out of the public eye.

Consuela, any chance that the screw of your job filling could leave you with the opportunity to pull out all the stops wrt pointing out nemesis failings?

After I get rehired, there will be a Talk with my boss. And possibly a phone call to the whistleblower line: some of the shit that rumor reports her doing is pretty dubious ethically.

OMG, why are politicians so stupid! Bush not being on the ground after Katrina completely undermined the credibility of his administration. Yet...

There have been complaints that the government did not have a senior minister in London at the weekend when the rioting broke out. But Clegg insisted that senior members of the cabinet had been in regular contact by phone.

'I reject completely this notion that somehow this Government hasn't been functioning very effectively,' said Clegg, who said that he had spoken to David Cameron, who is on holiday in Italy, by phone this morning.

Don't they give politicians a training session on political capital and being seen immediately after a crisis?

So. Fucking. Stupid.

The NYTimes connects the dots in the London riot.

Frustration in this impoverished neighborhood, as in many others in Britain, has mounted as the government’s austerity budget has forced deep cuts in social services. At the same time, a widely held disdain for law enforcement here, where a large Afro-Caribbean population has felt singled out by the police for abuse, has only intensified through the drumbeat of scandal that has racked Scotland Yard in recent weeks and led to the resignation of the force’s two top commanders.

There's trouble in Bristol, Birmingham, and Liverpool also: [link]

It is not confirmed yet, but a woman may have ended up jumping from a burning building. The reason I say "may" is that so far it is in tabloids that are not above making shit up.