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Cost of riots counted; social media to blame?

By Holly Jones | August 10, 2011

Riot police at Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. Photo: hozinja
Riot police at Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. Photo: hozinja
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has announced that it expects the cost of the riots in London and various other UK cities to come to “tens of millions of pounds”.

Nick Starling, director general of ABI, said: "It is too early for us to have an accurate picture of total costs, especially business interruption costs, but insurers are working hard to deal with claims coming in which will give a sense of the level and cost of damage.”

The impact on insurance companies is likely to be increased as under British law, the police are liable for any damage caused to property by riots. This is explained by Stuart White, a partner at law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, as "The theory is that the police are responsible for keeping law and order and, if they fail, they pay for the damage."

Although some police forces are insured against this type of incident, any expenses incurred will cut further into their already-restricted budgets following the public spending cuts.

In the meantime, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) is calling for reassurances on several issues, mainly that the fire and police services have the resources and equipment to deal with further incidents, and that shopkeepers will receive adequate protection and assistance before, during and after any attacks.

Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC, said: “Targeting local shops as an expression of anger and frustration is mindless. These criminal acts destroy community resources, hurting local businesses and threatening people's jobs. Staff are being intimidated and traumatised. Those responsible must be prosecuted and punished. Retailers and their staff are particularly vulnerable and need protecting.

“I'm reassured that many people have expressed their disgust at the events of the past few days. I hope they'll join retailers in doing all they can to rebuild their neighbourhoods.”

There have been many questions regarding the role of social media in the organisation of the riots. It is understood that looters are primarily organising their activities via Blackberry Messenger, although some have also been found using Twitter and Facebook.

As well as organising times and places for riots, some are using the various mediums to update others of where police are currently located and to request reinforcements. It seems that the traditional media has been particularly quick to blame social media.

Mark Shaw, social media expert and author of Twitter Your Business, said: “Across the world, social media has been used to highlight injustice and abuses to basic human freedoms, but in London it is a tragedy to see a small minority has abused it to get themselves a free TV.

“Traditional media don’t like social media because it is real time whereas print media is out of date by the time you read it. For this reason there is an agenda to discredit things like Twitter.”

Jemima Gibbons, social media strategist and author of Monkeys with Typewriters, said: “I think now we're seeing the true nature of social media coming into play. Until now, people have been commenting on the sidelines - either simply reporting what's happening, complaining or just lamenting the fact that the riots are taking place.

“Now it's stepped up a gear as everyone has realised that the situation is actually getting worse - so the online community has asked how it should actively respond, and some bright spark has come up with the idea of #riotcleanup [a Twitter movement aimed at organising groups to help communities clear up after the riots].

“The criticism of Twitter in the press has probably helped catalyze this reaction: Twitter users are insulted by the idea that they are rioters and looters. Social media comes into its own when organising for a positive cause, because only a positive cause is really going to go viral.”

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