Here are the links for the first set of articles and video for you to read and watch about the protests:
This is the second set about the riots:
I know it seems like a lot, but the articles aren't too long and the Daily Mail is, as usual, 90% pictures for the near-illiterate. I've copied and pasted the articles and embeded the video below if you're too lazy to click on them all. See you Thursday, Shane.
Student protests: Demonstration effect
Government plans to triple tuition fees and slash government teaching grants in higher education prompted a huge turnout
Fact one: up to 50,000 students and lecturers marched through the streets of London in yesterday's protest against government plans to triple tuition fees and slash government teaching grants in higher education.
Fact two: a few hundred protesters – at most – broke away and attacked
the building that houses Conservative party HQ, did some damage, caused some injuries,
generated some striking images, and eventually got involved in a
stand-off with police, who were taken by surprise. Fact three: the two
protests, the larger peaceful one and the smaller violent one, will
inescapably have become tangled in the reporting and public perception
of yesterday's events. Fact four: tangled or not, these were politically
significant events for Britain and should be taken seriously.
They should be taken seriously because, in spite of a reprehensible violent sideshow, this was a large protest with significant public support and the capacity to have a palpable impact on mainstream politics. You do not have to believe that the country's students and lecturers are the most downtrodden victims of the coalition's spending cuts – there may be better candidates for that accolade in Iain Duncan Smith's welfare reform announcements today – to recognise that they may be a lightning rod for wider public unease with the government's public spending strategy. But the fact that students and lecturers are so concentrated in particular parliamentary constituencies, plus the fact that the Liberal Democrats hold many of these seats, gives the higher education protesters a particular and unusual purchase. Most of what happened yesterday is likely to weaken the resolve of Lib Dem MPs to support the tuition fee plans when the vote comes.
Yesterday may — but only may — also mark a bigger tipping point. Public opinion remains in flux about the cuts. The popular belief that the deficit must be tackled coexists with anxiety that the cuts are too deep and rapid. That tension has not yet been resolved one way or the other. Yet the size of yesterday's protests is likely to encourage opponents of other parts of George Osborne's package to match the students' effort. That does not mean that every protest will command equal public support, or deserve to do so. Public support for strikes is selective and support for violence non-existent. In the end, the mood may harden against the protests. But the public is capable of making a distinction between a well-supported good cause and a small number of provocateurs. Intelligently conducted, the protests retain lots of potential to command the wider support in the political centre that they need to succeed and thus to cause headaches, and perhaps even second thoughts, for anxious ministers.
They threatened to overturn a police riot squad van as they smashed windows, looted riot shields, uniforms and helmets and daubed the sides with graffiti.
Police fled the van as the young demonstrators against university tuition fees yelled obscenities only yards from Downing Street.
A second wave of truanting
schoolgirls who were there for the excitement rather than to cause
mayhem then swarmed around the van and posed for photographs taken on
friends’ cameras and iPhones.
The disgraceful scenes, which were part of internet-coordinated protests around the country, came despite claims that Metropolitan Police officers were fully prepared this time after violent clashes in Millbank a fortnight ago caused millions of pounds worth of damage.
Scotland Yard deployed more than 1,500 officers – seven times the number on November 10 – to control hordes of students smashing windows of government buildings and scrawling graffiti on the walls.
At least 29 protesters were arrested for theft, violent disorder and criminal damage after a female police officer suffered a broken hand and another officer had to be dragged out from a cordon with leg injuries when violence flared.
Paramedics treated 11 people and nine
were taken to hospital.
Last night some of the student protesters claimed that the violence was directed by truanting schoolchildren.
Lydia Wright, 22, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, said: ‘It’s all gone terribly wrong. It started off as two small groups from my university and UCL.
‘As soon as we got down to Whitehall, we were joined by some other people, but I think it was mostly the schoolkids who were creating the trouble.
‘They weren’t really supporting the cause. Quite a few of them were just wanting to cause a disturbance.’
Elsewhere, thousands joined protest
marches in Manchester, Liverpool and Brighton as pupils walked out of
school in Winchester, Cambridge and Leeds.
Students occupied buildings in Oxford, Birmingham, Cambridge, Plymouth and Bristol, where
fireworks were hurled at police horses.
Two protesters were arrested in Cambridge for obstruction, one in Liverpool for egg throwing and four in Manchester for public order offences and obstruction.
There were also violent clashes with police in Brighton as students tried to storm council and university buildings in the city centre.
But the most disturbing scenes were in London where a largely peaceful demonstration descended into violence. The trigger was a police riot van that had trailed protesters into Whitehall – and stopped between the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street.
Police said the van had been following protesters to gather intelligence about where they were heading, but the vehicle was quickly overwhelmed.
Within hours, the van was left to be
stripped by masked protesters who even attempted to start the engine,
turning on blue lights and sirens before it was reclaimed hours later.
Windows were smashed in the Treasury and fires lit.
Unemployed Louise Malone, 25, from Camden, North London, who took the wheel of the police van, told the Mail she broke in ‘because I felt like it’.
She added: ‘I’m supporting the students. There needs to be free education for all.’
Among the protesters was 17-year-old Ali Choan, from Enfield, North London, who was seen throwing at least two missiles at police lines.
He told the Mail: ‘I’m here because the government have stopped my EMA (Educational Maintenance Allowance) – that’s money they give me to go to college.’
Riot police responded with baton charges, pushing back protesters ten feet at a time as they threw shoes and stones at officers.
As tensions ran high, police were forced to ‘kettle’ 5,000 protesters for hours just a short distance from the Houses of Parliament.
Extra reserves of riot police and vans hemmed in the protesters following a surge during which the crowd hurled wooden stakes, bottles and rocks.
As darkness fell and temperatures
dipped, bonfires were lit using the stolen riot shields and uniforms as
students and schoolchildren danced in the streets to sound systems.
Some schoolchildren were seen ripping pages from their schoolbooks to burn while others did their homework, complaining that they were cold, tired and hungry.
At least one demonstrator inside the cordon needed hospital treatment after she was hit on the head by a flying glass bottle.
Beth Deacon, 16, from Billericay, Essex, was carried out of the cordon by police and given urgent medical attention. Police defended the tactic of containment which proved so controversial during the G20 protests.
Chief Inspector Jane Connors of the Metropolitan Police said: ‘It’s a valid tactic. Police officers came under attack and we needed to make sure the violence didn’t spread out across the London streets.
‘In these circumstances containment was necessary to ensure that the protest was peacefully managed. We made sure that we had a flexible plan with sufficient reserves and resources to deal with the different issues.’
She added: ‘It would have been disproportionate of us to put in place a
large police presence and use force to recover the van.’
Shortly before the violence erupted police had been confidently predicting they had the resources ‘to ensure that we don’t have the same activity that we had last time.’
Zoe Williams, 19, fearlessly put herself between the angry mob and the abandoned vehicle in Whitehall.
Despite her efforts, rioters leapt on to the roof of the van before smashing its windows, ransacking it for ‘trophies’, ripping off wing mirrors and daubing it with graffiti. One balaclava-wearing thug urinated on the front wheel.
Zoe shouted: ‘It’s not going to help
our cause’ and ‘you don’t need to do this’ before asking them to ‘calm
down’ as they hurled abuse at her.
The teenager, a first-year History of Art student at the Courtauld Institute of Art, previously attended the £12,500-a-year Colfe’s School in south-east London where she left with four A grades at A-level.
Last night she said she was ‘just trying to calm everything down’.
‘I was frustrated and disappointed that people were smashing things again. I am angry about cuts as well but smashing things is not going to help.
‘Some of them listened to what I
was saying but some of them were just plain rude and started shouting
abuse. It was quite daunting.
‘Some of them were just sixth-form or school students coming down for a free day off. I didn’t want the protest to be labelled as a load of student yobs again.’
Observers praised her intervention, with one Twitter user saying: ‘Zoe Williams is a modern day hero among the student scum. Let’s see more of her and listen to what sense she has to say!’ Another posting read: ‘Zoe Williams, proper student protest role model.’
They should be taken seriously because, in spite of a reprehensible violent sideshow, this was a large protest with significant public support and the capacity to have a palpable impact on mainstream politics. You do not have to believe that the country's students and lecturers are the most downtrodden victims of the coalition's spending cuts – there may be better candidates for that accolade in Iain Duncan Smith's welfare reform announcements today – to recognise that they may be a lightning rod for wider public unease with the government's public spending strategy. But the fact that students and lecturers are so concentrated in particular parliamentary constituencies, plus the fact that the Liberal Democrats hold many of these seats, gives the higher education protesters a particular and unusual purchase. Most of what happened yesterday is likely to weaken the resolve of Lib Dem MPs to support the tuition fee plans when the vote comes.
Yesterday may — but only may — also mark a bigger tipping point. Public opinion remains in flux about the cuts. The popular belief that the deficit must be tackled coexists with anxiety that the cuts are too deep and rapid. That tension has not yet been resolved one way or the other. Yet the size of yesterday's protests is likely to encourage opponents of other parts of George Osborne's package to match the students' effort. That does not mean that every protest will command equal public support, or deserve to do so. Public support for strikes is selective and support for violence non-existent. In the end, the mood may harden against the protests. But the public is capable of making a distinction between a well-supported good cause and a small number of provocateurs. Intelligently conducted, the protests retain lots of potential to command the wider support in the political centre that they need to succeed and thus to cause headaches, and perhaps even second thoughts, for anxious ministers.
Rage of the girl rioters: Britain's students take to the streets again - and this time women are leading the charge
By Rebecca Camber, Nick Fagge, Katherine Faulkner, Nick Mcdermott and Laura Caroe- 25,000 go on mass nationwide rampage over tuition fees
- Teenage pupils protest alongside university pupils
- Police face fresh questions about handling of riot
They threatened to overturn a police riot squad van as they smashed windows, looted riot shields, uniforms and helmets and daubed the sides with graffiti.
Police fled the van as the young demonstrators against university tuition fees yelled obscenities only yards from Downing Street.
The disgraceful scenes, which were part of internet-coordinated protests around the country, came despite claims that Metropolitan Police officers were fully prepared this time after violent clashes in Millbank a fortnight ago caused millions of pounds worth of damage.
Scotland Yard deployed more than 1,500 officers – seven times the number on November 10 – to control hordes of students smashing windows of government buildings and scrawling graffiti on the walls.
At least 29 protesters were arrested for theft, violent disorder and criminal damage after a female police officer suffered a broken hand and another officer had to be dragged out from a cordon with leg injuries when violence flared.
Last night some of the student protesters claimed that the violence was directed by truanting schoolchildren.
Lydia Wright, 22, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, said: ‘It’s all gone terribly wrong. It started off as two small groups from my university and UCL.
‘As soon as we got down to Whitehall, we were joined by some other people, but I think it was mostly the schoolkids who were creating the trouble.
‘They weren’t really supporting the cause. Quite a few of them were just wanting to cause a disturbance.’
Students occupied buildings in Oxford, Birmingham, Cambridge, Plymouth and Bristol, where
fireworks were hurled at police horses.
Two protesters were arrested in Cambridge for obstruction, one in Liverpool for egg throwing and four in Manchester for public order offences and obstruction.
There were also violent clashes with police in Brighton as students tried to storm council and university buildings in the city centre.
But the most disturbing scenes were in London where a largely peaceful demonstration descended into violence. The trigger was a police riot van that had trailed protesters into Whitehall – and stopped between the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street.
Police said the van had been following protesters to gather intelligence about where they were heading, but the vehicle was quickly overwhelmed.
RIOT NETWORK
The
nationwide demonstrations were organised using online social networks,
with more than 26,000 students signing up to a Facebook page calling for
a co-ordinated ‘walk-out’.
Students and schoolchildren, many with iPhones or BlackBerries enabling internet access on the move, posted constant updates on Twitter informing each other of direct action and police movements.
Anger was directed against the police for containing a large number of students in Whitehall using the controversial ‘kettling’ technique.
One wrote: ‘Protesters are calling 999 and reporting that they are being held against their will in Whitehall.’
And a furious parent tweeted: ‘You. Yes you lot. You’re illegally detaining our kids. Let them go NOW. And don’t you dare raise a hand to them.’
Students and schoolchildren, many with iPhones or BlackBerries enabling internet access on the move, posted constant updates on Twitter informing each other of direct action and police movements.
Anger was directed against the police for containing a large number of students in Whitehall using the controversial ‘kettling’ technique.
One wrote: ‘Protesters are calling 999 and reporting that they are being held against their will in Whitehall.’
And a furious parent tweeted: ‘You. Yes you lot. You’re illegally detaining our kids. Let them go NOW. And don’t you dare raise a hand to them.’
Windows were smashed in the Treasury and fires lit.
Unemployed Louise Malone, 25, from Camden, North London, who took the wheel of the police van, told the Mail she broke in ‘because I felt like it’.
She added: ‘I’m supporting the students. There needs to be free education for all.’
Among the protesters was 17-year-old Ali Choan, from Enfield, North London, who was seen throwing at least two missiles at police lines.
He told the Mail: ‘I’m here because the government have stopped my EMA (Educational Maintenance Allowance) – that’s money they give me to go to college.’
Riot police responded with baton charges, pushing back protesters ten feet at a time as they threw shoes and stones at officers.
As tensions ran high, police were forced to ‘kettle’ 5,000 protesters for hours just a short distance from the Houses of Parliament.
Extra reserves of riot police and vans hemmed in the protesters following a surge during which the crowd hurled wooden stakes, bottles and rocks.
CLEGG REGRETS
As
the student protests erupted, Nick Clegg said he ‘massively regrets’
being unable to deliver on his pledge to abolish tuition fees.
But the Lib Dem leader claimed the coalition’s proposals were fairer than the graduate tax his party used to support.
Liberal Democrats have become a focus for student anger over tuition fees, so much so that the Deputy Prime Minister was told this week not to cycle into work over fears for his safety. On Tuesday, protesters burned an effigy of him.
Yesterday Mr Clegg pleaded with protesters to look at the details of the Government’s proposals, which he insisted were fairer than either the existing regime or the graduate tax backed by the National Union of Students.
But the Lib Dem leader claimed the coalition’s proposals were fairer than the graduate tax his party used to support.
Liberal Democrats have become a focus for student anger over tuition fees, so much so that the Deputy Prime Minister was told this week not to cycle into work over fears for his safety. On Tuesday, protesters burned an effigy of him.
Yesterday Mr Clegg pleaded with protesters to look at the details of the Government’s proposals, which he insisted were fairer than either the existing regime or the graduate tax backed by the National Union of Students.
Some schoolchildren were seen ripping pages from their schoolbooks to burn while others did their homework, complaining that they were cold, tired and hungry.
At least one demonstrator inside the cordon needed hospital treatment after she was hit on the head by a flying glass bottle.
Beth Deacon, 16, from Billericay, Essex, was carried out of the cordon by police and given urgent medical attention. Police defended the tactic of containment which proved so controversial during the G20 protests.
Chief Inspector Jane Connors of the Metropolitan Police said: ‘It’s a valid tactic. Police officers came under attack and we needed to make sure the violence didn’t spread out across the London streets.
‘In these circumstances containment was necessary to ensure that the protest was peacefully managed. We made sure that we had a flexible plan with sufficient reserves and resources to deal with the different issues.’
Shortly before the violence erupted police had been confidently predicting they had the resources ‘to ensure that we don’t have the same activity that we had last time.’
The girl who stood up to the mob
A teenage girl risked life and limb to confront protesters intent on smashing up a police van.Zoe Williams, 19, fearlessly put herself between the angry mob and the abandoned vehicle in Whitehall.
Despite her efforts, rioters leapt on to the roof of the van before smashing its windows, ransacking it for ‘trophies’, ripping off wing mirrors and daubing it with graffiti. One balaclava-wearing thug urinated on the front wheel.
The teenager, a first-year History of Art student at the Courtauld Institute of Art, previously attended the £12,500-a-year Colfe’s School in south-east London where she left with four A grades at A-level.
Last night she said she was ‘just trying to calm everything down’.
‘I was frustrated and disappointed that people were smashing things again. I am angry about cuts as well but smashing things is not going to help.
Stop: Protester Zoe demands demonstrators do not overturn the police van
‘Some of them were just sixth-form or school students coming down for a free day off. I didn’t want the protest to be labelled as a load of student yobs again.’
Observers praised her intervention, with one Twitter user saying: ‘Zoe Williams is a modern day hero among the student scum. Let’s see more of her and listen to what sense she has to say!’ Another posting read: ‘Zoe Williams, proper student protest role model.’
Riots:
Have sentencers 'got it right' on the riots?
Ken Clarke agrees with the tough sentencing approach, yet four out of five emerging from young offender institutions reoffend
Email
An inmate looks out of the window of the young offender institution in Norwich. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
What lies behind the rioting sentencing?
Of all the statistics emerging from the rush to lock up as many people involved in the recent riots as possible, by far the most depressing is the increase in the jailing of juveniles. Depending on which figure you believe, 170, say the Youth Justice Board (YJB) or 125, according to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) the fact remains that scores of children are now behind bars as a result of getting caught up in the August mayhem. Even more depressing was the Guardian's revelation that two thirds of those incarcerated had no previous connection with the criminal justice system, no "form", to use the jargon they will now become acquainted with.A failing system
When the justice minister, Ken Clarke, said the other day that the failing penal system was partly responsible for the rioting, he was partly right. The majority of all those convicted, thus far, do have form, have been through the system. All the more absurd, then, that Clarke thought the sentencers had "got it right" in putting them back into the system that failed them previously. And nowhere does the penal system fail more spectacularly than in the young offender institutions (YOIs), where four out of five of those emerging from custody go on to reoffend (and even those obscene statistics do not tell the full tale: those 80% are the ones who get caught, something most criminals go out of their way to avoid). So the solution to this failing system – which costs, at a minimum, three times the price of sending a child to Eton – is to pack more young miscreants into it.What will happen to those who have been convicted?
It is to be hoped the kids who are in the slammer for the first time will learn fast, for they will need to. Young offender jails are jungles, where only the strongest and sharpest survive. The newcomers will be pounced on by the old brigade; their clothes and other belongings will be subject to "taxing" by the top dogs. John Drew, from the YJB, says establishments will treat these newcomers as vulnerable prisoners (VPs). That, in itself, is fraught with danger; many prisoners automatically class VPs as "nonces" – sex-offenders – who deserve special treatment. No use complaining you were only a rioter when you have been "sugared up" (scalded with boiling sweetened water).Jailed street gang members carry their allegiances to custody and the strongest "crew" usually rules the roost. Newcomers with no connections will be treated as pariahs, irrespective of their offences. They will be last in the queue for food, showers and, importantly, the use of landing telephones to call friends and relatives, heightening their sense of isolation. Because of overcrowding, many of those sentenced in London will be sent to institutions, maybe hundreds of miles from home. Their accents alone will mark them out as different from local crews, further risking their safety. And they should not look to prison staff for help; complaining to a screw ranks as a serious breach of jailhouse ethics and will not be tolerated.
I pity these kids and despair at the kneejerk reaction from those in authority who should – and surely must – know the folly of their purely punitive response to a situation created by a multitude of factors. Above all, it is a senseless retort: would you cram more patients into a hospital that failed to cure four out of five of those it treated?
Facebook riot calls earn men four-year jail terms amid sentencing outcry
Sentences handed out in Chester as lawyers and civil rights groups express alarm about 'disproportionate' punishment.
Jordan Blackshaw,
left, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, both pleaded guilty to using Facebook
in attempts to fuel riots in Cheshire. They have been jailed for four
years
Two men who posted messages on Facebook inciting other people to
riot in their home towns have both been sentenced to four years in
prison by a judge at Chester crown court.
Jordan Blackshaw, 20, set up an "event" called Smash Down in Northwich Town for the night of 8 August on the social networking site but no one apart from the police, who were monitoring the page, turned up at the pre-arranged meeting point outside a McDonalds restaurant. Blackshaw was promptly arrested.
Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, of Latchford, Warrington, used his Facebook account in the early hours of 9 August to design a web page entitled The Warrington Riots. The court was told it caused a wave of panic in the town. When he woke up the following morning with a hangover, he removed the page and apologised, saying it had been a joke. His message was distributed to 400 Facebook contacts, but no rioting broke out as a result.
Sentencing Blackshaw to four years in a young offenders institution, Judge Elgan Edwards QC said he had committed an "evil act". He said: "This happened at a time when collective insanity gripped the nation. Your conduct was quite disgraceful and the title of the message you posted on Facebook chills the blood.
"You sought to take advantage of crime elsewhere and transpose it to the peaceful streets of Northwich. The idea revolted many right thinking members of society. No one actually turned up due to the prompt and efficient actions of police in using modern policing."
Sutcliffe-Keenan, the judge said, "caused a very real panic" and "put a very considerable strain on police resources in Warrington". He praised Cheshire police for their "modern and clever policy" of infiltrating the website.
The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement that the men's posts on Facebook "caused significant panic and revulsion in local communities as rumours of anticipated violence spread".
It added: "We were able to serve upon the defence in both cases sufficient case material that led to early guilty pleas and we were able to present the facts in both cases in a fair but robust manner.
"While the judge heard the two defendants were previously of good character, they admitted committing very serious offences that carry a maximum sentence of 10 years. The consequence of their actions could have led to more disorder and this was taken into account."
The heavy sentences came as defence lawyers and civil rights groups have criticised the "disproportionate" sentences imposed on some convicted rioters as the latest official figures show nearly 1,300 suspects have been brought before the courts.
The revelation that magistrates were advised by justices' clerks to disregard normal sentencing guidelines when dealing with riot-related cases alarmed a number of lawyers who warn it will trigger a spate of appeals.
Also on Tuesday, a looter was warned he could be jailed for helping himself to an ice-cream cone during disturbances.
Anderson Fernandes, 22, appeared before magistrates in Manchester charged with burglary after he took two scoops of coffee ice-cream and a cone from Patisserie Valerie in the city centre. He gave the cone away because he didn't like the flavour.
Fernandes admitted burglary in relation to the ice-cream and an unconnected charge of handling stolen goods after a vacuum cleaner was recovered from his home. District judge Jonathan Taaffe said: "I have a public duty to deal swiftly and harshly with matters of this nature." Fernandes will be sentenced next week.
In sentencing four other convicted Manchester rioters, a crown court judge, Andrew Gilbert QC, made clear why he was disregarding sentencing guidelines when he said "the offences of the night of 9 August ... takes them completely outside the usual context of criminality".
He added: "The principal purpose is that the courts should show that outbursts of criminal behaviour like this will be and must be met with sentences longer than they would be if the offences had been committed in isolation. For those reasons, I consider that the sentencing guidelines for specific offences are of much less weight in the context of the current case, and can properly be departed from."
The Ministry of Justice's latest estimate, at midday on Tuesday, shows the courts have dealt with 1,277 alleged offenders of whom more than 700 have been remanded in custody. Two-thirds of the cases were in London.
By midday on Monday, 115 people had been convicted; more than three-quarters of those were adults. About 21% of those appearing before the courts have been juveniles. The proportion of alleged youth offenders was higher in Nottingham, Birmingham and Manchester. An MoJ spokesperson said: "Everyone involved with the courts and prison service has put in a huge effort to make that possible and that work will continue."
But doubts are now being expressed about the fairness of some sentences. For example, one student has been jailed for six months for stealing a bottle of water from a supermarket.
Sally Ireland, policy director of the law reform organisation Justice, said: "The circumstances of public disorder should be treated as an aggravating factor and one would expect that to push up sentences by a degree, but not by as far as some of the cases we have seen.
"Some instances are completely out of all proportion. There will be a flurry of appeals although, by the time they have been heard, those sentences may already have been served.
" There's a question about this advice [from justices' clerks] and whether it should have been issued at all. We would expect them to be giving advice [to magistrates] in individual cases rather than following a general directive."
Rakesh Bhasin, a solicitor partner at the law firm Steel & Shamash, which represents some of those charged following the riots, said some reported sentences seemed to be "disproportionate".
Paul Mendelle QC, a former chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said: "The idea that the rulebook goes out the window strikes me as inherently unjust. It sets all manner of alarm bells ringing. Guidelines are not tramlines. There are guidelines and they take account of aggravating and mitigating circumstances.
"There have been rulings following the Bradford riots and Israeli embassy demonstrations that said which sort of guidelines should be followed. I don't see why [magistrates] should be told to disregard these."
The judiciary and the MoJ have denied that they were involved in circulating the advice to justices' clerk last week.
The group, all masked and all wearing black clothing, caused extensive damage at the Bartons Arms pub.
Shots were also fired at the police helicopter and petrol bombs thrown at a marked police car, the force said.
Chief Constable Chris Sims said: "Releasing footage that is so disturbing in nature is an unusual step for us as a force, however, the potential for serious harm, or worse, in this incident has led us to this decision.
"Eleven shots were fired at unarmed officers to enable disorder to continue, whilst petrol bombs were also thrown at officers who initially attended the scene.
"This footage shows seemingly co-ordinated criminal behaviour with no regard for people's lives, whether it be through the setting of a fire, shooting at unarmed officers or shooting at the police helicopter.
"This investigation is being treated as attempted murder and arson, and I am only thankful that this is not a murder inquiry.
"This was not only police officers' lives that were put at risk, but also members of the public who may have been passing by.
"To date the public reaction to this operation has been overwhelming and we thank people for their continued support."
Jordan Blackshaw, 20, set up an "event" called Smash Down in Northwich Town for the night of 8 August on the social networking site but no one apart from the police, who were monitoring the page, turned up at the pre-arranged meeting point outside a McDonalds restaurant. Blackshaw was promptly arrested.
Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, of Latchford, Warrington, used his Facebook account in the early hours of 9 August to design a web page entitled The Warrington Riots. The court was told it caused a wave of panic in the town. When he woke up the following morning with a hangover, he removed the page and apologised, saying it had been a joke. His message was distributed to 400 Facebook contacts, but no rioting broke out as a result.
Sentencing Blackshaw to four years in a young offenders institution, Judge Elgan Edwards QC said he had committed an "evil act". He said: "This happened at a time when collective insanity gripped the nation. Your conduct was quite disgraceful and the title of the message you posted on Facebook chills the blood.
"You sought to take advantage of crime elsewhere and transpose it to the peaceful streets of Northwich. The idea revolted many right thinking members of society. No one actually turned up due to the prompt and efficient actions of police in using modern policing."
Sutcliffe-Keenan, the judge said, "caused a very real panic" and "put a very considerable strain on police resources in Warrington". He praised Cheshire police for their "modern and clever policy" of infiltrating the website.
The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement that the men's posts on Facebook "caused significant panic and revulsion in local communities as rumours of anticipated violence spread".
It added: "We were able to serve upon the defence in both cases sufficient case material that led to early guilty pleas and we were able to present the facts in both cases in a fair but robust manner.
"While the judge heard the two defendants were previously of good character, they admitted committing very serious offences that carry a maximum sentence of 10 years. The consequence of their actions could have led to more disorder and this was taken into account."
The heavy sentences came as defence lawyers and civil rights groups have criticised the "disproportionate" sentences imposed on some convicted rioters as the latest official figures show nearly 1,300 suspects have been brought before the courts.
The revelation that magistrates were advised by justices' clerks to disregard normal sentencing guidelines when dealing with riot-related cases alarmed a number of lawyers who warn it will trigger a spate of appeals.
Also on Tuesday, a looter was warned he could be jailed for helping himself to an ice-cream cone during disturbances.
Anderson Fernandes, 22, appeared before magistrates in Manchester charged with burglary after he took two scoops of coffee ice-cream and a cone from Patisserie Valerie in the city centre. He gave the cone away because he didn't like the flavour.
Fernandes admitted burglary in relation to the ice-cream and an unconnected charge of handling stolen goods after a vacuum cleaner was recovered from his home. District judge Jonathan Taaffe said: "I have a public duty to deal swiftly and harshly with matters of this nature." Fernandes will be sentenced next week.
In sentencing four other convicted Manchester rioters, a crown court judge, Andrew Gilbert QC, made clear why he was disregarding sentencing guidelines when he said "the offences of the night of 9 August ... takes them completely outside the usual context of criminality".
He added: "The principal purpose is that the courts should show that outbursts of criminal behaviour like this will be and must be met with sentences longer than they would be if the offences had been committed in isolation. For those reasons, I consider that the sentencing guidelines for specific offences are of much less weight in the context of the current case, and can properly be departed from."
The Ministry of Justice's latest estimate, at midday on Tuesday, shows the courts have dealt with 1,277 alleged offenders of whom more than 700 have been remanded in custody. Two-thirds of the cases were in London.
By midday on Monday, 115 people had been convicted; more than three-quarters of those were adults. About 21% of those appearing before the courts have been juveniles. The proportion of alleged youth offenders was higher in Nottingham, Birmingham and Manchester. An MoJ spokesperson said: "Everyone involved with the courts and prison service has put in a huge effort to make that possible and that work will continue."
But doubts are now being expressed about the fairness of some sentences. For example, one student has been jailed for six months for stealing a bottle of water from a supermarket.
Sally Ireland, policy director of the law reform organisation Justice, said: "The circumstances of public disorder should be treated as an aggravating factor and one would expect that to push up sentences by a degree, but not by as far as some of the cases we have seen.
"Some instances are completely out of all proportion. There will be a flurry of appeals although, by the time they have been heard, those sentences may already have been served.
" There's a question about this advice [from justices' clerks] and whether it should have been issued at all. We would expect them to be giving advice [to magistrates] in individual cases rather than following a general directive."
Rakesh Bhasin, a solicitor partner at the law firm Steel & Shamash, which represents some of those charged following the riots, said some reported sentences seemed to be "disproportionate".
Paul Mendelle QC, a former chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said: "The idea that the rulebook goes out the window strikes me as inherently unjust. It sets all manner of alarm bells ringing. Guidelines are not tramlines. There are guidelines and they take account of aggravating and mitigating circumstances.
"There have been rulings following the Bradford riots and Israeli embassy demonstrations that said which sort of guidelines should be followed. I don't see why [magistrates] should be told to disregard these."
The judiciary and the MoJ have denied that they were involved in circulating the advice to justices' clerk last week.
West Midlands police release new Birmingham riot images
Police footage shows rioting and looting in Birmingham
New CCTV of the riots in Birmingham shows police officers being shot at, the West Midlands force has said.
The footage, which has been released by the police to
encourage members of the public to come forward, shows a group in the
Newtown area late on 9 August.The group, all masked and all wearing black clothing, caused extensive damage at the Bartons Arms pub.
Shots were also fired at the police helicopter and petrol bombs thrown at a marked police car, the force said.
Officers have started an
attempted murder and arson investigation, and appealed for anyone with
information about the attacks to contact them.
A police spokesman said a small amount of money was stolen
from the pub, but the use of alcohol and petrol led police to believe
that the intention was to start a fire.Chief Constable Chris Sims said: "Releasing footage that is so disturbing in nature is an unusual step for us as a force, however, the potential for serious harm, or worse, in this incident has led us to this decision.
"Eleven shots were fired at unarmed officers to enable disorder to continue, whilst petrol bombs were also thrown at officers who initially attended the scene.
"This footage shows seemingly co-ordinated criminal behaviour with no regard for people's lives, whether it be through the setting of a fire, shooting at unarmed officers or shooting at the police helicopter.
"This investigation is being treated as attempted murder and arson, and I am only thankful that this is not a murder inquiry.
"This was not only police officers' lives that were put at risk, but also members of the public who may have been passing by.
"To date the public reaction to this operation has been overwhelming and we thank people for their continued support."
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