Most rioters not in gangs – May

8 September 2011 Last updated at 05:50 ET

Home Secretary Theresa May has told MPs that the “majority of people involved” in the riots were not in gangs – according to the latest figures.

She told MPs that as arrests had continued, the percentage involved in gangs had dropped.

Although gangs were involved, their involvement may “not be as high as people first thought”, she said.

More than 2,700 people were arrested after violence and looting spread from London to other English cities.

Gangs got much of the blame for the spread of disorder – Prime Minister David Cameron promised a “concerted, all out war on gangs and gang culture”, a gangs taskforce has been set up and former police chief of Los Angeles and New York Bill Bratton is advising the government on how to crack down on gangs.

‘Moving picture’

But Mrs May told MPs that, as arrests continue, it appeared that “the majority of people involved were not individuals who were involved in gangs”.

Asked who had been helping fuel disorder via social media, she said: “Some of it was coming from gangs, I think some of it would have been coming from others.”

Although it was obvious that “gangs were involved”, of arrests so far, she said only a quarter were “juveniles”.

But she said she expected arrests to continue to rise “for some time” so evidence of who was involved would be a “moving picture”.

“It is absolutely clear that we did see ng people, in a wider sense than merely ‘juveniles’ out on the streets,” she said.

Mrs May is being grilled by MPs about the riots which spread across English cities in August.

She said it was “very difficult to say” what caused the riots – that there appeared to be different causes in different areas – and that any changes in policy should be done “on the basis of a proper analysis of who was involved”.

Mrs May, who has said that the original police tactics were “insufficient” to deal with disorder, praised the “sheer bravery” of police officers.

Police chiefs have rejected suggestions the initial response was “timid” – or that a later “surge” of police officers was due to political intervention.

The committee will also question MPs whose areas were affected and some of their constituents from 1100 BST.

— ’re ’s , . : A ‘Malign Intellectual Subculture’ – George Monbiot Smears Chomsky, Herman, Peterson, Pilger And Media Lens.