Parents of children involved in criminal crazes could be fined
The Prime Minister says groups of young people organising the mass looting of shops is "appalling" and "unacceptable".
Rishi Sunak warned youngsters tempted to get involved in future antisocial and criminal flashmobs that they will be "met with the full force of the law".
Last week there was a shoplifting call on social media which led to stores on London's Oxford Street shutting, mobs clashing with police and nine arrests being made.
Footage showed police wielding batons in a clash with dozens of young men and wrestling some of them away, while officers on horseback helped to disperse hundreds of people in Europe's busiest shopping street on Wednesday.
West End stores were forced to close their shutters and lock customers inside during the looting bid, which was reportedly inspired by a social media craze encouraging people to take part in an "Oxford Street JD robbery".
The Metropolitan Police arrested nine people and issued 34 dispersal orders during the incident.
The Prime Minister said:
"I have got to say it is appalling. Criminal damage, criminal behaviour is unacceptable.
"I fully support the police in bringing those people to justice.
"I want anyone watching who is thinking about this, who sees something like this, to know that they will be met with the full force of the law.
"Because that type of behaviour is simply unacceptable in our society."
"societal breakdown"
Chairwoman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Donna Jones thinks parents of kids who take part should be fined.
She said it is a sign of "societal breakdown" and parents should be disciplining their children and teaching them that such acts are "morally abhorrent" to prevent further incidents.
"This is a real indication of societal breakdown.
"This has not just suddenly appeared from nowhere. We've seen the warning signs of this coming for a really long time. We know these type of incidents are happening in America, and what happens in America very often gets here within a 12-month period.
"Hundreds of young people rampaging through London shops, which are putting their security shutters down... You know, this is Britain in 2023.
"This is incredibly worrying, and somebody needs to call it out.
"The Home Secretary has said this has got to stop, it's not good enough. I support her in that but I'm going one step further to say the draw on police resources is wholly unacceptable.
"This is mindless vandalism, and it's also criminal activity in terms of shoplifting and theft, looting, mass looting.
"This is taking away police hours from operational policing that they should be doing to keep genuine people that need protecting safe.
"We need to send a clear message - this is not acceptable and the parents need to be held accountable."
Ms Jones said parents could be forced to pay the fines for the criminal behaviour of their children under the age of 16, or under 18 if in full-time education.
"There have to be formal sanctions taken"
She added: "There have to be formal sanctions taken. We also have to call out the lack of discipline - parents need to be parenting their children and teaching them right from wrong.
"Any parent or guardian of a young person who believes that they were in central London last week and could have been involved with that should be sitting down with that young person, having a really strong conversation with them about exactly what they have done, how it's completely unacceptable.
"It's criminal, and morally it's also an abhorrent thing to do. That's certainly what I would be doing if it was my children.
"And I'd like to think that's what all decent good parents and guardians of young people should be doing, otherwise this is never going to stop."
Ms Jones also called on social media companies such as TikTok to investigate and crack down on posts orchestrating flashmobs, which encourage criminal behaviour or explain publicly what action they are already taking.
A TikTok spokeswoman said: "We have zero tolerance for content facilitating or encouraging criminal activities.
"We have over 40,000 safety professionals dedicated to keeping TikTok safe - if we find content of this nature, we remove it and actively engage with law enforcement on these issues."
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