Locals of Clapham arrive to clean up
Facebook and Twitter are being used to mobilise volunteers to help clean up the damage caused across London in the wake of further looting, arson and violence on Monday night.
The operation, tagged #riotcleanup, was started shortly after midnight by Dan Thompson, who runs a social initiative aimed at encouraging people to use empty shops and open spaces. By 10am Monday, the tag was the top trending topic in the UK, and the second worldwide.
A Facebook group to collate information was set up shortly afterwards, and had 3,600 members by mid-morning. Eleven locations in London had volunteers arriving for cleanup operations, according to a Wiki site set up on Tuesday. There are also similar operations in Bristol and Liverpool.
Thompson, from Worthing, in West Sussex, decided to use social media to help co-ordinate people who were looking for ways to clean up after the riots.
"There are now people on the ground all across London," he said. "Even just putting on some gloves, picking up a dustpan and brush, and clearing one broken window on the way into work. People are saying, 'We're Londoners, we're resilient and getting on with it.'"
(The Guardian)
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