http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/194823/20110809/london-riots-google-maps-charts-uk-riot-danger-zones-hackney-london-lewisham-arrest-croyden-arrested.htm

There are really two distinct things going on here. There is a lot of anger amongst poorer people in the UK, which has burst out over the past few days. There are also many opportunist criminals who have taken advantage of the chaos to loot and pillage the shops.

The riot map linked from the article posted by Juha-Matti is no longer being updated, but here is an alternative one (also using Google Maps):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/aug/09/uk-riots-incident-map

http://james.cridland.net/blog/mapping-the-riots/

Meanwhile, Google cars are still taking pictures in London... (according to Google public data)

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/08/this-weeks-trends-riots-runners-and.html

(hey Copy/Paste in use on my new iPhone 4 :)