An amazing clip, and proof positive that not all rioters come from bad homes. Her daughter Chelsea — who’s a teen ambassador for the London Olympics, if you can believe it — allegedly was caught on CCTV smashing a British cop car. (The Sun has photos.) Her parents saw the clip on the news and promptly dialed the police. Said mom Adrienne, “I have no regrets. I love my daughter but she was brought up to know right from wrong.” According to British prosecutors, Chelsea was heard yelling “This is the best day ever!” before throwing a rock through a shop window. I’m guessing it wasn’t a book shop.

How ready is Britain to get tough on crime? Ready enough that they’ve called in an American:

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Bill Bratton, the former New York police chief, said many young people, especially gang members, had been “emboldened” by over-cautious policing tactics and lenient sentencing policies…

To be effective, a police force should have “a lot of arrows in the quiver,” said Mr Bratton, advocating a doctrine of “escalating force” where weapons including rubber bullets, Tasers, pepper spray and water cannon were all available to commanders.

Mr Cameron is an admirer of Mr Bratton’s approach to policing and has asked the American to advise him on gangs and urban violence following this week’s riots in English cities…

Mr Bratton said that “very early” in young offenders’ lives, they should be made to realise that crime will result in punishment.

Under normal circumstances, I take it the Brits wouldn’t cotton to a yank telling them to be harder on their own underclass. As it is, not only are they ready for tougher policing, they managed to get 100,000 signatures on a petition calling for rioters on welfare to lose their benefits in the aftermath. One kid and his family have already been kicked out of public housing; the House of Commons has taken up the issue too, which means the new conservative government suddenly has plenty of political cover to advance a bolder agenda. Do they want to?

Two clips here, the first of Adrienne Ives and the second of — well, you’ll see. The handsome character in the screencap says he went looting in part to help provide for his son. He’s 16 years old. Click the image to watch.