Rioter profile: 'Looting was nothing personal. It's just business'

 A young man who describes himself as a "natural criminal" and gang member. He was involved in looting in Birmingham and sold on £100 worth of clothes:

"[A friend phoned to say] riots are going on in town, that they were meeting there tonight, and: 'Are you on it?' I said yeah. [Was there a connection to what was happening in London?] Yeah … Probably money, ain't it? A chance to [do] what they're looting in London and they think: 'Yeah, fuck that.' And they want to take part and get some money, ain't it? Get some drugs. I just thought, like, the more people the less chance of getting caught. So, score against the police."

[He arrived in the city centre by bus and walked through Digbeth, in the city centre, with a group of 50 people, mostly men, aged between 16 and 30.]

"[There were] police around, blocking off roads. Basically all the looters were looking round for somewhere to loot … Kick down a few windows, burgle a few shops. Not good shops, like, Spar, Tesco's, trying to get into the good shops. Try to get into the TV shops and then the police came down in the vans chasing you. And you have to get off.

"[At a television shop] about 40 of us lifted up the shutters, kicked down the window and just ran through there, ain't it and opened up. TVs, stereos, everything, big ones, small ones.

"We were one team until we get the place open and then as soon as we got the place open we were out for ourselves. There were a few people who didn't get away with anything [and] waited for the looters who got away with stuff to rob them. There was one geezer that ran round the back of the flats with his TV and two geezers chased him right round the back and followed him. Then they came back down with the plasma. Everyone's got balaclavas on so you don't know who you're with.

"I saw some innocent bystanders that was just walking through town and then they [the police] went a bit OTT on them. They hit them with their truncheon and threw them up the wall, and they were just innocent people.

"You think there's no job out there for me, so you think fuck it, going to go out on the road and steal and sell drugs, do whatever to get your money. People our age. We didn't rob no women, no old men, no girls – we have our morals sometimes. I was fully covered from head to toe. Nice balaclava. Wore all black out so not to be seen. I'm already who I am now anyway, so I don't think I'm ever going to change. [Looting was] nothing personal. It's just business."

Rioter profile: 'this is some next-level revolution coming'

An 18-year-old man from Liverpool lost his job after the riots and is now unemployed:

"I was watching the news. It was London, just was kicking off big time. All my mates going on about it. I was worried 'cos I was at work in town and I just remember all the bars closing down. Like everyone was talking about it. I couldn't say that there was one person that weren't talking about it. It was basically: 'Fuck the law.' It was just, like, against the law, really.

"There was, like, 200 people on Smithdown Road. It was unbelievable. I never, ever witnessed something like that. It was mad. The police couldn't do nothing. Like they were pushing people back and we were getting pushed forwards. It was mad, crazy.

"I didn't get involved but there was people going crazy and like setting cars on fire and doing all sorts of madness. There was even some looting but I weren't down with that. The 200 people on Smithdown wasn't looting.

"They [the police] all got shields and stuff and they were just pushing us back. There was too many people; they couldn't cope with it. The thing that shocked me most was a car got pushed down Smithdown on fire. The police were just going for it. It was crazy. Three of my mates got proper hurt by the police.

"I was out until two and then I got arrested on the next day … The police was there in my face just shouting and screaming. And I basically told them: 'This is some next-level revolution coming.' I was just going crazy.

"I've never been to court. Have been arrested, but never been charged. I lost my job over it too … It was just stupid. I heard someone who did something to Tesco in Liverpool got 10 years each. That's like ridiculous."

Rioter profile: 'I'm a bit of a troublemaker'

A man from Tottenham who was arrested and was involved in looting and throwing missiles at police:

"People were making jokes, like about not to burn down McDonald's because they need their burger, and they said there's a madness on Tottenham High Road with police and people and everyone was there … and so because everybody was there, most of my friends was there, so most people went there to see what was going on.

"[I] just got involved while everyone, because a black teenager was walking and then she turned to walk past the police and they licked [hit] her in her leg, and then that's when everybody got angry, mostly … and then everyone started throwing stuff, bricks and wood, throwing it, anything on the floor they would throw till it escalated.

"A big crowd, but … a lot of people that, you know, that I knew. Well, at the beginning it was calm. Everyone was just watching, just watching the police lined up, and by the time I got there, there was two police cars on fire, or there was one police car on fire, in the middle … and people was just watching it, and riot police wasn't there at the time, just normal police lined up at the police station by the time I got there.

"I'm a bit of a troublemaker. I just knew something was going to happen and then when it did happen I just got involved from there. They [the police] hit, well, a teenager … Then people started throwing stuff, from there. "They broke into a shop and got glass bottles, an off-licence and got all the glass bottles, laid it down, gave it out and started throwing it from there and then riot police came from there. I was in the shop myself, getting glass bottles as well, throwing it from there.

"They [the police] mostly aggravate teenagers these days, and they'll stop you for no reason, and they'll rough you up [laughs], just rough you up for no particular reason. People were screaming out: 'This is for Mark [Duggan].' They were shouting it out.

"I knew a lot of people that was there but … not a lot, like 10 people, just mostly attacking the police. But you saw everybody beside you, behind you, everywhere that you knew mostly. Everyone was involved; it wasn't just black.

"They pushed all the way back till Tottenham stadium, all the way from there, but it calmed down from Tottenham stadium, it mostly got aggravated near McDonald's when they pushed up on McDonald's, and that bus: someone put the bus on fire.

"You can't really say 'proud of it', but putting people's shops on fire, that didn't have nothing to do [with it]. Yeah, that wasn't right, to tell you the truth. We did the shops, but not really shops like JD to loot stuff and take different garments, just most people that was rioting to get weapons.

"BBM [BlackBerry Messenger Service], they made it out, that it was really fully involved; it wasn't really involved. People didn't really – like there was little pieces about who's going to this area to loot that shop, 'I'll come,' you got that, but it wasn't really about rioting, mostly about looting.

"I feel kinda stupid because a lot of people said they saw me on the news … Because I didn't know the risk of getting caught was actually that high. Stupid really … to get myself in that situation and getting caught."