Well the rioters just seem like a bunch of thieving criminals to me.
I was walking home from doing some shopping tonight at around half 7pm UK GMT, and there were an unusually large group of teen youths just waiting around in the middle of the main shopping high street in Newcastle.
Most of the shops were closed by then, and none of these people looked like they were much interested in shopping anyways. It was pretty obvious that they were there just to see what will happen and trying their luck if enough like-minded criminals turn up that the police would not be able to handle the situation and that some tool would smash up a shop window so they can all go in and help themselves.
There was one police officer on the street at the time that I could see. If I find out that shops were smashed up tomorrow, I will have some pretty choice words about whoever the hell is supposed to be in charge of the police in my city.
But unless their ranks suddenly swelled after I left, I don't think there was enough of them for the situation to get truly out of hand even with just the solo officer.
When enough people get together, something happens to them and their mentality changes and goes from rational individuals to the mad collective consciousness of the mob.
The same thing happens with locusts, and funnily enough, I view the kind of people who do this kind of thing for no good reason other than the fact that they can with the same kind of contempt.
Considering that we humans share 98% of the same genes as chimps and up to 90% the same as rats, maybe there is something to genes after all, and we are not as far removed from base insects as we would like to think.