Interestingly, the cops in London are tweeting the names of rioters who were arrested on Twitter to publicy shame them.

Lifting a page from the hacker’s handbook, the Greater Manchester Police are naming and shaming rioters on their Twitter feed.

“We promised we’d name all those convicted for their roles in the disorder — here we go …” the police announced, as they began listing the names, dates of birth and partial addresses of individuals tried in connection with the disorder, which flared across Britain.

“Eoin Flanagan (born 01/01/1983), of Carson Road, Burnage, jailed for eight months for stealing clothes,” read one post.

“Jason Ullett (born 15/10/72) of Woodward Court, Ancoats, sentenced to 10 weeks in prison for swearing at police officers,” read another.

And another: “Stefan Hoyle (born 27/01/1992) of St. Stephen Street, Salford, jailed for four months for theft after found with a stolen violin.”

Think of it as a new kind of perp walk, but very much in the tradition of hackers who are fond of outing their rivals online.

I don’t know what the innocence-till-proven guilty standard looks like in our mother country, but this seems a tad gratuitous in that sense. Merely being arrested, in my simple provincial American mind, does not equate with guilt