The police are useless

[Billy the Fish]

The student protests are a good point actually. I wonder how much the criticism for that has affected they way the top brass at the Met have handled this. Also that twat who murdered Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests probably has alot to answer for.

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

The main issue here is the disaffected youth with no respect for life or property. Somehow this needs to be restored but fear it will take years without drastic action. I was horrified to hear some oics being interviewed saying 'the kids haven't got anything to do' so it all kicks off. The street gang culture of needing 'respect' for their antics and being one up on your rivals causes this to escalate. There have always been generations of disaffected youth in history but a line has been crossed here. Kids can't be asked to go out and earn themselves a few honest quid so they resort to looting. Made me wince to hear Diane Abbott MP and other apologists for these kids blaming others. I agree with many on here to give these kids a spell of national service dodging bullets in Afghanistan to instill a bit of reality into their lives. I'd rather spend money on that than keep paying them benefits.

Police don't have tools to do the job. We expect them to maintain order and restore it when it goes wrong. We are too proud to admit that the unarmed British bobby is not equipped to protect themselves in these situations, let alone deal with a violent mob. They barely coped with the student protests and the underlying violent anarchists. It is naive to think we can cope.

There is a void in the Police's equipment - the tazer and hand held CS spray are for close quarters only. Firearms are disproportionate (but tempting) They don't have tear gas, rubber bullets or water cannon.

If this were France they would be going in hard using all of these tools because they know how to crack down on trouble. Not nice but effective. If you get caught you will get seriously incapacitated or hurt which is a good incentive not to do bad stuff. Until we give our plod the right tools they cannot readily deter the yobs and do the job we expect.

 

[Phat Baz 68]

I bet you if you asked these thieving little pieces of crap what they are rioting about in the first place and what that Taxi drivers name was who was shot (who happened to fire on Police first) they wouldn't even be able to tell you !
Live ammo , get the Army in, water cannons, no more softly softly in this country.
Arm ALL the Police permanently and bring back Capital punishment.
Anyone caught looting shops and robbing people/shops should get an automatic 15 year sentence and do the whole stretch. RANT OVER !! BASTARDS

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Having taken a deep breath following the earlier post, I'll say this

It is massively frustrating to watch what's going on and see how apparently powerless the Met are to deal with it, but then again on any given occasion in this situation there are always going to be more thugs/thieves than there are police. If they're spread across London then it's an even thinner blue line.

At risk of being seen to express an opinion (not always recommended in my job), most of us know exactly what these animals need, but we've all seen the likes of the Ian Tomlinson case, for example, and numerous other examples where (sometimes justifiably, sometimes not) people have made complaints about police using excess force. I don't want things to work 1970s, Gene Hunt style, ie smack someone first, ask questions later, but most coppers will probably admit that the Human Rights Act stuff comes into play and, while it won't stop us dealing with someone, it might mean a degree of hesitation before doing so. I guarantee that once this is all over, you will see individuals running to the papers, claiming to have been assaulted by the police for no reason whatsoever. Look at all this starting out: a teenage girl at a protest for Mark Duggan chucks a rock at unarmed police officers, and yet all the focus was on her because she ended up getting put on the ground in order to arrest her. Who was in the wrong there, really?

 

[Mackenzie]

Having taken a deep breath following the earlier post, I'll say this

It is massively frustrating to watch what's going on and see how apparently powerless the Met are to deal with it, but then again on any given occasion in this situation there are always going to be more thugs/thieves than there are police. If they're spread across London then it's an even thinner blue line.

At risk of being seen to express an opinion (not always recommended in my job), most of us know exactly what these animals need, but we've all seen the likes of the Ian Tomlinson case, for example, and numerous other examples where (sometimes justifiably, sometimes not) people have made complaints about police using excess force. I don't want things to work 1970s, Gene Hunt style, ie smack someone first, ask questions later, but most coppers will probably admit that the Human Rights Act stuff comes into play and, while it won't stop us dealing with someone, it might mean a degree of hesitation before doing so. I guarantee that once this is all over, you will see individuals running to the papers, claiming to have been assaulted by the police for no reason whatsoever. Look at all this starting out: a teenage girl at a protest for Mark Duggan chucks a rock at unarmed police officers, and yet all the focus was on her because she ended up getting put on the ground in order to arrest her. Who was in the wrong there, really?

I think in this case the police will have a great deal of public sympathy, to be honest anyone getting a kick in from the police quite frankly will have deserved it.

Go break some heads Edna.

 

[jcdenton08]

What happened with Ian Tomlinson was totally, undeniably wrong and a serious criminal act. Simon Harwood knew he was doing wrong, which is why he tried to cover up his crime after the event. Those protests were nothing like these, and that incident was 100x more unprovoked than some of the stuff the officers the past few nights will have encountered.

When the police are dispatched to deal with riots, frankly I think anything goes and they should know and accept that if they are caught, they will be punished both physically and to the full extent of the law. It is a shame that the HRA is considered such a scary obstacle for the officers on the ground to overcome when facing anarchy on the streets of London.