TomandJerry
Well-known member
- Oct 1, 2013
- 12,323
- Thread starter
- #101
Exactly, once the level 2 officers rocked up (and they turned up in numbers) the disorder soon disappeared, and they certainly didn't turn up just to run away.View attachment 185908
View attachment 185909
This doesn't look like police retreating to me?
The cops who went to the original incident were response officers responding to a request for assistance from social workers as I understand it. They didn't go to a riot and then decide to run away. Response officers would have no protective equipment to help them in situations of disorder. The would be trained to what is referred to as Public Order Level 3 and would involve them standing in a line trying to hold a crowd back.
The general tactic in that situation would be to hold the line with Level 3 officers whilst Level 2 officers (helmets, shields and some additional tactics) are prepared and then deployed to take over from the L3 officers. It would appear from what I've seen in the media that this was not practical or possible and the Level 3 officers were ordered to withdraw before the Level 2 officers were ready. Probably a decision not taken lightly, especially as it looks like they had to leave a number of their vehicles behind, and was done when it was clear there were not enough officers to hold the line and the only actual disorder taking place was the cops being attacked. It's not like they just ran away and left the social workers to sort it out for themselves.
From what I've seen, the Level 2 public order officers were very quickly in place, but that doesn't fit with the fashionable anti-police rhetoric that they just ran away because they couldn't be arsed and weren't capable.
But that time in-between the riot starting and the level 2 officers rocking up a lot of damage had already been done unfortunately.