A riot officer watching a building burn in London's worst riots for years.
The country has been reeling after three days of violent and sustained riots in many parts of London, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham and Bristol. Originally a peaceful protest seeking the truth behind the shooting of 29 year old Mark Duggan by CO19 on August 4, it soon spiralled out of control. Shortly after the march had begun, on August 6, it degenerated into a massive riot by local criminals. Looting, arson and general violence soon spread from Tottenham in the Borough of Haringey to other parts of Greater London in the early hours of August 7. The rioting then spread yet again, but this time to the aforementioned towns and cities on August 8 and 9. Throughout this crisis the police has struggled to deal with the sheer numbers of rioters, which has forced the Metropolitan Police to cancel all leave during the worst violence the country has seen in years.
Several questions pop to one’s mind about this whole debacle including: how this has been able to escalate as far as it has; what the police are going to do tonight to prevent further violence; and what methods could be employed to ensure a swift end to the riots? All of which I shall aim to answer below.
The situation has degenerated in the way it has for several reasons. Firstly the police have been overwhelmed by the numbers of rioters on the streets. For example it was reported by an anonymous riot officer in today’s Times that there were “about 30 or 40 of us and a crowd of 300 to 400 rioters” and that when the police numbers finally increased after continued pelting from rioters “[they moved] to other areas where there were no police to begin looting there”. The places being looted and vandalised are many and far apart; there is no central location for the rioting in each city or any mass coordination. Saying that the police have been spread thin is an understatement. In fact they were so overwhelmed that the Met had to get backup sent in from “Thames Valley, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex” police forces in the early hours of this morning. To what extent this overstretch is the fault of those in the operations rooms around the country is up to debate. Personally this commentator believes that the police response primarily in Birmingham and London – where violence is at its worst – tonight will make it abundantly clear as to who is primarily responsible for the
Looter showing off his haul.
pathetic police response. Regardless, the police response has contributed to the escalation of events and its spread across London and the country.
Another reason for the escalation – linked to the first point – is that people have been seen to be getting away with the mass-looting occurring. In other words opportunism is a cause of the escalation. An example of the brash arrogance and opportunism of some involved is most famously depicted with the photo to the left of one man’s booty taken from various shops. These riots, are as two girls told the BBC News channel, showing the police that they “can do what they want”, not about crying out about the wrongs of the government or anything else for that matter. One of the girls in the video clip was unable to even tell the reporter which parties were in power at the moment. However, others, such as Ken Livingstone, have blamed the rioting on various things including: the Coalition’s economic policy and how the cuts have made rioting more likely; tuition fees; getting back at the government for ignoring them; and to show the wealth gap in the UK is dividing communities. Locals in Tottenham, however, have come out against such sentiments with one woman stating that “We are going to get people blaming the economy and what happened last week but that’s not the real reason this happened… It’s just an excuse for the young ones to come and rob shops”. Yet more evidence that locals were not in favour of the Livingstone argument comes from YouTube where an elderly woman has been filmed denouncing the actions of some looters. Such evidence is a sign to this commentator that this was nothing more than opportunism for opportunism’s sake.
In the last few hours it has been announced that there will be up to 16,000 police officers patrolling London’s streets tonight to prevent a fourth night of street violence from further engulfing the capital. Moreover over 500 arrests have been made in Greater London since the violence erupted with 105 having been charged. Such is the situation in London that those arrested have had to be transferred from London to police stations in surrounding counties as all police cells have been filled in London. Today has also seen the Prime Minister (scroll to 1114 on the live feed) and the Mayor of London promise that those involved will “feel the full force of the law”. Police have also confirmed that they have contacted Research in Motion – the makers of the BlackBerry smartphone – over the alleged use of the BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) service in the organisation of looting and are currently monitoring Facebook and Twitter activity for any information on rioting or looting plans. Once again, how effective these plans will be are very much down to the police’s performance tonight.
Woman jumping for her life after rioters set her house on fire...
If the current tactics prove ineffective tonight then the Met and the other forces involved in the other riots have several options almost none of which have ever been used in mainland Britain before. They are as follows: water cannon; baton rounds; use of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004; a curfew; and the British Army. Water cannon has been used before in Northern Ireland to disrupt riots, but has never been used on the mainland. It shoots high pressure water at rioters and has been seen to be quite effective. The main problem is that there are only six in the country and they are all on standby in the North in case riots break out during the very volatile Marching Season. Baton rounds have also only been used in the North. They are rubber bullets that when fired tend to knock down rioters. The main problem with them is the risk of killing rioters through using them. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 gives the government the power to override Habeas Corpus as well as a few other Acts of Parliament for a period of 21 days in order to deal with massive disorder. This Act of Parliament has never been used in this context before and is seen as only being needed in very extreme scenarios. A curfew, as suggested by Diane Abbot MP, would require all citizens in the designated areas to be indoors from a set time. This idea has been criticised because many see it as stretching already overstretched police forces to the brink and as being an ineffective deterrent. Finally the British Army. The army has not ever been used to police any part of modern day Britain. Using the army would, like all of the above ideas, suggest that the government had lost control and that the situation was a lot worse than it currently is. None of the above techniques could be seen to work unless events escalated further.
Events across the country have reached worrying levels with opportunism for opportunism’s sake being the mantra for the rioting, arson and looting. Without a concerted and much better organised police operation this commentator believes that things will get worse. The action mentioned above, which has been taken thus far seems to be counteracting some of the mayhem of the last few days. However, much of the recommended action the police could take and the effectiveness of action the police are currently taking is very much dependent on how tonight goes. If it goes well then the cleanup operation can begin and those responsible can be held to account. If things do not go well tonight then police escalation might be the only remedy. I hope that it is the former, not the latter that is the case tomorrow morning.
By Harry J. Angers
Recent Comments