Where do the Police go fron here?

[williamp]

I know the riots are continuing, but when they stop I feel the Police and the Politicians need to have a good hard look at themselves, and decide what they need do in the future. The current state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue.

Here is my suggestiuon. No idea how workable it is...

Like France with its CRS/Gendarmerie, we have two "levels" of Police. The first- in normal uniform, normal vehciles are the same as now. Working with the community, low level Police, detective work etc

However, when the same officers don riot gear (subject to approval from very high up- not just because someone says-so) they are allowed to say something like the following:

We are telling you to move/stop/go home. You may be physically harmed if you do not obay this instruction..."

Everyone at Le Mans knows that the Gendarmerie can be lenient, but you dont mess with the CRS. The same should be for those in riot gear. If you deicde to pick an argument with one, dont be surpirsed if the outcome is not to your taste.
Those who have innocent intentions can obey the order and go away

Any thoughts?

[Y282]

i wonder what difference on a day to day level it would make if all officers finally carried firearms.

[tamore]

ED-209.... 'you have 20 seconds to comply'

[RemainAllHoof]

Well, if they don't change things, we'll see this st happening again.

I suspect many proper communities will have organised themselves militia by then if the government are going to wait 6 days before doing anything useful (massive assumption that Thursday's thing will be useful).

We might even have enforced curfews with squads of locals going round stop and searching youths so frequently and without any adherence to legal proceedings they'd wish they'd just put up with the police stop and searches. And these squads going around breaking down doors of suspected rioters/looters and handing out their own form of justice.

So, I do hope the police are given more powers.

[audidoody]

Y282 said:

i wonder what difference on a day to day level it would make if all officers finally carried firearms.

Probably a question best answered by Jean Charles de Menezes , Stephen Waldorf, Harry Stanley, and now Mark Duggan.

[Deva Link]

There was 68yr old retired accountand in London blaming the Police attitude for the original riots in London. I think it's come to something when they've lost people like that.

I know it's a really easy thing to say, but middle-class people who get nicked for speeding by a cop hiding behind a hedge are then not very happy when they report being broken in to and nobody bothers to show up.

I wonder if, as the cuts bite, rank & file officers just won't have to will to even be bothered trying to positively engage with the public.

[nickythesaint]

@metpoliceuk (twitter)
Help us identify London troublemakers on our Flickr pages http://bit.ly/rnax8U

[Thom987]

nickythesaint said:

@metpoliceuk (twitter)
Help us identify London troublemakers on our Flickr pages http://bit.ly/rnax8U

Is this now standard police policy? Let them riot and then issue photos on the net and get Joe Public to identify them?

[Deva Link]

Thom987 said:

Is this now standard police policy? Let them riot and then issue photos on the net and get Joe Public to identify them?

Blimey - some of pictures are people just standing in the street.

What's the betting all the white people get identified and none of the balck people do?

[MikeyT]

Some of the pics they showed on the TV earlier were just similar height men of indeterminate colour dressed in hoodies with masks on?

What's the point ...

What is a concern is that should this die down in a week or two and policing levels return to what they were before, what is to stop this scum mobilising again very quiclly and doing the same?>

Or can we thnk that the levels of policing may nt be allowed to drop?

At least while the weather's okay

[Thom987]

Deva Link said:

What's the betting all the white people get identified and none of the balck people do?

Because they all look the same?

[Deva Link]

Thom987 said:

Deva Link said:

What's the betting all the white people get identified and none of the balck people do?

Because they all look the same?

I was thinking more of demographics.

[ExChrispy Porker]

The CRS are widely detested, and live in barracks away from their hometown. Can't see many volunteers being forthcoming.

[jeff m]

Deva Link said:

There was 68yr old retired accountand in London blaming the Police attitude for the original riots in London. I think it's come to something when they've lost people like that.

I know it's a really easy thing to say, but middle-class people who get nicked for speeding by a cop hiding behind a hedge are then not very happy when they report being broken in to and nobody bothers to show up.

I wonder if, as the cuts bite, rank & file officers just won't have to will to even be bothered trying to positively engage with the public.

That's pretty much where I stand and I have a friend who is probably out there right now with his helmet and sheild.

If Tottenham had been handled properly, I doubt this would have escalated.
I understand they did arrest and jail the Murdoch pie in the face guy though.

[greygoose]

Y282 said:

i wonder what difference on a day to day level it would make if all officers finally carried firearms.

I'm not sure there is much desire amongst the police for routine arming of all of them, as it could easily escalate confrontations. From working with the French and Belgian police they see a gun as just another piece of equipment that they could lose.

Perhaps tazers would be more acceptable and result in fewer accidental deaths.

[EDLT]

Wasn't there a story a year or too ago about how the CRS were fighting to keep their right to have a pint or two while on duty?

[Mr Dave]

audidoody said:

Y282 said:

i wonder what difference on a day to day level it would make if all officers finally carried firearms.

Probably a question best answered by Jean Charles de Menezes , Stephen Waldorf, Harry Stanley, and now Mark Duggan.

Or all the people in Northern Ireland that dont get shot by the police every day.

[greygoose]

EDLT said:

Wasn't there a story a year or too ago about how the CRS were fighting to keep their right to have a pint or two while on duty?

It was wine, we used to regularly share a hotel with the CRS when they were in the Calais area and they did like a drink at the end of their shift. They lead quite an itinerant lifestyle as they are shipped round the country to deal with incidents and police demonstrations. Most of them were quite a laugh but there were a few that you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

[billzeebub]

I never thought I would say this, but I agree with the French. It is all down to interpretation of EU dictates..we need to man up as a country..

[Zad]

I get the feeling that it is all down to some Silver or Gold commander not wanting to pay an overtime bill for Saturday evening, so held his resources back. The result was no obvious policing, and a free for all.

After the Bradford riots a few years ago, publishing photos of the rioters (they actually rioted in this instance) in the local papers gave a very good response. People didn't want these people in their own neighbourhoods, places they were struggling to improve. To a large extent communities police themselves, and must be given the power to do so. Publishing photos is one such power.