The Home Secretary appeared to rule out sending water cannon or the Army onto the streets of the capital, despite a third night of violence. Speaking on Sky News, she said that police intelligence and the support of local communities would help quell the disturbances. “The way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon,” she said. “The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities.”
Good grief. “Consent’ in any real sense was demolished by the UK’s political class decades ago, along with Dock Green (British viewers will understand…). Somehow I suspect that if May took the trouble to consult the people who pay her salary a large majority might have a rather different view than the one she appears to enjoy from her ivory tower.
The Daily Telegraph continues:
With the police appearing to lose control of parts of London overnight, many people used the social network site Twitter to demand that officers be allowed to use the weapon. An early supporter of the tactic was Ken Livingstone, the former London mayor, who said he agreed that police should allowed to start using the cannon to disperse rioters. He said: “The issue of water cannon would be very useful given the level of arson we are seeing here.”
When ‘Red Ken’ talks more sense than David Cameron’s home secretary you know that Britain is in trouble.
Update
Theresa May and London Mayor Boris Johnson meet the voters. It doesn’t go well.
Mr Johnson, who flew back from his summer holiday yesterday as the violence escalated across the capital, said: ‘’I want to say to everybody who runs a shop or owns a business here how very sorry I am for the loss and the damage you have suffered.
’’I also want to say to the people who have been involved in instigating these riots and those who have been robbing and stealing that they will be caught, they will be apprehended and they will face punishments they will bitterly regret. They will.
’’I know there are questions about the police response and police numbers. We are certainly going to be dealing with those.’’
Mrs May was led away by aides as a visibly-stunned Mr Johnson faced the television cameras and public wrath.
One woman told him: ‘’I was in a salon when a brick came through the window and no one was here to defend me.’’
The British state lectures, hectors and micro-manages the law-abiding. When it comes to defending them, it is, all too often, AWOL.
"The Home Secretary appeared to rule out sending water cannon or the Army onto the streets of the capital"
LOL. British police do use water cannon - in Northern Ireland. But I guess to use water cannon on the Irish is one thing, but against looters in London quite another...
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"The British state lectures, hectors and micro-manages the law-abiding. When it comes to defending them, it is, all too often, AWOL."
The left, around the world, despises the law-abiding. They consider them (us) little more than sheep.
They romanticize the criminal, the thug. The more spectacular the crime, the more destructive to society, the more they admire it. From specifics like Mumia and Che and Castro and Chavez to generalities like jihadis and illegals and "rioters", the left will favor the criminal over the law-abiding.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt brings to mind that awful Bonnie and Clyde movie from the 1960s. The director, his evil police and romantic rebels got every acclaim, and STILL so little of the obvious criticism deserved.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, but what does Ed Miliband think?
Does he think these riots are wrong at a time when negotiations are still going on?
Does he think both parents and the public have been let down by both sides because the government has acted in a reckless and provocative manner?
Because if he does, after today's disruption I hope he urges both sides to put aside the rhetoric and stop it from happening again.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOr to put it another way, negotiations are still going on, which makes these riots wrong.
The government has acted in a reckless and provocative manner, and both parents and the public have been let down by both sides.
After today's disruptions, it will indeed be urgent to for both sides to put aside the rhetoric, get 'round the negotiating table, and stop this from happening again.
Doubtless, with leaders like Ed Miliband, order shall be restored.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePerhaps Theresa will reconsider something just short of a good soaking for the protestors.
Perhaps its time to bring out the cushions.
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes - bring out the ... the comfy chair!!!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf the law-abiding residents of London are content merely to stay on the sidelines, cleaning up rubble while pleading with the authorities to allow the police to hose down those who night after night burn, loot, and assault, then they have only themselves to blame for their plight and are getting what they deserve.
As for the police in London themselves, they should be under orders now to shoot the rioters on sight, and to shoot to kill.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"One woman told him: 'I was in a salon when a brick came through the window and no one was here to defend me.'"
The state cannot defend you madame, and it has made mighty well sure you cannot defend yourself, either.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat's what happens when you put a liberal female in charge of internal security -- classic anarcho-tyranny. The criminals get mollycoddled and the law-abiding are severely punished if they dare to defend themselves.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, in defense of the police, it's a lot safer for them to order the middle class victims of the rioting about than for them to go out on the streets and confront some brick-weilding yobs.
And in the end, that's what matters. To them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOver a hundred police officers have been injured in the riots so far, some very seriously.
Does that matter?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNot really.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe only thing that matters is results, and if the English police find the going tough they have no-one to blame but themselves for failing to learn the lessons taught by the 1992 L.A. riots.
Kind of makes our 2nd Amendment here in the States seem like a sensible thing. Bet if those law abiding shop owners had a shot gun or two on premises those looters would have been sent packing- off to look for easier prey.
When you out law the use of weaponry by law abiding citizens, you ensure that the only ones possessing them will be the criminals. And this is aside from the police- the British cops don't even carry firearms!!
Lunacy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRob Crawford: Every word you say is true
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseZulu uprising comes to Britian. Why don't u deal with it appropriately. Canons yes. Water canons?? I don't think so!!! A. Wet shower is NOT enuf to curb an uprising that had been brewing for years in your. Welfare nanny state. The nannies freaks are on the warpath. Suppress them or be suppressed !!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLooters in the Rodney King riots in LA were contained pretty well by Korean immigrant shopkeepers with guns. Unfortunately the UK does not allow shopkeepers guns, or allow them to use force to defend themselves, so they are sitting ducks.
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