hackney...

[lcg]

i truly give in...the great unwashed are now pelting riot police with bins/bricks/trolleys etc after a 'stop and search' took place in hackney. are they attempting to suggest the police should leave them alone to get up to lord knows what? you can see the stupid buggers gawping in the the middle of the trouble, others smashing the street up and actively provoking the police for a response. i say again - they should get the rubber bullets back out and perhaps the scrotes would think twice about acting like a hooligan/thug/gangster. i would be ashamed and horrified if that was my child behaving like that and would do lords knows what to him as a result. why do parents let their children grow up believing that it is acceptable to behave in this way? what are your thoughts on the events that are unfolding? is currently live on bbc news x

[Wrongn3mber]

"Ric.ror
Out of intrest anyone been caught up in a riot?
Cause I have" Yes.

Jno maybe in a weird way this is what we need to open up the governments eyes that we need more and not less as if their underpoliced now then the future holds a worrying time for all law abiding citizens.

[emmie]

we could have ten times the police force in London but the numptys will still do it, its not how many police there are, but the fact that some like having a pop at the police.

[Zeuhl]

Wait a few years until more people find themselves without a 'living pension', and no suitable work for 60-plus year olds, or no adequate NHS provision, or no return on their dwindling savings and one pensioner for every two employed people to support ...

There won't be a lamp-post without a body swinging from it.

[Ric.ror]

It's terrifying isn't it Em?
The worst thing I thought was that even when you think your safe at home your still frightened it will follow you and there is nothing worse than feeling unsafe in your own home

[sandyRoe]

We need to keep this in perspective. remember the posh yobs from the Countryside Alliance attacking police officers at the gates of parliament? Or the students dropping fire extinguishers from a great height.
We're just experiencing a long hot summer.

[Wrongn3mber]

If ever there was a reason to arm ALL police in the future then this is it.

[jackthehat]

Most ordinary Police officers would prefer *not* to carry firearms......and it has ever been thus.

[Zeuhl]

Wrong

if the police thought there was any advantage in having armed officers deployed they would be using them now - the Met have plenty of them.

[Wrongn3mber]

Jackthehat I'm not sure what planet you're from but I know a LOT of police officers (I work alongside the police) many who are currently in standoffs all over london as we speak and they would all prefer to be armed.

[emmie]

if i thought that every time i stepped outside the front door, something bad would happen then i wouldn't go far, not that i do much these days, but
i was in the vicinity lets say of a number of riots, and several IRA bombings way back when, and also the more recent 7/7, but as said, you just have to get on with things.

[Wrongn3mber]

No, no , no I'm not sure you're getting my point. I'm talking about prevention here and not a massacre redhelen. Had are police being armed there would be many too reluctant to leave their house let alone steal and fight the police.

[emmie]

No i don't think all officers should be armed, look at America and take your lead from that.

[Zeuhl]

I think that even in countries where police are routinely armed, officers on Riot Duty are not.

Last thing you want is an officer overwhelmed by a crowd either firing indiscriminately in panic or having their sidearm taken by the mob.

[Wrongn3mber]

"
Last thing you want is an officer overwhelmed by a crowd either firing indiscriminately in panic or having their sidearm taken by the mob."

This rarely happens in countries with armed police.

[emmie]

No all we would be left with is any number of dead people, police and perpetrators alike, no one wants that. Like the kid who says my dad is bigger than your dad, it would get completely out of hand.

[Zeuhl]

Police brandishing guns in the early stages of what might or might not turn into a riot is unlikely to achieve much other than exacerbate - this has been the US experience.

What the police need in that situation is a reliable 'non lethal' weapon that can dispel a crowd.

[DrFilth]

stink bombs

[Zeuhl]

<<This rarely happens in countries with armed police. >>

If you mean riots that is demonstrably untrue.

If you mean officers overwhelmed - ditto.

If you mean the theft of police firearms that is because in a riot situation they don't carry their sidearms as stated above.