retro; The answer is not indiscriminately blasting innocents with water. I did 3 tours of NI; the first two as a foot soldier, patrolling the streets and also, whenever protests became riots, as part of the 'Snatch Squad'. Ringleaders would be singled out, the Snatch Squad, armed with just a baton, would place themselves immediately behind a line of shield wielding troops, then, on the given command, those troops would part, allowing us to nip through, grab one or two of the ringleaders, and drag them back behind the shields. They would be arrested and taken away. This action would be repeated several times until the rioters had run out of effective leadership. Things would eventually quieten down and the riot would return to a peaceful protest. Only on those few occasions when the arrest of their leaders fuelled the mob's anger did we resort to rubber bullets.