This article asks whether enough was done to stop looting, arson and violence during the current disturbances. It discusses various options open to government including

• Water Cannons
• Rubber Bullets
• Curfew
• Deploying The Army
• Abandoning Police Procedure

However, for every suggestion Dr Peter Shirlow, a human geographer and public order expert warns about the risk of “sending out a message that we have lost control and inflaming tensions ” or that the police would “risk losing the moral high ground”.

I would suggest that we have already lost control, that tensions could hardly get any more inflamed. And as for the moral high ground, what the hell is that.

The police are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

As usual the great British reserve and resistance to the deployment of the military on home turf is ham-stringing our police forces.

Its time for some decisive actions, time to put the power back into the hands of the police. Lets stop shilly shallying around.

BBC News – England riots: What could the police do to stop the disorder?.

In France when there is civil disobedience on the streets they deploy water cannons. Better still they lace the water with dye so that they can later identify the people who were involved.

Where are our water cannons ? Where is our dye ?

Anyone who is participating in these “riots” across the UK are thugs and thieves. They are purely criminals.

It seems to me that the deployment of water cannons firing water based dye would be the simplest way to identify them. Never mind spending hours trawling through thousands of hours of video recordings. Just pick up anyone who is bright orange.

Well, perhaps not everyone. I think we can safely assume that Dale Winton hasn’t been looting and rampaging on the London streets

“Theresa May, the Home Secretary, flew back from her summer holiday in Switzerland on Monday to deal with the crisis. She ruled out both sending the army onto the streets and deploying water cannons to disperse the crowds, a move advocated by London’s former mayor Ken Livingstone. Authorities have used the high-pressure spray to control mobs in Northern Ireland, but they have never utilized them on the mainland. “The way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon,” May told Sky News. “The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities.” Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2087575,00.html#ixzz1UXxMdaTY

So the violence and vandalism and looting is through the consent of our communities is it. We have transcended the consent of our communities.

It is time to take back control. That should be the number one priority. That control should be wrested from the thugs using any means available.

The time to stop pussy footing around is now.

If we have water cannons…. get them on the streets ….. now

I just saw Sir Alan Sugar being interviewed on TV, being asked his thoughts on the rioting.

One of the key points he made struck a chord with me.

Sir Alan voiced concern that the police would, once again, be made scapegoats for the way in which the violence has been handled. He stated that he had a lot of sympathy for the police.

I agree 100% with his concerns. It has happened time and time again where the police are involved in trying to keep the peace, protect the public and their property and so on. Then as soon as the risks have diminished the police become the subject of enquiries into their heavy-handed approach or their mis-handling of the situation. The violence of the last few days is outside of what constitutes their normal remit. These are extreme situations  which require extreme responses. The problem is that the hands of the police are tied firmly by the law of this land but the thugs & thieves are not abiding by those same laws. So they, the thugs, can attack the public and the police with scaffold poles, bricks and bottles or anything else they can lay their hands on. The police are restricted to using the tools issued to them. Tools, which for the most part are inadequate for dealing with the situations that they have encountered throughout the weekend. Many of the officers on duty have entered the zones of violence have done so without riot gear. The risk to them is simply unacceptable.

It cannot be acceptable that we  can penalise our police for meeting force with force. And if, on occasions, the miscreants are the ones that come off worst then so be it