Day: August 12, 2011

UK RIOTS 2011: Clamour grows to strip looters of benefits and council homes | Mail Online.

As the courts hand out tough sentences to those involved in the criminal activities of the last few days and nights, I have a request for the government and for the police.

Please don’t stop with the looters.

Move on to the anti social yobbos that, on a daily basis, make people’s lives a misery on the many housing estates around this country.

Apply the tough policing and the tough sentencing to the people that we have had to put up with for years.

Let the momentum that has been unleashed by recent events carry forward and lets use it to clean up our streets.

So said the Prime Minister.

I just hope that he has the resolve to see it through and to provide the police and the courts with the support they need to implement his words

A 15-year-old boy who was pictured trying to prise open shutters of a shop in Salford has been arrested after his mother handed him in to police.

Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan said police raided the properties following information from members of the public. He urged people to continue to give the force information.

He said the 15-year-old boy’s mother was “absolutely appalled, horrified and angry” when she saw the pictures of him trying to break into the shop.

“What she did is extremely admirable and I thank her for handing him into local officers as it must have been a hard thing to do,” he said.

This lady demonstrated the sort of moral fibre that is required throughout this country. She is setting an example that should be set to all our kids.

I say Well Done !!!

Sign this e-petition

Sign this petition to remove the rights to benefits for anyone convicted of their involvement in the riots and subsequent looting.

“British Gas has said it will end doorstep selling for three months, claiming the format is “outdated”.”

Now we just need the rest  of the utility companies to stop it too.

My experience has been that the folks that come knocking on my front door. tell out-and-out lies.

Sure they show their ID and introduce themselves as representing whichever company. They have a clip board with some sort of questionnaire on which they tick boxes or, in the case of one guy, continually tick the same box as he slowly wore his way through the paper.

Typically they imply that they represent your supplier. Whenever I point out that I get my gas or electric from another company they switch tack and state that they have been tasked with making sure that we are on the best rates implying that they have some kind of government mandate to look after my best interests.

It’s at that point that I begin to close the door in their faces and send them on their way.

To my way of thinking their presence on my doorstep is as bad as cold calling on the telephone.

They were uninvited. They have disrupted my day. They have lied to me.

So I say Hooray that they have stopped this selling method along with Scottish and Southern Energy .

Now all we need is NPower, EDF and their kin to pack it in too.

 

Why has Cameron criticized the police ?

The apparent riot situation that they were presented with was without precedent. Multiple, fast-moving, groups of thugs, thieves, vandals and looters.

As has been reported these people were using mobile phones, social networking pages and other technology to organise themselves, to alert their peers to the deployment of the police.

Also, unlike previous riot situations seen in the UK, the perpetrators were not really interested in confronting the police. They were happy to create mayhem and then move on when the police appeared. The only confrontations occurred when either the police were out numbered or when the police managed to corral the criminals. For the most part the criminals were happy to hit and run.

Until they had sufficient numbers of officers to deploy the authorities were just firefighting. There were just too many instances of trouble for them to police adequately.

No wonder residents and business owners were asking where were the police and the fire brigade. While one neighbourhood burned another was being attended to, but not all.

Also, let us not forget that not all police officers were issued with riot gear.

I think that Cameron has dishonoured the police by some of his cheap shot comments.

It is time to wake up to the reality of the situation. Not enough officers on the field to address the multiple fronts that were presented. The senior officers were only able to deploy  the officers that they had. Once the extra officers were made available then they were able to change their tactics.

Time to learn some valuable lessons.

These were not the student riots over tuition fees. These were not race riots. Despite what many of the interviewed rioters said this was not a riot against the government’s budget cuts.

This was pure opportunism which became organised thievery and vandalism.