Month: August 2011

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“British Gas has said it will end doorstep selling for three months, claiming the format is “outdated”.”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

 

Every person arrested for looting, rioting, burglary etc. etc. over the last few days should be made to clear up.

I don’t just mean the broken glass and the general mess that they have caused on the streets. I mean, they should have to clear up the sites where they have burnt buildings and cars.

They should do this and do it for free.

Make them wear bright pink vests with “I AM A LOOTER” across the back and front.

Make them clean up in their own communities so that their neighbours can see what sort of people they are.

This should be their punishment. There is no point in fining them as many cannot afford to pay. We should not jail them as then we will be paying them to sit idle.

Everyone of them made a decision.

They all had choices and they all chose to break the law.

Now is the time for consequences.

This lady deserves a medal

I know all the looters are not black but all the looters need this message drummed into them. Those kids on the streets need to hear this from their parents. It needs to be drummed into their thick skulls that their actions are hurting the communities they live in.

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