Bristol Riots

[gulliver1]

Enough is enough .Never mind the water cannons Time for the Uk Police Force to be armed . They need to be protected against these animal rioters.

[ummmm]

No, nothing like the US. I stopped a policeman to ask for directions. He turned around and had a gun. It freaked me out.

[emmie]

i have seen police with guns, but pretty sure they are rare in the general population of police.

[ummmm]

Emmie...leaving the EU doesn't mean we've moved continents. We're still a European contrary.

[emmie]

i don't consider us so.

[ToraToraTora]

ummm: "We're still a European contrary. " - very Freudian!

[emmie]

we are an Island nation.

[drmorgans]

Bloody autocorrect

[emmie]

merely pointing out to gully that there were indeed riots across the EU.

[ummmm]

Blame the computer :-)

[Fatalbertfixer]

Let them use those lovely hard sticks they have,i have no problem with that at all.You want to act like savage then you should have no complaint about being treated like one

[saintpeter48]

Put them in the army, that'll stop them marching and fighting!

[emmie]

the army doesn't want these miscreants, besides which 10 thousand soldiers are for the chop shortly....

[saintpeter48]

emmie ....... I was being ironic.

[emmie]

oh ok.....

[shoota]

Bristol only had 300 officers on duty. They are too small a force to have the resources that the Met can call on. In the circumstances all they could do was defend the Police station and prevent it being taken and burnt as happened in Minneapolis post George Floyd. Other forces sent aid but without pre-planning they weren't of sufficient number to enable a more robust response. The logistics in effecting just one arrest would have severely depleted the cordon around the Police station to a point where acute danger was caused to those remaining.
I append a quote from a Police site that I am on that, whilst it is 'hearsay', I have no reason to doubt:

"I’ve been retired for 2 years now but they were my friends up there last night. What you won’t see in the press is that an officer got dragged into the crowd and badly beaten and they were setting fire to the crew buses with officers sat on them! My blood is boiling."

It would appear that there were those in the mob whose intent was literally to kill the bill.

[Peter Pedant]

// It is shameful but I wouldn't want the police to be armed//
oh my god - they arent arming the police now are they?

( just me trying to be more AB than of late)

[lankeela]

Surely this escalation of violence means that the bill is indeed needed?

[Peter Pedant]

// Put them in the army, that'll stop them marching and fighting!//
yeah arm them and teach them to fight and that'sll stop them er fighting ! foo on !

hey once you get into it - AB craziness and illogic has attractions .....

[Arrods]

"Surely this escalation of violence means that the bill is indeed needed?"

Exactly, they just proved the case for the legislation.

[Peter Pedant]

// Surely this escalation of violence means that the bill is indeed needed?//

the chief con of Bristol is afro caribbean and was bemoaning this on R4 this am.