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.

[naomi24]

Is Bristol the home of Rent-a-Mob?

This country hasn't changed its geographical position. It remains on the continent of Europe.

[Paigntonian]

While the so-called protest developed into unacceptable behaviour I would expect:
1.The police should have implemented one of their contingency plans in case of civil unrest.
2. They should have been able to deal with the incident, which was hardly worldwide revolution, with greater speed and efficiency if they, for some reason, couldn't find the file entitled 'what to do in case of emergency'.
3. They were useless, as usual.

[Paigntonian]

Naomi: Unless we've moved we are not on the continent of Europe.

[lankeela]

They are on a hiding to nothing - try to police protests peacefully and they get accused of being soft, go in hard and they are accused of police brutality. When people turn up to protests armed with fireworks then they are not planning a peaceful protest. They should be tasered and locked up.

[bednobs]

".....a freezing wind blown Island somewhere?"
trouble is they already live on one :(

[Paigntonian]

lankeela: Don't object to that. But they should do their job. If they spent less time whinging they might have more time for policing. They've arrested roughly six so far. There were rioters calmly putting petrol bombs under police vehicles while the police were hiding. Useless, not fit for purpose. They'll want another pay rise now because they've had to endure people being nasty to them.The police were hiding for goodness sake.

[shoota]

Paignton - did you not read my post?
You are talking from a point of ignorance.
Again.

[Paigntonian]

Shoota: If the police can't deal with a situation like this they aren't doing a very good job.

[Espresso125]

emmie
all mainland European counties ive been to have armed police
but i would not want that here

[Theland]

The riots in the early 1980's began in Bristol and then spread nationwide.
Expect copycat riots soon.

[royfromaus]

If you support BLM then you support this.

[Ken4155]

Don't understand why our police forces don't employ 'snatch squads' when faced with thugs such as those in Bristol and elsewhere. If those throwing the bottles and planting the petrol bombs were taken out of the equation, the protests would become a tad less violent.

[naomi24]

//Naomi: Unless we've moved we are not on the continent of Europe. //

Which continent are we part of then, Paigntonian?

[youngmafbog]

Armed Police would not have made a difference, all that likely would Police cant just go shooting.

We need better sentencing and identification of the rioters.

[youngmafbog]

Armed Police would not have made a difference, all that likely would Police cant just go shooting.

We need better sentencing and identification of the rioters.

Bring back the birch and stocks.

[ladybirder]

Exactly Naomi. I too would like to know which continent we are on?

[shoota]

There were 300 of them. They were split between three points around the intersection where the Police station is located.
Lets say a bloke has been identified as needing arresting in the second rank of people A PC goes for him, so he moves back. PC goes after him.
Seeing this 3 or 4 other cops go after him.
PC 1 catches the man who starts to fight. The crowd around him start to assault the cop who has got him, the other cops arrive and are immediately fighting with the crowd as well.
You then have 4/5 cops against the mob.
Do you order the line forward to rescue and risk the majority of the mob being able to bypass the line and reach the Police station and attack the other cordons from behind?
Or do stay put, keep your troops relatively safe and protect the Police station?

Say an arrest was made without the above scenario. How many Police do you think would be needed to remove that prisoner from the scene? He isn't going to come quietly so you'd need an arresting officer, a witness and at least two other cops as escort. You'd need a vehicle with a driver to transport the prisoner and probably a group of 20 officers to prevent a rescue. How does that leave your cordon?
Do not think that there wasn't an officer there who didn't want to make arrests, or at least clear the street, but when faced with a gang like that who outnumber you by at least 3 to 1 you have to take a broader view.

[margarettom]

I would never want the ordinary police to be armed. We do have armed police we can call on in special circumstances and that’s enough.

[emmie]

i already said that they are not wanted here, espresso.....

[Bazile]

The police doesn't need any more powers .

It already has powers to deal with this sort of behaviour