[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Rob

I haven't been following this thread in detail, but feel it's time to add my bit.

It is one thing people saying the police aren't doing enough, one needs to look a lot deeper at society. The reality is that the **** are running around without fear of anything happening even if they suffer the misfortune of getting caught


At some stage society has to stop pandering to human rights namby pamby stuff and be prepared to lock people up for durations that make a real difference, not just offer petty slaps on the wrist community service, or meaningless fines that don't hurt these people in the first place because they haven't got money to pay them, and have so much free time because they don't do school, or are jobless. If that means jails are orvercrowded, tough, it's not supposed to be pleasant in there. So while we have the supposed party of law and order, conservatives, in charge with people like Kenneth Clarke then saying we need to cut sentences, the government in fact is creating the lax atmosphere leading to this situation.

One must also look at society's expectations of the police. On the one hand we want them to be robust. When they are inevitably you get all the complaints of human rights and stuff. One only has to look at the previous student protests when kettling was used. Society cannot have this both ways. If there are people out there intent on running amok then unfortunately all who are in the area will come under suspicion until proven otherwise.

One must also accept there are issues with how the legal system requires any one arrested to be dealt with. If a suspect is arrested then the officers involved will become involved with very time consuming custodial and evidence recording procedures. They won't be available to continue policing for many hours leaving their colleagues more thinly stretched. Is it any wonder therefore that sometimes the police in these situations didn't worry about the minor offences, especially if they are getting evidence they can use later in slow time, to wait for the most serious problems as they try and contain order.

People talk of using the army? I suggest not bringing them onto the streets, leave that to the police, but if there is now a problem with cell capacity, even in police stations or prisons, then use the army to create temporary holding areas, if need be putting the **** in tents. The could even be made to dig their own latrines.

And finally, what is happening now is not about any sort of social statement, it's about opportunism and organised theft. An awful lot of the looting is co-ordinated. The fires and stuff are often a distraction to get the authorities into a different place whilst just down the road the real value target is emptied This was the case in Croydon where the Reeves furniture shop was torched while a nearby Comet was emptied.

Excellent