to think that Labour's stance on moped ramming is stupid

[longfingernails]

The Metropolitan Police have been knocking over moped muggers with their cars, and releasing the footage as a deterrent. It's a fantastic idea which has cut moped crime dramatically.

Predictably, the Shadow Home Secretary has said 'it shouldn't be legal for anyone'.

Why is Labour's instinct always to side with the scumbag criminals over the victims, the police and the decent people?

Wow what a load of cobblers, the usual " police kill youngsters willy nilly"

The tactic has been in use for a year, no-one died.
Moped crime is down.
It works.
Police have a legal right to use a degree of force.
This is not a punishment but a method of apprehending a suspect.
The process needed to get authority to use these tactics is quite stringent.

Let's not kid ourselves that this is the only way to catch youths that chances are the police know as much about them their family and their movements as they do their own.

So go round them up when they are not breaking the law?

I'm sure that will hold up in court

Totally agree with the police on this.

This crime is a menace, especially when acid attacks are thrown into the occasion.

I can only imagine that the defenders of these thugs don't live in neighbourhoods absolutely infested with them. I have zero sympathy for them, they've been allowed to run roughshod for far too long.

I'm delighted that the Met is finally cracking down on them, although it's a bit late in the day.

Oh and I'm absolutely in favour of funding the police properly again. Quite why people don't see that the rise in crime has coincided with police cuts I don't know.

Yes. The police should be better funded.

So they can buy more pursuit cars and train more officers to knock violent moped robbers off their bikes, arrest them and prosecute them.

👍

Quite why people don't see that the rise in crime has coincided with police cuts I don't know.

Don't think anyone is stating as such, but to pretend that is just the only issue is also quite politically motivated and ignorant

If the police were better funded we might not actually get to the stage where the issue of needing to ram so many people arises, is the important point here. We know that when there are fewer police visibly on the beat, crimes like this increase. That's what's happened over the past few years. It would be better if the opportunity wasn't seen to be there in the first place!

I am finding it difficult to comprehend how many people in the UK think this is OK, both here and on other forums. In no way is this acceptable policing.

We need more police, and their job should be to uphold the law. Not to put members of the public at risk by encouraging reckless driving, and meting out disproportionate punishments. More innocent pedestrians will be killed by bikes escaping from police chases. And if my moped was stolen, I would not be chuffed if the police smashed it up before returning it to me.

What is the point of the police trying to build community relations if they can just mow suspects down at will?

Clearly the way to solve knife crime is to arm our police with swords....

Well the way to deal with it is clearly not to send unarmed police against armed criminals. Or do you think the police are somehow superhuman enough to disarm criminals without anyone getting hurt?

So yes I do think armed police are the way to tackle armed criminals.

Surely the routine arming of police (I understand there's a place for armed units I'm talking about armed regular police officers) just encourages criminals to be armed at all times?

I am totally behind this and think it’s a great idea. I can only assume that the people who oppose it are not in an area where moped crime is rife - I believe at some point there were 600 moped crimes in one day.

This is absolutely not about kids stealing mobile phones from rich people. The gangs in London are grown men, armed with machetes and angle grinders with no fear whatsoever. I am too worried to visit certain local areas of London at the moment. Please watch the other video the police released which shows how terrifying these people can be.

This new wave of horrendous crime has to be stopped, and if the threat of being injured by a police car deters even a few of them then it’s worth doing.

I would prefer to see community policing teams better funded and working with the community to cut crime. We need to properly invest in policing rather than use sticking plaster last resort measures.

Surely the routine arming of police (I understand there's a place for armed units I'm talking about armed regular police officers) just encourages criminals to be armed at all times?

Who suggested routinely arming the police?

The strawest of straw men.

Off topic but my sisters xP was arrested for hiding outside her house under a car with a knife. Next day he broke his bail and phoned her 140 times threatening her and no one would take him back into custody because the person dealing with it had gone on holiday and the other people in the office had 25 similar cases to get on with. Policing is in crisis because of lack of resources at the moment.

I have no sympathy for moped criminals.
I DO care about law abiding young black men who ride mopeds and feel this policy is going to result in somebody innocent being injured.

People are scared and they focus often on young men and the way they dress / what they drive. In the same way that a young black man walking home in the US can be described as “acting suspiciously” and shot it’s not too hard to imagine a young Asian man on a scooter getting reported as “one of them”.

Yep, knock them off. I am totally behind this. Maybe if your child was sprayed with acid or maimed by a machete on the way home from school you would be too. The police have had to go softly softly for too long and it has allowed the moped gangs to grow and gain confidence. Yes they should be punished in court, you have to catch them first though and if this gets the most results, so be it.

Why do these "kids" do this? Is it because they want more money? Is it because it gives them kudos among their mates for being hard and being a criminal gets them more respect than having a 9-5 job? Do they just enjoy the thrill of violence and being able to intimidate people?

I sincerely doubt it is because they weren't given a community centre with a snooker table and the injustice of not having that drives them to throw acid in delivery drivers faces . Plenty of people have had really difficult lives growing up (poverty after the war was horrendous, with families living in absolute squalor) but most people don't turn to crime and actually the quality of life is so much better than a lot of people had growing up. Perhaps sometimes tough love is the solution rather than just admitting that there will always be an element of society that does not want to be "good" and law abiding?

@KissingInTheRain it was in the deleted post

I DO care about law abiding young black men who ride mopeds and feel this policy is going to result in somebody innocent being injured

The police have made perfectly clear that these tactics are only used when they’re sure that the riders have been properly identified as suspects and have been given full opportunity to stop.

There’s no suggestion that anyone is targeted by colour or for any other bad reason.

Diane Abbott says it's dangerous. So is being stabbed and having acid thrown at one. Typical raison d'etre from a politician who likes to take the side of the assailant rather than the victim.

Law abiding moped riders just need to stop when asked to by the police. I think this policy is spot on.

Ahhh bless them, these little chaps didn’t have a community centre or a sports hall. Scarred them for life. Look how upset they are at that! I can see tears steaming up their helmets as they wave their knives in anguish.....”all we wanted was table tennis and 10p packets of space raiders”