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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Riots - where is the army?

174 replies

5431go · 04/08/2024 22:22

WTF is going on!

Police officers are not empowered defend us! They fear they will end up in court like the police officer at Manchester Airport.

The UK is such a soft touch, it’s actually embarrassing! These rioters have no respect for those poor police officers lives so why do we pander to them with plastic shields rather than water cannons!

Realistically prisons are bursting at the seams and these guys will get off free. Meanwhile taxpayers and cash strapped councils will be lumbered with the repair bill.

OP posts:
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Nat6999 · 04/08/2024 23:05

Slotis · 04/08/2024 22:32

The police need more power. Take their numbers of their helmets for start. Make them as unrecognisable as the masked rioters. Why we don’t have water cannons I don’t know. Nobody likes getting drenched. Where is that wanker Robinson at the moment? He needs arresting for incitement as does anyone sharing his content. This country is full of thick cunts.

Edited

Tommy Robinson is in a 5 star resort in Aya Napa with his family on holiday.

Lilysgoneshopping · 04/08/2024 23:06

G123456789 · 04/08/2024 22:38

It's amazing when the left riot...like the blm riot that caused all sorts of damage in the centre of Bristol nothing is said. When people to the right do it...call in the army, cut off their ears.
Both are wrong but the response from politicians and the media is so different

A fine example of 2 tier policing. Just like the pro Palestine mob freely calling for death to all Jews while the police look on like your favourite cuddly grandad. They even stood by while the mob projected their hatred onto the Houses of Parliament.

Nat6999 · 04/08/2024 23:07

The Police should have some sort of bullet that covers each one they hit with an indelible dye to mark them out for what they are, utter scum.

alrightluv · 04/08/2024 23:11

Nat6999 · 04/08/2024 23:07

The Police should have some sort of bullet that covers each one they hit with an indelible dye to mark them out for what they are, utter scum.

That would be fantastic

EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · 04/08/2024 23:12

Is anyone near where these riots are happening to tell us how bad it is?

I feel like the papers are trying to stoke it up if I’m honest. There was a headline in one of the online tabloids a few days ago saying Britain is Burning. I thought errrr no it’s not. At that stage I think there was only one or two issues with EDL thugs smashing up the place and it seemed the paper was salivating at the prospect of more trouble.

EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · 04/08/2024 23:16

You just know that a lot of these rioters will have small businesses or be in receipt of government aid in some way which is why they have the bravado to not care about their jobs/being seen to be breaking the law. I want these arseholes stripped of their right to claim benefits as a starting point and then take their driving licenses as a deterrent. They should also be made to pay for the damage they’ve caused.

WhatFlavourIsIt · 04/08/2024 23:18

The Army are off doing their jobs. The police are well trained for this and are the best 'force' to handle the situation.

caringcarer · 04/08/2024 23:22

The only person who can ask the Army to step in is Keir Starmer. He hasn't ordered a Cobra meeting yet. I suspect decisions about the Army being deployed would be made after a Cobra meeting. I do think these riots are spreading to more cities and towns though. Tonight there was one in Tamworth outside the Holiday inn that is housing immigrants. A police officer was hurt. Starmer needs to act not just talk.

GlomOfNit · 04/08/2024 23:23

Well, I'm beyond appalled at what's been unfolding the last few days - but I absolutely do NOT want the Army (or even fire-armed police) on the streets. This isn't the solution. The police need more muscle and more numbers. Their numbers have been slashed by the last Tory administration to a point where they simply can't function effectively.

The solution to right-wing thuggery isn't calling in the Army. I don't want to live in that country.

Saggyknockers · 04/08/2024 23:23

I feel so sorry for the police and all emergency workers having to deal with the riots. I think in circumstances like these then the police would benefit from being supported by the army but that’s not their purpose as I understand.

These riots are really scary and expose the fragility of society when divisive viewpoints envelope the uneducated. Social media has not helped at all and is being used to insight tensions further. In my city there were three zones of different protestor that the police had to deal with where the police line was broken.

TakeMe2Insanity · 04/08/2024 23:26

CuttySarcasm · 04/08/2024 22:24

I’m ex army, and once asked why we weren’t called in more for this sort of stuff. The answer is people feel very nervous having the army on the streets. We’re nice, normal people, but put a gun in our hands and understandably that makes people feel very nervous.

Forces personnel also don’t have the same powers as police. And when not in a war zone the engagement rules would be so strict we wouldn’t be able to do anything.

That being said, I did do riot training, but I’ve never actually used it. The training was actually quite scary in itself to be honest. And I’ve been trained for war!

Presumably a state of emergency would have to be declared and at that moment quite a few statements are unofficially being made which the UK does not want to do. Namely because it would lose weight on the global stage. The UK is however now acting like a third world country and probably needs that type of help.

TakeMe2Insanity · 04/08/2024 23:27

caringcarer · 04/08/2024 23:22

The only person who can ask the Army to step in is Keir Starmer. He hasn't ordered a Cobra meeting yet. I suspect decisions about the Army being deployed would be made after a Cobra meeting. I do think these riots are spreading to more cities and towns though. Tonight there was one in Tamworth outside the Holiday inn that is housing immigrants. A police officer was hurt. Starmer needs to act not just talk.

And what about the people caught up inside the building which was set alight or do they not count?

No33 · 04/08/2024 23:28

Slotis · 04/08/2024 22:32

The police need more power. Take their numbers of their helmets for start. Make them as unrecognisable as the masked rioters. Why we don’t have water cannons I don’t know. Nobody likes getting drenched. Where is that wanker Robinson at the moment? He needs arresting for incitement as does anyone sharing his content. This country is full of thick cunts.

Edited

Picture in tomorrow's newspaper that he's sunning himself in Corfu...

EasternStandard · 04/08/2024 23:29

CuttySarcasm · 04/08/2024 22:24

I’m ex army, and once asked why we weren’t called in more for this sort of stuff. The answer is people feel very nervous having the army on the streets. We’re nice, normal people, but put a gun in our hands and understandably that makes people feel very nervous.

Forces personnel also don’t have the same powers as police. And when not in a war zone the engagement rules would be so strict we wouldn’t be able to do anything.

That being said, I did do riot training, but I’ve never actually used it. The training was actually quite scary in itself to be honest. And I’ve been trained for war!

Interesting post thanks

caringcarer · 04/08/2024 23:32

EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · 04/08/2024 23:12

Is anyone near where these riots are happening to tell us how bad it is?

I feel like the papers are trying to stoke it up if I’m honest. There was a headline in one of the online tabloids a few days ago saying Britain is Burning. I thought errrr no it’s not. At that stage I think there was only one or two issues with EDL thugs smashing up the place and it seemed the paper was salivating at the prospect of more trouble.

I'm in Tamworth and there is a riot outside the Holiday Inn where some immigrants are being housed this evening (Sunday). It's right next to the Snowdome. I've heard a police officer was hurt but don't know how or if badly. The police have apparently cordoned off the area. Tamworth is usually quite a quiet town. I think some of the so called protesters arrived by train. My son lives in Hull and he told me rioters had broken into a Shoe Zone shop on Saturday afternoon and set the shop on fire, stolen the shoes set them on fire and we're then using them as missiles to throw at police, then broken window and set fire to an O2 phone shop next door and then broken the window of a Greggs bakery next to O2 shop. He told me lots of the so called protesters had arrived by train and police had made a few arrests at the train station where they were causing trouble. I think Stoke, Manchester and Liverpool also had some riots.

Mmhmmn · 04/08/2024 23:33

I don’t totally disagree esp about water cannon but the army needs not to be the first measure the govt jumps to.

ErrolTheDragon · 04/08/2024 23:34

Narrator1 · 04/08/2024 22:49

Absolutely no irony at all in labelling people right wing thugs and simultaneously pleading for martial law.

Don't get me wrong, I massively disagree with these so called protesters, but wanting military intervention against them is basically 2 cheeks of the same arse.

It's almost like some posters actually want to exacerbate the situation, isn't it?

Not all of the 'planned protests' have amounted to much, if anything.

caringcarer · 04/08/2024 23:34

TakeMe2Insanity · 04/08/2024 23:27

And what about the people caught up inside the building which was set alight or do they not count?

They were escorted out by the police.

MrsSkylerWhite · 04/08/2024 23:35

Though it’s not widely known, many are being deployed to the Middle East.

MillshakePickle · 04/08/2024 23:37

The police need more power and guns. End of.

Family back home stateside cannot believe that we have unarmed police facing these thugs.

The police are not respected here because the culture is geared up to mistrust them. I was raised to respect law enforcement (and other public servants) from a very young age. From home to school, you are taught and expected to respect public authority, law and order.

I'm not saying it's without its problem back home, there are many. But this shit just wouldn't happen like this and so wide spread in Canada is America.

TheHateIsNotGood · 04/08/2024 23:41

@Lilysgoneshopping - I do recognize your point and additionally noticed the very unnecessary, unrelated and possibly inflammatory unfurling of Palestinian flags on the 'other' side of some police lines.

Whilst this current 'rioting season' is a matter of concern, overall it's not really as there's many people feeling quite disconcerted and unhappy at the moment and the weather let's em riot - it'll soon be cold and chilly and most people in the UK will be huddling together for warmth, not rioting.

Our Police have done a fine job. It wasn't 'consensus rioting' like the Poll Tax, just SM-led sheepherding of the numbskulls.

ErrolTheDragon · 04/08/2024 23:44

MillshakePickle · 04/08/2024 23:37

The police need more power and guns. End of.

Family back home stateside cannot believe that we have unarmed police facing these thugs.

The police are not respected here because the culture is geared up to mistrust them. I was raised to respect law enforcement (and other public servants) from a very young age. From home to school, you are taught and expected to respect public authority, law and order.

I'm not saying it's without its problem back home, there are many. But this shit just wouldn't happen like this and so wide spread in Canada is America.

America with its 'gun culture' isn't something many British people want to emulate.

noblegiraffe · 04/08/2024 23:46

The right would bloody love the army being deployed on the streets of England 4 weeks into a Labour government.

Don't be daft, the optics would be terrible. People are back to work tomorrow.

TheHateIsNotGood · 04/08/2024 23:46

We do not need more guns in th UK - the World needs less guns.

Demonhunter · 04/08/2024 23:48

People pleading for Martial Law. You couldn't make this up. Starting to think Icke and the "conspiracy theorists" were onto something long ago with their predictions.