The Police's handling of the student march

[purits]

Quote from BBC article:
Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson said the Met should have been better prepared for the possibility of violence.
"It's not acceptable. It's an embarrassment for London and for us," he said. "I think we've also got to ask ourselves some questions. This level of violence was largely unexpected and what lessons can we learn for the future."

Is this the same Police who keep telling us how well-prepared they are for terrorist attck?
I saw clips on the TV of the small number of people kicking in the glass frontage of Millbank. No one did anything to stop it. The Police, a few feet away, stood and watched.

there should of been more of them, but tbh they were dammed ever way.
if there had been masses of police the thugs would have blamed them and said it was the heavy police presence that incited it.
poor old police , facing cuts themselves having to put up with that.

The police were blasted for strong-arm tactis during the G20 protests so, understandably, backed off on this one. FWIW I don't think terrorists are really going to run a campaign of aggravated window-kicking...

Some have suggested they deliberately did not intervene into what was a pretty small and manageable situation, in order to make a point about cuts to their funding and the fact that they need more money to prevent what is likely to be more of this stuff happening as the cuts bite.

There should have been more police, after all this is students we are talking about, they should have known there would be a high turn out, sticking it to the man is far more interesting then sitting at home stoned watching cash in the attic.

Can I just point out that the officers at the scene will be following orders from senior commanders who will be sitting safely in a command post.

Whoever conducted the risk assessments and made the decisions over staffing made a huge error and will no doubt be disciplined over it. These will be officers of Supt rank and above who have ratified any decisions of this nature.

The comment made by Telsa is not correct. The officers actions were determined by command decisions due to the number of available officers, not due to any protest about their own wages.

Police officers themselves demonstrated in London last year about pay cuts if you remember.

Well I watched them standing back folded arms, seeming quite amused by the situation.

The officers with blood pouring down their faces didn't seem very amused

Of course, once it all kicked off it was a different matter. I mean before, as they allowed the march to break into clumps, with only a few people getting down to the rally 100 yards along, while others gathered outside Millbank. Perhaos they didn't reckon the students had it in them to do much damage. Or didn't care.