Police

Monday

Edward Boyd

Do we have the best police service in the world?

As the wave of rioting and looting swept through London earlier this month it was disturbing to see how the actions of a minority could engender fear and disorder on such a grand scale. As the dust settles and the reality of this episode fades away, there is a simple fact that is at risk of being buried under the heap of condemnation of criminals and praise for the police – namely, that such a relatively small number (just over 2,000 were arrested in London out of a population of 8 million) of people deployed themselves so effectively as to bring London to its knees.  Yet thankfully effective deployment is

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Our Crazy Drug Laws, Part XVI

As legal entertainments go Man facing jail after reporting his cannabis plants stolen is a pretty good one. The Edinburgh Evening News reports: Police were called to David Williamson’s home to investigate reports that he had been assaulted and robbed. But after Williamson volunteered that it was two of his prized cannabis plants which had been stolen, suspicious officers got a warrant to search the 34-year-old’s Edinburgh home and discovered a further 20 plants. Williamson was immediately arrested. The case caused barely disguised mirth among lawyers and officials at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today, when Williamson admitted producing a controlled drug at his Sighthill home in May this year. So far,

Tuesday

David Blackburn

Miliband re-opens campaign with same old weapons

Party politics is back from the summer and the summer’s events are defining the strategic dividing lines. Ed Miliband reopened hostilities by threatening to force a vote on police cuts. The Standard reports: ‘The Labour leader said ministers were being “reckless” in refusing to rethink planned 20 per cent savings following the worst rioting in living memory. Launching a new campaign during a visit to Lewisham, Mr Miliband claimed the cuts, reducing officer numbers by 16,000, would “weaken the forces of law and order on our streets”.’ Policing Minister Nick Herbert, one of the coalition’s stars outside the cabinet, described Miliband’s claims as ‘hypocrisy’, pointing out that Labour did not

Saturday

David Blackburn

The war on Britain’s streets

Police in Birmingham have released this extraordinary footage of people firing shots at lines of police officers during the riots. As Iain Duncan Smith says in this week’s magazine, the riots were a wake-up call. This video shows what looks like gangs, about three dozen of them in masks, not just trashing buildings but discharging firearms at unarmed police. The West Midlands chief constable, Chris Sims, released the footage this morning and said he believes there is a “concerted and organised attempt” to kill or injure police.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Recalcitrant police forces

Applications to be the next commissioner of the Metropolitan Police closed at noon today. But thanks to the Home Office and the police, the best candidate for the job — Bill Bratton — hasn’t been allowed to even apply. The energy which was put into barring him shows just how determined the police and the Home Office are to prevent any outside talent from being brought into the police. Number 10, though, maintains that it still wants to appoint outsiders to positions of authority in the police, even though it is now trying to claim that the commissioner of the Met was the wrong place to start this process. It

David Blackburn

Riot sentencing row brews

David Cameron promised that looters would feel the full force of the law. Courts have been sitting round the clock holding defendants on remand and issuing stern sentences. This is causing disquiet in some circles. Lib Dem MPs complain that the government has overacted, incapable of resisting the temptation to take draconian decisions without adequate scrutiny. Tessa Munt told the Guardian that the government’s approach “smacks of headline grabbing by Conservatives, not calm, rational policy-making.” Lady Hamwee also told the paper that it would be a “great pity if what [the justice secretary] Ken Clarke has been doing – finding a better way of sentencing – was to be undone.” Much

Monday

Alex Massie

Bill Bratton’s Approach Provides Ammunition for Tories and Labour Alike

It’s always worse elsewhere. That, at any rate, is one conclusion to be drawn from this question: This is consistent with polls that find twice as many people think crime is “Top Three” problem for the country as a whole than consider it a major problem for their own family. Doubtless there are many reasons for this discrepancy, among them the way in which crime is reported by a breathless, always-indigant media. Nevertheless, perceptions matter in life as in politics and cannot be wished or even, sometimes, persuaded away.  One aggravating aspect of all this post-riot contemplation is the way in which the violence has been taken as proof that

Sunday

David Blackburn

“Zero tolerance”

The law and order debate has come full circle: the coalition is going to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. David Cameron’s promise that crime and anti-social behaviour will receive “zero-tolerance” recalls the rhetoric and politics of the Major and Blair years, an indication that, despite the annual celebration at lower crime rates and higher prison numbers, progress has been merely statistical. As James has noted, the success of the Cameron premiership now rests on delivering “zero tolerance”. Cameron is fortunate that the policies required are already in place, for the most part. Planned police reform will be essential, as will the radical plans for

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron mustn’t let the police top brass bully him into silence

The police have been busy defending themselves this weekend against any criticism of their performance. They aim to stop elected politicians from making any comment on their performance. But David Cameron should not—and must not—back down from both his criticism of police tactics and his conviction that the force urgently needs reforming. The truth is that the initial police response to the riots was hopelessly inadequate. If senior police officers really do think that the Met’s performance on Saturday, Sunday and Monday was adequate, then that in and of itself makes the case for reform. Losing control of the streets in sections of the capital is a failure. As one

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

From the archives: the Bill Bratton edition

As James Forsyth says today, No10 wants Bill Bratton to not just take charge of the Met but start a revolution in policing. A ‘Stop Bratton’ campaign has duly begun with Sir Hugh Orde, himself a candidate for the job, saying that he’s not sure he wants to “learn about gangs from an area of America that has 400 of them.” But it’s worth noting, though, that Bratton has advised the British government before: in June 2006, at the beginning of John Reid’s tenure at the Home Office. Allister Heath (now editor of CityAM) went to meet him and reported back in The Spectator. His piece is below. ‘You can control

Saturday

David Blackburn

Boris’ long-game strategy

Has the sheen come off BoJo? The question is echoing around some virtual corridors in Westminster this weekend. The Mayor of London was caught off guard by the recent riots and his initial decision to remain en vacances made him look aloof and remote, a sense that grew during his disastrous walkabout in Clapham. Then he joined Labour in calls for cuts in the police budget to be reversed, a decision that reeked on opportunism, superficially at least. The FT’s Jim Pickard has an excellent post on these matters and he reveals that Boris Johnson has been voicing these concerns in private for months and that he has a brace

David Blackburn

Cameron lands Supercop as police acrimony mounts

Internationally renowned policeman Bill Bratton has agreed to advise the government on how to defeat gang culture. Bratton’s role is not official, but he will arrive for duty in the autumn nonetheless. The former LA police chief has already offered a diagnosis of Britain’s problems. In an interview with the Telegraph, he says that hoodlums have been “emboldened” by timid policing and lenient sentencing. Quite what this means for Ken Clarke’s justice policy, supported by the Liberal Democrats, remains to be seen. But the indications are that the government will bolster its law and order policies. Doubtless a wry smile will have broken across the face of Andy Coulson, who

Friday

David Blackburn

From the archives – the nihilism of the young

Theodore Dalrymple has an article in this week’s issue of magazine (non-subscribers can buy the Spectator from just £1 an issue), on the nihilism of the young. Roy Kerridge came to very similar conclusions during the Brixton riots of 1981. Here’s what he made of them: A day in Brixton, Roy Kerridge, The Spectator, 18 April 1981 Some years ago I noticed that all was not well with some of the teenage children of my West Indian friends. After reluctantly being pushed out of their schools – where they really did spend the happiest days of their lives, going on treats almost every week – they simply went home and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Time for action

The facts of life are Conservative, as the old phrase has it. The events of the past few days have shown the urgent need for Tory social policies. The case for reforms to the police, welfare and education has been amply demonstrated.  Some in the government appear to get this. But there is also an odd hesitancy about getting on the front foot. As Tim Montgomerie said yesterday, why wasn’t a minister put up for Question Time last night? They could have used the programme to push Cameron’s reform agenda. Equally, why isn’t Cameron setting up an inquiry that will expose how the police have effectively abandoned parts of our

David Blackburn

May intervenes to restore order

Theresa May has banned an EDL march in Telford tomorrow, although the organisation will be allowed into the town to conduct a static demonstration. May has been a hive of hyperactivity since she returned from holiday, and this is yet another example of the government making a decisive gesture to amend for its perceived earlier indifference. It also looks like a strategic decision to contain that other unspoken working class resentment: immigration, and the hint of racial tension that it inspires from time to time. David Cameron was at pains yesterday to insist that the riots were a cultural issue, not a racial issue. He’s right. I’ve spent the last

David Blackburn

Justice is being done as relations between Downing Street and Sir Hugh Orde sour, again

“Busy?” I asked a friend who’s training as a criminal barrister. “You could say that.” Magistrates’ courts have sat through a second straight night. “I finished at five,” said my friend. “Back in court at 8.” The courts are determined to deliver what David Cameron described as “the full force of the law.” These are bail hearings for the 600 people charged so far. Defendants are apparently being arraigned in groups of three in some courts, an indication of the strain caused by these extraordinary circumstances. There will be little respite in the coming days. As I understand it, the overwhelming majority of applicants have been denied bail and will remain

Thursday

Alex Massie

Parliament, Police Powers and Authoritarian Temptations

To the surprise of no-one the public is more concerned by crime this week than it was a week ago. Fancy that! and, equally, to the surprise of no-one, parliament was prepared to indulge any number of kneejerk nonsenses today. Hence the foolishness* about shutting down “social networking communications” during “times of unrest”. Parliament may need to be recalled to give the impression that something is being done; most of the time, in circumstances such as these, it may be best if it only pretends to be doing something. You don’t need to be as preoccupied with civil liberties as I am to appreciate that there’s the potential for this

David Blackburn

A friendly gesture…

The police received a savaging in parliament earlier. I lost count of the number of MPs who relayed their constituents’ anger about riot police who stood by as buildings burned. Cameron’s defence – that the police response had been inadequate to adapt to a new threat posed by crime facilitated by social networking – did not allay the concern. By the end of the debate, there was consensus among many backbenchers that police officers should receive training in riot control as part of their basic training. The extraordinary incidents in London and elsewhere have been at the centre of the world’s eye, and the police have not escaped censure. Le Monde carries a wonderfully mischievous

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron sets out his stall

David Cameron’s statement to the House of Commons was clear about the circumstances that led to these riots. ‘This is not about poverty, it’s about culture. A culture that glorifies violence, shows disrespect to authority, and says everything about rights but nothing about responsibilities.’ Later in the session, he said ‘you don’t hit moral failure with a wall of money.’ On this, Cameron is surely right. In a respectful atmosphere in the House of Commons, Cameron set out the government’s proposed response to the riots. The major legislative action he set out was a change to the law to allow the police to force people who they suspect of being

David Blackburn

Coalition united in restoring law, order and property

David Cameron’s convictions are best expressed in anger. Cameron exuded an air of the patrician yesterday with his righteous moral certainty. This may have made some observers squirm, but others would have seen this seething performance as the essence of leadership in crisis. Cameron is likely to sustain this tone in parliament today. He will say that there is a “sickness” in our society and set out his plan for curing the malaise. The political class has already offered the government a panoply of options to pursue, but the coalition is expected to stand by its current course of education and welfare reform; if anything, these riots confirm their necessity.