One witness, who asked not to be named, described “around 200” people “screaming” in the street.
The Balls Pond Road resident told the Standard: “I was leaving my house and I heard a lot of sirens.
“As I walked up Balls Pond Road I saw around 200 people gathered outside of the shops, they were mainly girls and were screaming.
“It was terrifying. One of them smashed a bottle against a bin and they all ran.
“I was walking on the other side of the road and people there started running away too.”Ahhhh, feel the enrichment!
This just in from our correspondent in Dalston...
A Met Police spokeswoman said officers were unable to locate a disturbance while Hackney Police wrote on Twitter that they were monitoring the situation.As much use as a chocolate teapot. They can't even get their story straight.
A statement read: “We deployed units & group were also monitored on CCTV.
Sometimes our presence can inflame situations so we move away.”Well, of course! Sod the poor public. They just pay your wages so their streets are safe, eh? Cue no end of 'Mah resources! Cuts! Tories!' from police Twitter accounts:
But hey, you're possibly right, lads. Maybe there's no social timebomb created by allowing youths unchecked by their parents and 'community' to also go unchecked by the (supposed) forces of law and order.
We can look at Somalia to see the potential future of such a lack of determination to preserve order, can't we?
Or....we could look at Croydon?
10 comments:
Nail on head!
The politicians and the Met - but I repeat myself - are the Staffie owners now claiming to be shocked - shocked - that their loving family pet 'Tyson' has savaged next door's toddler.
Yet if 50 white males turned up, bearing no weapons, but wanting to get to a football ground there would be plenty of plod available then...
I was interested in the "Hate Crime" story as some years ago I drank at a pub of the same name in the Croydon area (different pub). My Lying Press detector went off after about three seconds when, oddly, no description of the attackers was issued. It took me less than another five seconds to find the pub's Facebook page. Googling "Goat pub Zambia" is also instructive.
It's been a fun start to the day being "unfriended" by one snowflake of my vague acquaintance after I asked him why a gang of Africans beating up an Iranian made him: "ashamed to be English."
Armchair experts are always right Julia. Especially if they have a twitter account.
Jaded
What an odd confluence!
I was brought up, educated and lived in Zambia (previously Northern Rhodesia). I was a post-grad student at the University of Zambia (UNZA) when armed Police came to close the campus. Not long after a riot ensued. You do not want to be anywhere near a Zambian riot, it is terrifying.
A few years later I ended up as an Inspector in the Royal Hong Kong Police and towards the end of my first tour of duty I was posted to the Emergency Unit, Kowloon West (EU/KW). Motorcycle races along the Lung Cheung road at the foot of Lion Rock were the bane of EU and Traffic lives. One night some information was fed through so Car 50 (me, a Station Sergeant and two PCs went to a particular look-out lay-by on the Lung Cheung road where the two principal motorcycle gangs were meeting and most probably laying large bets on the outcome of the night's racing. We approached from the east (off 'our' patch) and as we passed the entrance to the lookout my Station Sergeant, a very senior NCO, much more schooled in the way of things than a 'one-pip' officer, called a very short halt and the Orderly de-bussed. We then accelerated hard (as hard as a Land-Rover could), and blocked the western exit of the lookout. We all got out of the vehicle to face about a hundred bikers who were not best pleased at their night's fun being interrupted. Murmurs of dissent began, growing fast. Then there was one distinctive sound which brought immediate silence. The Orderly had taken with him the Remington pump-action shot-gun. The sound of a round being pumped into the chamber is very distinctive. All dissention ceased.
The Station Sergeant uttered a few quiet words sending both the driver and the other PC scurrying around the assembled motorcycles. All anyone could hear was a prolonged series of hisses. After about five minutes, during which we Police smiled silently at the large group of equally silent bikers, the two officers returned to the Station Sergeant to show him the tyre-valves and petrol-tank caps of all of the motorbikes there. Station Sergeant WU Ka-leung issued a terse order and the whole lot went over the wall, down 70 feet into hill-side jungle. During the aghast silence, we left.
As we drove away SSgt.Wu said, and I can hear the words today, "Dui m'jiu Ah Sir. Ni di hai lei ge si gon." "Sorry sir, this is your responsibility"!!!
There was never any complaint.
Yes, properly equipped, trained and motivated Police Officers most certainly can deal with large numbers of the opposition.
Interesting story Selsey Steve. Not sure how it is relevant to today's policing though. Are uiu advocating police arm themselves with shotguns and then cause criminal damage? That would work out great and I can already envisage the Julia and the editor of the Daily Mail having a near heart attack writing yet more anti-police headlines.
Jaded
I see the armchair gold commanders and tactical advisers are out in force again. As a keen student of disorder I can tell you that the one factor that causes a riot is invariably police action, usually arising out of a minor incident after a period of rising tension.
I await your revelations as to how four unarmed officers can deal with 200 (if there were 200) youth. A can of PAVA and a collapsible baton of dubious quality doesn't really hack it when the odds are 50 to 1. Sometimes it's better to pull back and not give the little s###s a chance to kick off, sometimes you can end an incident by early arrest. It's a judgement call but whatever decision you make someone will complain. I can absolutely guarantee that if trouble does start the very people who complain about police inaction will be wondering why all the trouble started over a minor incident.
As for Ryan's comment - there is usually a fixture list so of course police will be around a match given that a lot of football fans do not behave themselves, but I'm sure it's all harmless banter isn't it?
BTW Julia, have you seen the pictures of those so far accused of the Croydon incident leaving court? I suspect those accused will come from more than one section of the community. I would add that annoying the Kurds may not be a good career move for the yobs involved as they tend to take this sort of thing personally and will be a lot more organised that the youth of Croydon.
Retired
"The politicians and the Met - but I repeat myself - are the Staffie owners now claiming to be shocked - shocked - that their loving family pet 'Tyson' has savaged next door's toddler."
While remaining safe from said marauding beast behind bullet-proof glass and gated neighborhoods..
"Yet if 50 white males turned up, bearing no weapons, but wanting to get to a football ground there would be plenty of plod available then..."
Hmm, well, Retired does have a point, these are planned in advance. It's just possible that the police would be on hand in numbers at any large-scale black event like the Notting Hill Stabfest. It's a little unclear what they'd do there, mind you.
"My Lying Press detector went off after about three seconds when, oddly, no description of the attackers was issued."
I must have bought the very same model! :D
"Armchair experts are always right Julia. Especially if they have a twitter account."
If you say so... ;)
"Then there was one distinctive sound which brought immediate silence. The Orderly had taken with him the Remington pump-action shot-gun. The sound of a round being pumped into the chamber is very distinctive."
Heh!
"That would work out great and I can already envisage the Julia and the editor of the Daily Mail having a near heart attack writing yet more anti-police headlines."
Yes, Jaded, clearly. After all, I always complain when police shoot a criminal... *rolls eyes*
"I await your revelations as to how four unarmed officers can deal with 200 (if there were 200) youth. "
*sighs* Did it escape your notice that they were mostly young girls?
"BTW Julia, have you seen the pictures of those so far accused of the Croydon incident leaving court? I suspect those accused will come from more than one section of the community."
I have indeed. Hurrah for 'diversity'?
Have you ever dealt with these 'young girls'? I have, they're not Violet Elizabeth Bott types and IMO are usually worse than males at that age. I would rather go toe to toe with a load of football hooligans than 14-16 year old hysterical girls from Hackney.
Retired
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