Policing Large Scale Disorder: Lessons from the disturbances of ...

Ev w36 Home Affairs Committee: Evidence
who had worked for the Red Cross disaster team in Pakistan, Chile and Gaza. He stated that
there were similarities to this clean up operation compared to those in other countries, the main
one being that it was about communities pulling together. I would like to suggest to you that
what we also saw during the riots was the rising up of young people to clear up the destruction,
injury, mess and loss of life that had been caused. We must find strategies to build on the
positive signs of Community engagement which have been evidenced to us during these
incidents.
2. Some of the work that we are currently undertaking is to look at the role of organized groups
who portray a peaceful mission, but practical evidence of there behaviors reflect otherwise. As
we have monitored and reflected up on the behavior of some of these groups, it would seem
clear that a particular protest causes unrest with other groups and this then causes counter
protests. Our work suggests that much of the unrest caused, was by a small core of people that
are calling others together under the peaceful banner, but that those who are organizing these
events often have a common goal to bring violent behavior to our streets causing damage and
injury to our communities. Whilst not condoning this behavior in any way, we would like to
suggest that many of these young people if offered a positive alternative could become peaceful
citizens of our communities, making a peaceful and positive impact on our country.
3. I believe that the police force in this country is full of passionate officers that want to do there
job and see peaceful communities. I do not believe this to be an easy job to do at this moment,
and would commend these officers who in some cases put there lives in danger to protect
citizens of our country. As you look at the police response and how if these incidents occur
again in the future government and police responses may be different, we would like to point
out that the police carry out the role of upholding justice and peace, this is an extremely difficult
objective, and it would seem that social networking made there more difficult, I would like to
suggest that the police are only able to carry out a caretaking role, and that the responsibility
of finding ways forward lies within our communities. I am sure that lessons are being learnt
with this, and I do not profess to be a professional in this field, but the importance of us all
coming together to discuss ways of understanding our communities and working together with
the Police, emergency services and those from our different communities and cultures could
never be more important for us as a country.
Our summary to you is that the following recommendation be made in your report:
That Government set up a community forum made up of senior police officers, government ministers
those involved in community groups and those involved in clean up operations during the riots. This
could then be replicated across the country on smaller scales. Its objective would be to look at how
communities have pulled together and there motivation to do so, looking at how we can engage
those experienced leaders from the corporate world who helped to coordinate the clean up, with
those who feel that violence is the way to achieve results. The objective would be to look at how
we can implement practical strategies to build on this in our communities in the future.
In conclusion, I believe that we live in a country that knows what community means. Many of the areas that
were affected by the recent riots were affected by bombings in the war where communities and families pulled
together, whilst during the early 1900s local entrepreneurs rose up bringing employment, education and real
strong leadership to our communities all over the country. I believe that the answer to the problems that we
are facing lies in our communities and that we must find ways of engaging with them. I passionately believe
that although our country is in a time of recession and difficulty, we can promote community transformation
through working together, even with some of the most difficult and hardest to reach areas of our community.
I therefore submit my evidence and recommendation to you.
September 2011
Written evidence submitted by Liberty
Riots across England in August filled our TV screens with terrible images of violence and criminality.
Victims of the disorder and damaged communities have rightly demanded answers about the strategy of the
authorities. Liberty therefore welcomes this wide-ranging inquiry by the Home Affairs Select Committee. As
countless voices have attempted to explain why such violence occurred and how we should try to prevent it
happening again, it is important to remember that lessons learned and any future reforms in policy or legislation
need to be informed by evidence and shaped by the principles we seek to uphold as a society. Liberty doesn’t
have easy answers as to why so many were swept up in waves of self-destructive madness in July. We do,
however, have 77 years of experience of holding the police to account and have developed some understanding
of the challenges of public order policing. In this short response we limit our comments to the authorities’
handling of the initial protest which sparked the first riot; the policing response to the wider disorder; broader
issues concerning police and community relations and police accountability; the political response to the
disorder and the law reform proposals which have been mooted.