Anarchy spreads across the UK; Cayman cop slams “mindless” rioters
Top police officer John Jones has described the riots on the streets of the UK as
“mindless criminality.”
Chief Superintendent Jones, a former UK officer has experienced first hand the mayhem being witnessed all across England.
Mr Jones, who has been with the RCIPS for five years, said: “We had riots in the 70s and 80s and in 05 and 06 we had them on a local scale.
“Several experienced guys have said this is the worst in living memory. Subsequent rioting seems to me to be mindless criminality, pure looting, theft and doing as much damage as possible.”
Cayman residents travelling to the United Kingdom are being warned to be extra vigilant after rioters plagued the capital for a fourth night running.
And people worried about friends or family currently staying in London can monitor the latest information via the UK’s Home Office.
It comes as hundreds of young thugs took to the streets for a fourth night running. Trouble also flared in Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol.
A spokesman for the Governor’s Office in Cayman said they are monitoring the situation.
He added: “I can imagine that many people around the world, either with family in the UK or with visits planned there, are rather concerned with the recent and rather disturbing news reports. We will monitor and review the situation.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron recalled Parliament from its summer recess yesterday and nearly tripled the number of police on the streets of London to deal with the crisis touched off by three days of rioting.
Cameron described the scenes of burning buildings and smashed windows in London and several other British cities as “sickening,” but refrained from more extreme measures such as calling in the military to help beleaguered police restore order.
Instead, he said 16,000 officers would be on the streets of the capital Tuesday night, almost tripling the number on the streets Monday night. The riots also claimed their first death — a 26 year old found shot dead in a car.
“People should be in no doubt that we will do everything necessary to restore order to Britain’s streets and to make them safe for the law-abiding,” Cameron told reporters after rushing home from an Italian vacation to chair a crisis meeting at his Downing Street office.
A wave of violence and looting raged across London, as authorities struggled to contain the country’s worst unrest since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s. Some 525 arrests have been made.
The spreading disorder was an unwelcome warning of the possibility of violence during London’s 2012 Summer Olympics, less than a
year away.
England’s soccer match Wednesday against the Netherlands in London’s Wembley stadium was cancelled to free up police officers for riot duty.
Police called in hundreds of reinforcements and volunteer police officers — and deployed armored vehicles in some of the worst-hit districts — but still struggled to keep pace with the chaos unfolding at flashpoints across London, in the central city of Birmingham, the western city of Bristol and the city of Liverpool.
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