UK: Cameron's plan to import US adviser angers police chiefs

[marmar]

from the Independent UK:



The front-runner for Britain's top police job has ridiculed David Cameron's decision to take on an American "Supercop" as an adviser on policing and gangs in the wake of the riots.

Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, openly questioned the Prime Minister's appointment of Bill Bratton, former police chief in New York and Los Angeles, to examine the policing issues raised by the mass disturbances. In a dramatic escalation of the tensions between senior police officers and Downing Street, Sir Hugh also hit back at the "totally unjustified ... negative attacks" on policing.

Senior police officers are furious at the political criticism of their handling of the disturbances, which broke out in Tottenham last Saturday and spread to several English towns and cities by Tuesday.

Speaking to The Independent on Sunday, Sir Hugh issued his third rebuke in a week to Mr Cameron, suggesting that his handling of the crisis has been less than sure-footed. Sir Hugh said: "I am not sure I want to learn about gangs from an area of America that has 400 of them. It seems to me, if you've got 400 gangs, then you're not being very effective. If you look at the style of policing in the States, and their levels of violence, they are so fundamentally different from here. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/exclusive-pms-plan-to-import-us-adviser-angers-police-chiefs-2337445.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Connect the dots

Bratton ====> Rudy Giuliani ====> Rupert Murdoch

[midnight]

3. Interesting...

[dipsydoodle]

5. From that I suspect

a basic inability to join the dot let alone dots.

[dynasaw]

2. Cameron is an idiot

Some of his solutions are totally off the wall including this one.

This is the man who now wants to take away public housing and assistance from the rioters.
Imagine all the already disaffected thrown out onto the streets, not to mention more crime
and understaffed police.

[SwissTony]

4. Not just the rioters

but the parents of the rioters if the rioter is a kid living with Mum and/or Dad (Aside: would this include parents like those who saw their child on TV and were so appalled they rang the cops themselves?)

From the Grauniad...

Coalition efforts to present a united front over the riots have come under strain as senior Liberal Democrats call for an end to "kneejerk" reactions by politicians and warn that stripping those involved of their benefits could worsen crime on the streets.

In a clear sign of tensions between the governing parties, the Lib Dems' deputy leader, Simon Hughes, insists that long-term solutions lie in supporting communities by offering opportunities and redistributing wealth, not slashing help from the state and cutting taxes for the rich.

Writing in the Observer, he says: "We need to demonstrate ambition to have a responsible society where all people understand and are aware of their obligations to each other. This means we must not cut taxes for the rich or take away public support for the needy."

Referring to plans, backed by many Tories, to cut benefits and evict families of rioters and looters from their homes, Hughes, whose south London constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark has one of the highest concentrations of council homes, adds: "We should be careful not to rush into kneejerk solutions including over-hasty moves to change the social contract and approaches to sentences which may have the reverse effect to that intended.".

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/13/england-riots-coalition-response>