Public (Dis)Order
Wednesday, February 8th, 2006Having recently posted about my public order training, it was interesting to find video footage on the web of the poll tax riots in 1990. Maybe I’m getting really old now, but this seems like only yesterday, but when I look back at the dress of these officers, and the tactics employed, we’ve come a hell of a long way since then. Oddly, many of my colleagues didn’t even remember this rioting happening - just shows my advancing years I guess.
No body armour, tunics and standard helmets, no shields (apart from the “Snatch Squads” - still in tunics with no armour), and an 8 inch twig compared to our 24 inch batons. These guys had balls. Being inherently peaceful in nature, I’m always baffled when people riot (at least in the UK). It’s not like the Government or Police are overly oppressive. I can understand people not being happy with a state of affairs, but to turn to wanton violence, destruction, and looting is beyond me. I hope I never have to combat rioters in my service, though if I do, thanks to advances in kit and tactics, I’d feel a little more prepared than these guys obviously weren’t.
The video footage from ITN can be found here. Beware it’s 17MB so best accessed by broadband users only.