British prime minister David Cameron today said police forces will be able to deploy water cannons and plastic bullets to deal with rioters.
In his strongest statement to date about the violence that has erupted since Saturday night, Mr Cameron said he would not let any concern about human rights get in the way of the publication of CCTV pictures of the rioters.
Mr Cameron declared the police would have legal authority to use any tactics they need to employ. “Every contingency is being looked at. Nothing is off the table,” he said.
Speaking after chairing a meeting of the emergency planning committee Cobra (Cabinet Office Briefing Room A), the prime minister anticipated that anybody involved in the rioting who is caught will be sent to prison.
“We needed a fightback and a fightback is under way,” he said outside Downing Street this morning. “We’ve seen the worst of Britain and I also believe we have seen the best of Britain.”
Mr Cameron praised the actions of the Metropolitan Police which ensured that London had a relatively quiet night last night after the extraordinary violence of Monday.
The violence spread, instead, to cities outside the capital. Three people were killed during a hit and run incident in Birmingham. More than 100 arrests were made in the city.
Up to 1,000 people attacked the police in the Manchester suburb of Salford and across greater Manchester 115 arrests were made.
In Nottingham 80 arrests were made after the Canning Circus police station in the centre of the city was firebombed.
“This continued violence is simply not acceptable and it will be stopped. We will not put up with this in our country. We will not allow the culture of fear to exist on our street,” Mr Cameron said.
Mr Cameron also indicated that the scope of an inquiry will go further to examine the kind of value systems that exist in many deprived parts of Britain.
“It is all too clear that we have a big problems with gangs in our country. For too long there has been a lack of focus on the complete lack of respect shown by this group of thugs,” he said.
“There are pockets of our society that are not just broken but frankly sick. When we see children as young as 12 and 13 looting and laughing, when we see the disgusting sight of an injured young men with people pretending to help him while they rob him, it is clear that there are things that are badly wrong in our society.”
Mr Cameron added he had spoken about this issue for years. It is a “complete lack of responsibility in parts of our society. People are allowed to feel that the world owes them something that their rights outweigh their responsibilities. That their actions don’t have consequences well they do.”
He believed that British society needs a clearer code of “values and standards” that people can live by and stronger penalties for those that cross the line.