G20 Draws In Riots

By WashDCDemocrat

Obama's visit to London for the G-20 Summit was amidst rioting by a number of groups. The protesting was peaceful at first, but Metropolitan Police were ordered to stop Anarchists from breaking shop windows, as is typical of them at such demonstrations. Images of officers pushing back massive crowds or wrestling bloodied rioters flashed across the screens of the major news networks. While the violence isn't necessarily uncommon at such meetings (organizations like the G20 and the WTO draw in protests often), they raise a point that is raised anytime there are riots: how do you control a crowd without fueling their rage or injuring them severely?

Riot control is one of the toughest job for a police department. They have disorder on their hands and a need to act, but they also have a media circus filming them, and large numbers of officers attacking civilians is generally seen as police brutality. Officers need to know when to merely keep a watchful eye on a crowd, or when to disperse them. Many riots involve the destruction of public property or car torching, and this is - of course - an appropriate time to intervene. Also appropriate is when a crowd is gathered unlawfully, such as on a busy street without permission form city officials, and is refusing to leave. Any other scenario is unlawful use of police force.

It's also unlawfu for police to be excessive. Unfortunately, once a riot has started, the attacking of innocents near the riot is probably not unlawful, as an officer cannot determine who has destructive intent and still act quickly. Officers should only use nonleathals whenever possible: batons, tear gas, tasers, and rubber bullets. Not until rioters have seized a key installation (i.e. a power plant; a major government office) should lethal ammunition be loaded into their weapons, because the taking of such a facility is dangerous to innocent civilians inside and outside of the city, far from the riot's center.

So far, the demonstrations in London haven't reached this catastrophic level. It's important to strike a balance of civil rights versus civil safety - and the less casualties, the better.