U.K. police upset over U.S. 'supercop' consultant

[BackToThe60s]

Source: CBC

Several U.K. police organizations have blasted Prime Minister David Cameron for turning to a U.S. law enforcement expert to help tackle gang violence in Britain in the wake of recent riots in urban centres.

Former New York city police commissioner Bill Bratton was confirmed Friday as the government's anti-gang expert, offering his services for free and saying the British government cannot "arrest their way out" of systemic problems facing the country.

The criticism, led by Association of Chief Police Officers leader Sir Hugh Orde, underscored deep tensions between police and Cameron's coalition government over who was most to blame for the failure to stop the four-day rioting that raged in parts of London and other English cities until Wednesday.

"I am not sure I want to learn about gangs from an area of America that has 400 of them," Orde said of Los Angeles, which Bratton, 63, oversaw until 2009.

"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 fundamentally different from here," Orde, a former commander of Northern Ireland's police and deputy commander of London's Metropolitan Police, told the Independent on Sunday newspaper.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/08/13/british-riots-bratton.html

---

Dumbass neglects to mention that L.A. County has half the population of England entire. And if he was in charge of the Ulster Gestapo, well, we can rest assured he harbors no ethnic animosity.

:sarcasm:

[BackToThe60s]

1. My LBN threads always get moved to GD

Why? Why? WHY????? :cry:

[Karenina]

2. Don't despait...

LBN rules are quite strict. Be sure you've read them carefully. Most likely it's a dupe. I appreciate your posting this.
The Bobbies are NOT HAPPY AT ALL.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Karenina]

6. Sorry about the typo!

:blush:

[DeSwiss]

3. Probably because.....

...the original story was posted at CBC News: Aug 13, 2011 10:05 AM ET

and your posting was Sun Aug-14-11 01:27 AM

Which is beyond the 12 hour story posting limit for threads in LBN.

- But I K&R'd it anyways, if that helps!

[Prometheus Bound]

5. Yes, over 12 hours old. And I gave it a K & R too.

[CJCRANE]

11. It might also be because you inserted your own opinion.

LBN = Latest Breaking *News*, not comment or editorial.

[DeSwiss]

13. No, actually there is a section for one's comments when posting an LBN story. n/t

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. LA County has 25 million people? Really? Since when?

There are more than fifty million people in England and more than sixty million in the whole of the UK. And Orde was appointed head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland in...2002. Several years after the Good Friday Agreement and well after the worst of the Troubles (indeed I would imagine that there were more problems from Unionists than Republicans during his tenure). But please by all means offer an opinion on something you clearly know fuck-all about. :eyes:

[pintobean]

8. That last line wasn't necessary

It's difficult for me to respect someone's opinion when they get nasty like that.

[Prometheus Bound]

9. Why so angry?

Such a minor thing!

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Bratton was appointed NYC Police Commissioner by Rudy Giuliani in 1994

because Giuliani didn't like the prior Commissioner (Raymond W. Kelly) getting the credit for the huge decrease in crime in the City instead of him. Bratton maintained the status quo until Bernard Kerik replaced him.

BTW Bratton never had experience in NYC with riots and mobs.

[malaise]

10. It's a terrible decision given the fundamental cultural differences

but what I want to know is the Murdoch connection.

[fedsron2us]

12. Not sure what his role is apart from picking up paychecks as a consultant

Outside the Met in London UK police forces are not under any central government control. Instead they answer to local police authorities. It is true they do cooperate in emegencies like riots but there is no single police strategy. I know UK police chiefs are reluctant to up the use of force on the US model because the results in Ulster from that strategy were counter productive. Outside of criminal gangs most UK citizens would rarely see a fire arm let alone know how to use one. Therefore deploying potential lethal force against lower level disorder such as much of the petty looting that took place after the riots might be hugely counter productive. The UK police want proposed cuts in their manpower reversed as they see numbers as the best solution for dterribg discontent but it appears the UK Tory Chancellor of the ExchequerGeorge Osbourne prefers to keep the money for tax cuts to the rich. Watch this space because I very much doubt these are likely to be the last riots you will see in the UK