Paratroopers readied for future social unrest in UK

[Lord Beria3]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb20 ... -f25.shtml

Repressive techniques perfected in Northern Ireland are being deployed for the first time on the British mainland.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that soldiers from the elite 3rd battalion of the Parachute Regiment are engaged in counter-riot training exercises.

Government officials have downplayed the possibility of deploying the parachute regiment during civil unrest like last summer’s urban riots, but the character of the exercises conducted at the Lydd military base in Kent tells a different story. The training consisted of how to arrest rioters in scenarios recreating last August’s riots that involved fighting running battles with groups of protesters.

The Daily Telegraph article concluded, “Defence sources have confirmed that if violence were to return to British cities, especially during the Olympic Games, the Paras would be ‘ideally placed’ to provide ‘short-term’ support to police forces around the UK.… As well as 3 Para, the Army has another unit known as the ‘Public Order Battalion’, also trained to deal with rioting, bringing the total number of troops to around 1,500.”

As the economic crisis deepens and hostility to the Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition government intensifies, the ruling elite is preparing a violent crackdown against an inevitable social upheaval.

A sign of things to come...

[jonny2mad]

So we have a couple of thousand of the military trained for riots, and the police and the rest of the military who haven't had this special training

depends how big the civil disturbance is, during last years riots you had 16,000 police on the streets of just London that didn't stop 3,443 crimes just in London .

I'm not sure of the total number of arrests but more than 3100 people arrested at one point .

last year I think the vigilantism did something to slow the rioting down, anyway with present laws I don't think even the army would be able to just stop the rioting, last year showed it was pretty widespread around lots of UK city's .

You have to look at what kicked off those riots and it was something pretty minor , imagine what people would do when our currency collapses and they don't have anything to eat .

I think the numbers out on the streets then could be a 100 times the numbers on the streets in the 2011 riots, and the police and army unless they started shooting people would be overwhelmed

[UndercoverElephant]

It doesn't just depend on the numbers involved. It also depends on the nature of the riot. There's a big difference between what is currently going on in Greece, for example, and what happened in England last summer. So long as the politicians actually care about what happens at the next election, then they have to take public opinion into account. It really depends whether the people involved are mainly "police property" already and primarily concerned with looting, or whether they are mainly politically-aware and making a political point (albeit violently.)

[kenneal - lagger]

Just hope they don't come (fire)armed.

[Ludwig]

It doesn't just depend on the numbers involved. It also depends on the nature of the riot. There's a big difference between what is currently going on in Greece, for example, and what happened in England last summer. So long as the politicians actually care about what happens at the next election, then they have to take public opinion into account. It really depends whether the people involved are mainly "police property" already and primarily concerned with looting, or whether they are mainly politically-aware and making a political point (albeit violently.)

I don't see why that should make any difference.

I also don't think the politicians are worried about the next election - I suspect The Change is going to happen before then.

[UndercoverElephant]

All politicians are always worried about the next election.

[featherstick]

I love the air of injured self-righteousness in the Socialist Worker article.

The army has been training in civil disorder control for 40 years. Northern Ireland was a challenging and difficult environment, in which FIBUA techniques would have been completely over the top. The Army needed to be able to deploy troops who could respond to riots in the appropriate way.

Personally, if riots kick off in Britain again, I'd be much happier to have a couple of hundred experienced hardnut Paras with batons and shields than a bunch of frightened squaddies with automatic weapons backing the police up.

[gug]

I love the air of injured self-righteousness in the Socialist Worker article.

Personally, if riots kick off in Britain again, I'd be much happier to have a couple of hundred experienced hardnut Paras with batons and shields than a bunch of frightened squaddies with automatic weapons backing the police up.

Careful what you wish for.
I'd prefer people trained in law and responsible for their actions, all things considered. (and our own police/TSG thugs are bad enough).
I grant you, its more difficult to kill so many people if we just give them batons, but even the police manage to kill innocent people, and they dont spend their days chanting "Kill Kill Kill" whilst charging with bayonets.

(lifted from wikipedia entry for bloody sunday)

John (Jackie) Duddy (17). Shot in the chest in the car park of Rossville flats. Four witnesses stated Duddy was unarmed and running away from the paratroopers when he was killed. Three of them saw a soldier take deliberate aim at the youth as he ran. He is the uncle of the Irish boxer John Duddy.[38]


Patrick Joseph Doherty (31). Shot from behind while attempting to crawl to safety in the forecourt of Rossville flats. Doherty was the subject of a series of photographs, taken before and after he died by French journalist Gilles Peress. Despite testimony from "Soldier F" that he had fired at a man holding and firing a pistol, Widgery acknowledged that the photographs showed Doherty was unarmed, and that forensic tests on his hands for gunshot residue proved negative.[38][40]

Bernard McGuigan (41). Shot in the back of the head when he went to help Patrick Doherty. He had been waving a white handkerchief at the soldiers to indicate his peaceful intentions.[6]

Hugh Pious Gilmour (17). Shot through his right elbow, the bullet then entering his chest as he ran from the paratroopers on Rossville Street.[38] Widgery acknowledged that a photograph taken seconds after Gilmour was hit corroborated witness reports that he was unarmed, and that tests for gunshot residue were negative.[6]

Kevin McElhinney (17). Shot from behind while attempting to crawl to safety at the front entrance of the Rossville Flats. Two witnesses stated McElhinney was unarmed.[38]

Michael Gerald Kelly (17). Shot in the stomach while standing near the rubble barricade in front of Rossville Flats. Widgery accepted that Kelly was unarmed.[38]

John Pius Young (17). Shot in the head while standing at the rubble barricade. Two witnesses stated Young was unarmed.[38]

William Noel Nash (19). Shot in the chest near the barricade. Witnesses stated Nash was unarmed and going to the aid of another when killed.[38]

Michael M. McDaid (20). Shot in the face at the barricade as he was walking away from the paratroopers. The trajectory of the bullet indicated he could have been killed by soldiers positioned on the Derry Walls.[38]

James Joseph Wray (22). Wounded then shot again at close range while lying on the ground. Witnesses who were not called to the Widgery Tribunal stated that Wray was calling out that he could not move his legs before he was shot the second time.[38]

Gerald Donaghy (17). Shot in the stomach while attempting to run to safety between Glenfada Park and Abbey Park. Donaghy was brought to a nearby house by bystanders where he was examined by a doctor. His pockets were turned out in an effort to identify him. A later police photograph of Donaghy's corpse showed nail bombs in his pockets. Neither those who searched his pockets in the house nor the British army medical officer (Soldier 138) who pronounced him dead shortly afterwards say they saw any bombs. Donaghy had been a member of Fianna Éireann, an IRA-linked Republican youth movement.[38] Paddy Ward, a police informer[41] who gave evidence at the Saville Inquiry, claimed that he had given two nail bombs to Donaghy several hours before he was shot dead.[42]

Gerald (James) McKinney (34). Shot just after Gerald Donaghy. Witnesses stated that McKinney had been running behind Donaghy, and he stopped and held up his arms, shouting "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!", when he saw Donaghy fall. He was then shot in the chest.[38]

William Anthony McKinney (27). Shot from behind as he attempted to aid Gerald McKinney (no relation). He had left cover to try to help Gerald.[38]

John Johnston (59). Shot in the leg and left shoulder on William Street 15 minutes before the rest of the shooting started.[38][43] Johnston was not on the march, but on his way to visit a friend in Glenfada Park.[43] He died 4½ months later; his death has been attributed to the injuries he received on the day. He was the only one not to die immediately or soon after being shot.[38]

[gug]

Whilst we're about it. We didnt have rioting last summer.

We had whats started off as minor disturbances after the police shot an unarmed man which then through (more) police stupidity and idiocy at the treatment of the initial protestors then grew into lawlessness and looting by many outsiders.
This was allowed to spread by the police who stood idly by not intervening.


All this at a time when the government are threatening police cuts.

They can manage to summon enough territorial support group officers to crack students heads if one or two of them get a bit uppity but none when they actually have a real disturbance... Hmmmm,

[JavaScriptDonkey]

It's always wise to remember the good old days (1918-1919 Police strikes) when most people had served in the armed forces and there was a proper respect for the law (1919 Liverpool riots).

[RenewableCandy]

If it's any consolation, I know someone who was in the Paras and he tells me the Bloody Sunday anniversary is a black time for their morale. They seem at least to have wanted to improve since then.

[Ludwig]

If it's any consolation, I know someone who was in the Paras and he tells me the Bloody Sunday anniversary is a black time for their morale. They seem at least to have wanted to improve since then.

For a while, perhaps. From everything I read, it seems that from an ethical point of view, military policy took a nosedive from about the mid-90s.

Craig Murray's book "The Catholic Orangemen of Togo" sheds interesting light on the change that took place in British government following Blair's election. And Murray was in, as they say, the thick of it:

How extraordinary to find that those [preceding] Conservative governments were much more honourable in their pragmatism than the reckless neo-conservative contempt for international law that Blair was about to introduce as this story begins.

[Ludwig]

Whilst we're about it. We didnt have rioting last summer.

We had whats started off as minor disturbances after the police shot an unarmed man which then through (more) police stupidity and idiocy at the treatment of the initial protestors then grew into lawlessness and looting by many outsiders.
This was allowed to spread by the police who stood idly by not intervening.


All this at a time when the government are threatening police cuts.

They can manage to summon enough territorial support group officers to crack students heads if one or two of them get a bit uppity but none when they actually have a real disturbance... Hmmmm,

Indeed. The message from the London riots was, "This is what soft policing gets you," and I am convinced that that message was deliberate. Whether the message originated with the police, with the Government, or with both, is something that at this stage we can only speculate about.

[gug]

It's always wise to remember the good old days (1918-1919 Police strikes) when most people had served in the armed forces and there was a proper respect for the law (1919 Liverpool riots).

I'm tempted to say... what, like the Black and Tans ?

[kenneal - lagger]

...
This was allowed to spread by the police who stood idly by not intervening.


All this at a time when the government are threatening police cuts.

Not a coincidence in my view.