Policing Social Tension: The Long View Cumberland Lodge 2016 Dr - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Policing Social Tension: The Long View

Cumberland Lodge 2016 Dr Timothy Brain

Alternative: the British Policing model has historically implicitly recognised the use of extreme force in extreme circumstances

‘Social Tension’?

• Stress in society, or sections of society, which are
• a consequence of adverse factors

– Economic – Social – racial – political

• which may lead to serious disorder
• The social tension may go unnoticed and

unaddressed until after serious disorder has

• ccurred

CoP Public Order Planning and Deployment ?

Riot 12 or more persons Use or threaten Unlawful violence For a common purpose Conduct cause a person of Reasonable firmness To fear for their personal safety

‘Social Tension Curve’

Preconditions Precipitants Trigger(s) Riot Containment/ suppression/ exhaustion/ absence of leadership? Extended tension (sporadic recurrences) New normality?/ ‘learn the lessons’ Investigation/ Exemplary sentencing?/ Inquiries(?) Dynamics Stone, Le Bon & Brain Political interventions Opportunities for avoidance Uncertain consequences

‘Nurturing the British Policing model’?

• 18th century theories on

prevention – quasi social control?

• Value in PO situations apparent

as early as 1833

• Consideration of ‘Third Force’ –

Special Constables

• An important factor in role out of

‘New Police’ 1835-1856

• Specialist selection and training
• Troops (‘Yeomanry’ (early) and

regulars (later) continued to be used in support until 1920s

• Special constables sanctioned but

used less in PO situations after 1848 until 1926

Evolution – 1870s-1960s

Transition

1968 ‘Winning by appearing to lose’ 1976 1977 1980 1981

Rapid change

ACPO PO Manual 1983 Scarman Report 1981 ‘Crisis of legitimacy’ 1981 1981 1985

Categories of disorder – by estimated ‘common purpose’

• Political
• Sectarian
• Labour dispute
• Communal (‘Racial’)
• Environmental
• Anti Police
• Football(?)
• Social protest
• Commodity

10 20 30 40 50 60

Riots & civil disobedience categories since 1900

1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 Boer War TDA S 2 Syndi calis m Suffra ttes Lock

• ut

HOC WW1 Russi an Rev Europ e Revs 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 Emg Powe rs Act NUW CM Miner s’ Strike Gen Strike Cut in benef it POA 1936 WW2 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 Palest ine N C’we alth Com muni st Ifit Short Reces sion

B’ham & L’pool Pro war Girmbsy Dock Pehrhyn Quarry Liverpool Sectarian Liverpool Sectarian

Liverpool Sectarian

Suffragettes Black Friday

S Wales Mining (Tonypandy)

Liverpool Dock

London Dock Strike

Cornish Clay Workers

WW1 anti German WW1 anti German

Pro Bolshevism (Luton) Police Strike London

Miners’ Strike S Wales, Yorks, Violent picketing

General Strike ,2000+ arrests mainly NE

National Unemployed marches Hyde Park; Liverpool; Old Market (Bristol) Battle of Cable St (BUF)

White on black Nottingham, Notting Hill Somali/Arab/White employment riots S Shields Anti Jewish Riots M'chester & L'pool BUF formed Benefit cut

Unemployed march Liverpool Unemployed march

• n Downing St

Pro Bolshevism Sheffield Wall St NUW M

Unemp marches Bristol, S Wales, Manchester

Police Strikes x2 Communal x7 (S Shields, L’pool etc Canadian demob Unemp marches Desborough HO Pol Dept Comintern Blaina Unemp march peaceful

Oldham, Bradford, Leeds, Burnley

Football x3 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 US Civil Rts V’na m esc TDA RRA Radic al St u Al US riots In Place Strife Ind Rel Act ‘U turn’ Oil shock Wint er of Dis’t Con elect 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Reces sion Unem p 3m ACPO PO Man Miner s’ Strike SA Town ships Com Charg e Rodn ey King Los Angel es Rt Fuel Esc tax Vanc

• uver

APEC HRA 1998 Seattl e 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Cisse case Iraq War Reces sion HMIC ‘Adap ting’

Grosvenor Sq Saltley Coke Depot Left v right Red Lion Sq (K Gately) Lewisham (Shields deployed) Southall (Blair Peach) Grunwick

Steel Strike (2ndaries)

St Paul's

Brixton, (London), Toxteth, Moss Side, Handsworth, +

• thers

Greenham Common begins

CEGB Devon

Warrington Print Miners’ Strike Orgreave + others?

'Stonehenge' Handsworth, Brixton, Tottenham Wapping

Op Delivery

Student loans/ anti Thatcher Dewsbury Poll Tax riots Ely (Cardiff)

Castlemorton Common & Twyford Down

Blackburn & Burnley

Blackbird Leys + others

Hartcliffe

Welling ANL

Anti SA Rugby

Reclaim St B'ham & Camden/Shoreham Disability Rights Bradford & Brixton Newbury Bypass Luton B'ham G8 Carnival Against C'ism J18 Fuel Dispute May Day Carnival

Guido Mask Demo

Millwall v B'ham Trafalgar Sq/Fairford/Menwith Asian/Balack Lozells, Handsworth Drax, Mk Pov Hist, Pro Hunting Heathrow CC Kingsnorth CC G20 London/B'heath/ Ratcliffe W Ham v M'wall Students Stock Exchnage/Occupy Bristol Tescos Tottenham August 2011 Sussex Fracking GK Riots/2 .5 m unemp

Notting Hill

3rd Miners’ strike NI Civ Rts ‘Rivers of Blood’ MP Com Rel Dept

• 15.00
• 10.00
• 5.00

0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 1900 1903 1906 1909 1912 1915 1918 1921 1924 1927 1930 1933 1936 1939 1942 1945 1948 1951 1954 1957 1960 1963 1966 1969 1972 1975 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014 Annual %

UK Unemployment and GDP Rates since 1900

GDP % Unemployment %

War

Oil Shock, Miners’ strike, 3 day week Wall St crash Suez Labour elected Coalition National Government

War War War

Heath U turn Conservatives elected Liberal landslide Lloyd George budget SPG formed RMS Windrush First black officer recruited Mugging panic

• 15.00
• 10.00
• 5.00

0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 1900 1903 1906 1909 1912 1915 1918 1921 1924 1927 1930 1933 1936 1939 1942 1945 1948 1951 1954 1957 1960 1963 1966 1969 1972 1975 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014 Annual %

UK Unemployment and GDP Rates since 1900

GDP % Unemployment %

Miners’ Strike S Wales, Yorks, Violent picketing

Girmbsy Dock Pehrhyn Quarry

Blaina Pro Bolshevism (Luton) Police Strikes (x2) Communal (x7) General Strike ,2000+ arrests mainly NE

National Unemployed Marches Hyde Park; Liverpool; Old Market (Bristol)

White on black Nottingham, Notting Hill

Saltley Coke Depot

Steel Strike (2ndaries) Warrington Print Miners’ Strike Orgreave + others?

Wapping S Wales Mining (Tonypandy)

London Dock August 2011 Police Strike London Liverpool Dock

Grunwick

Cornish Clay Workers

Unemp marches Bristol, S Wales, Manchester

• 15.00
• 10.00
• 5.00

0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 1900 1903 1906 1909 1912 1915 1918 1921 1924 1927 1930 1933 1936 1939 1942 1945 1948 1951 1954 1957 1960 1963 1966 1969 1972 1975 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014 Annual %

UK Unemployment and GDP Rates since 1900

GDP % Unemployment %

Anti Jewish Notting Hill Tottenham, etc Hartcliffe etc Students August 2011 Brixton etc Bradford & Brixton St Paul’s Cable St Notting Hill Tottenham

Lewisham (Shields deployed)

Tonypandy 1910

Capt Lionel Lindsay (CC 1891- 1937)

South Wales 1910

Preconditions

• Trades Disputes Act 1906
• Syndicalism - direct political action
• ‘Great Unrest’
• 1908 slump; French railways strike
• Cut in value of real wages
• Series of lock outs and strikes
• 1910 heated political environment

Precipitants – autumn 1910

• 1.9.10 Rhondda Ely Pit seem

dispute  Lock out

• 5.9.10 All Cambrian Collieries
• ut in sympathy
• Oct – official conciliation fails
• Oct – French rail strike leaders

arrested

• 1.11.10 all Rhondda and

Aberdare pits on strike (30,000)

• Llwynypia pit remains

functioning

• By management
• Lindsay concentrates on

Llwynypia; asks for reinforcements

• AM 7.11.10 crowds gather
• At request of magistrates

Lindsay asks for military assistance and mutual aid from Swansea, Cardiff and Bristol Extended tension

• Troops and extra police remain
• Rigorous enforcement of picket discipline by ‘the Met’
• Blackleg labour?
• 22.11.10 – ‘Battle of Penycraig’
• 23.3.15 - Blaenclydach

New normality – legend Troops delpoyed to Llanelli Aug 1911 ‘learn the lessons’ – HOC 1911 Investigation – 530 prosecutions Keir Hardy calls for inquiry; ignored Political interventions

• Churchill criticised for being too conciliatory
• Churchill ‘orders’ arrest and prosecutions to

follow; takes credit; deletes subsequent references to ‘vigorous baton charges’

• 21.12.10 – conciliatory(?): summary trials of

13 for intimidation; 1 imprisoned, other variable; offences reduced Containment/suppression/exhaustion/absence of leadership?

• 9.11.10 Troops and police reinforcements arrive
• Churchill places all resources under Maj Gen Macready
• Troops deployed forward but not used
• Picket line disciple resumes; some window breaking
• Loss of faith in official leaders

Trigger(s)

• 7 pm 7.11.10 – march on Llwynypia gates
• common purpose – close powerhouse
• 9 pm Gate rushed; line held by 100 police
• Attempt at pacification by local leader fails
• Diverted from gates to wooden palisade

Riot

• Tore it down; stoned police
• Lindsay orders(?) baton charge
• Bystanders injured
• Repeated stoning and baton charges
• Powerhouse wrecked but functions
• Rioting lasts till midnight

Dynamics

• 8.11.10 police and military reinforcements arrive
• Conciliation promised at mass meeting
• 5 pm youths drinking all day throw stones at collery
• Lindsey orders police mounted charge
• Charge and counter charge for 2 hours
• Miner Samuel Boyce dies of head injuries
• Rioters retreat to town square, which they wreck and loot
• Spread to Aberaman

The new extremes

2011 2012 ‘The New Riot Act’? Dispersal Orders under Anti Social, Crime and Policing Act 2014 + National Decision Making Model + Tactical Options Manual Laporte Judgment Kettling?

Conclusions

• Police at fulcrum of social tension since origins of New Police
• Police will not be the focus of the political, economic and social

preconditions

• May be a contributory precipitant cause, but history does not support that

this is frequently the case

• Police are ikely to be involved in the trigger to a riot
• Range of preconditions and precipitants have become more varied in late

20th century

• Increased incidence in first, third and fourth quarters of 20th century
• Anti police may be ‘common purpose’, but rarely before 1975
• Tactical police responses have become increasingly sophisticated
• But
• Even with the sophistication of the national Decision Making Model etc,

police will be left facing criticism and inquiry in the mid to long term after the events which have occasioned the use of force

• Policing political protest has become a more difficult balancing act since

the Laporte judgment