Hundreds of soldiers from 3rd
battalion The Parachute Regiment
spent last week learning how to
contain and arrest "rioters" in a
series of exercises mirroring last
summers violence. During the
exercises at the Lydd training base in
Kent, the elite troops were pelted
with petrol bombs and missiles and
"fought" running battles with gangs
of protesters as part of the
battalion's "public order training".
The battalion is the lead unit in the
Airborne Task Force - the Army's
premier rapid response unit and can
be called on to deal with a wide
range of emergency situations - from
hostage rescue to riot control -
around the world.
In the past, riot training was carried
out by all troops deploying to
Northern Ireland where public
disturbances were commonplace.
But those “skills” have been “lost”
following the major withdrawal of
troops from the streets of the
occupied land.
During last week's training package
young soldiers were taught how to
use body-length use riots shields,
protect themselves from missiles
and how to identify and arrest "ring
leaders' using specially trained
"snatch squads".
Troops were trained into how to
work as teams armed with bodylength
shields in driving back hostile
crowds.
Last summer's rioting was sparked
by the police shooting of Mark
Duggan in Tottenham and the brutal
beating of a young girl when the
family and friends demanded
answers.
The violence quickly spread across
London and to other cities where
police were attacked with fire
bombs, shops were looted and
businesses burnt to the ground.
One senior police source said: "The
police couldn't cope with last
year's riots and the Army came very
close to being deployed.”
"All of the Army's riot equipment
was in Scotland at the time and
that created a time delay but
lessons from that have been learnt.
The Army could have deployed but
it would have been only marginally
quicker than the police.”
The riots were the best for a
generation and caused over £300m
of damage. Hundreds of shops and
warehouses were looted as masses
of people and gangs of youth
informally organised attacks via
twitter and other social media sites.
The number and spontaneity of the
riots often meant that police from
forces across the country, but
especially in London, were stretched
to the limit and in many cases
overwhelmed.
THE GAMES OF FINANCE ARE
ONLY ABOUT MONEY, SOCIAL
CONTROL & SPECTACLE
AGAINST THE MEGA-PROJECT
OF THE SPECULATORS AND
CORPORATE ELITES
RIOT 2012
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