England riots: PM vows to do 'whatever it takes' to stop disorder

Published on Thursday 11 August 2011 15:43

DAVID Cameron today promised a range of measures to prevent rioting and street disorder in Britain, including jail sentences, curfews, a crackdown on facemasks and social media bans.

Addressing a recalled House of Commons after four nights of extensive rioting in major English cities, the Prime Minister said anyone convicted of rioting should go to jail.

He said the Government was looking at the option of introducing new sentencing powers and promised that reinforced police numbers would remain on the streets of London over the weekend.

"We will not put up with this in our country. We will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets and we will do whatever it takes to restore law and order and to rebuild our communities," he said.

Mr Cameron announced that police would be given new powers to demand suspected criminals remove facemasks while ministers were also looking at whether any wider powers of curfew were necessary.

He said they were also looking with the police, the intelligence services and industry at whether it was possible to stop people plotting disorder through social media websites.

Mr Cameron said that while he did not want to break away from the traditional "British model" of policing by putting troops on the streets, he said ministers were looking at whether the Army could take on some police tasks to free up more officers for the frontline.

"Nothing should be off the table. Every contingency is being looked at," he said.

The Prime Minister also announced new measures to tackle gang culture - including extending the system of gang injunctions across the country, covering both adults and children.

He said he wanted to build on the success of anti-gang programmes in cities such as Boston in the United States and Strathclyde in Scotland and would be consulting with former New York and Los Angeles police commissioner Bill Bratton.

"They have blighted life on their estates with gang-on-gang murders and unprovoked attacks on innocent bystanders," he said.

"In the last few days there is some evidence that they have been behind the co-ordination of the attacks on the police and the looting that has followed.

Mr Cameron confirmed that police had the authority to deploy baton rounds against rioters and he urged local councils to use their powers to evict the perpetrators of the violence from social housing.

RIOTS: MORE COVERAGE

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