The Metropolis

Baton rounds have killed nine kids in Northern Ireland, so why not bring them here?

Seán Flynn | Thursday 11 August, 2011 12:55

John Murphy photo

The question is ultimately one of pragmatism: which tactics are likely to be successful in countering serious public disorder such as England has experienced over the past week? It shouldn’t be about giving the chavs a thrashing, edifying as that might be in some quarters.

I would have real doubts about the efficacy of baton rounds and water cannons in any event. However, you don’t need to take my word for it. Take it from a real expert: the former chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland Sir Hugh Orde; someone who’s actually ordered the deployment of these measures on several occasions.

Orde, whose name has been linked with the top job at the Met, told the Guardian on Tuesday that he “did not think it would be sensible in any way shape or form to deploy water cannon or baton rounds in London.”

Why then does it continue to be acceptable to use plastic bullets in Ireland but never on the British Mainland? In the same report, Orde’s comments seem to provide an answer to that one. “What is happening in London is not an insurgency that is going to topple the country. There are 8 million people in London and it is a tiny proportion doing this. They are gangs of looters and criminals and although it is concerning it has to be kept in proportion.”

This past week was no insurgency, that much is true. In fact, as a manifestation of public disorder, it has little commonality with the Irish experience. Riots and civil unrest during the Troubles tended to be focused on specific locations or around particular events and because of this, confrontation between rioters and security forces took on many of the qualities of a conventional military battle.

There were clear lines and the middle ground was contested, there might be feints or diversions, attacks, counter attacks and repulsions but the location of the disturbance was generally static. The same ‘old school’ lines of battle are also evident in more politically motivated protest and disorder such as the student protest centred in Parliament Square last November.

However what we saw in cities throughout England over the past days was much more asymmetric. This was public disorder, flash-smash-and-grab-mob style; guerrilla rioting, fluid, sporadic and seemingly spontaneous. Whether this was disturbance was a random tornado of anti-social behaviour or whether it had a guiding ‘intelligence’ is probably moot.

Another more important question remains; do plastic bullets actually work? More than forty years after their introduction and well into the Peace Process, Northern Ireland still occasionally experiences seasonal unrest that necessitates (at least in the opinion of the police) the deployment of either plastic bullets or water cannon. As could be seen during the recent Marching Season, a new generation of rioter is now growing up in Northern Ireland, learning to deal with these measures, just like earlier generations did. It would appear then that plastic bullets are no more of a deterrent now than when they were first introduced.

Many of our European neighbours do use water cannons for crowd control. Again, it’s a tactical thing; for more static engagements, this piece of ‘artillery’ can be quite effective. But driving these unwieldy beasts around the 32 boroughs of London in search of flying columns of fleet-footed looters probably isn’t a goer.

Since the introduction first of the rubber bullet in 1969 and then the plastic variant in 1972, baton rounds have caused 14 deaths in Northern Ireland (the most recent being in 1989). Nine of the victims were 18 years or under; the youngest being 10-year old Stephen Geddis in August 1975.

A familiar refrain at victims’ inquests, particularly in the 1970s, was that soldiers and policemen didn’t understand rules governing use of baton rounds. How many trial and error fatalities would we be prepared to countenance while the police here in England got to grips with this lethal piece of kit?

Follow this writer at @DeptfordCroppy

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