None of the above.

Boris has bought some water cannon without being told by Theresa that he can have them.

He is 1: indicating that the Home Secretary’s permission cuts no ice with him. 2: This helps him position himself inside the jockeying for advantage that is now taking place within the Conservative party, of those with ambitions to replace David.

It’s a power-play.

The purchase is analogous to my wife’s behaviour in sales…

It doesn’t fit/I don’t need it/it doesn’t do what I want, but it might one day, and it’s cheap so I’ll buy it.

Is it for watering window boxes on all the skyscrapers in that london?

Or for protecting the city walls when the greggs run out in the provinces?

Or is it rightist, tough on crime, willy waving with an election coming up?

Lol @ vinneyh. It’s just Boris getting in touch with his feminine side.

IMO they should fill the canon with shower gel and then the unwashed could get a shower for a change, 2 birds n all that..

Or

Fill it with dissinfectant and clear the bloody smelly shitty streets at the same time..

Or

Put some nano paint in it like fluro, you could then just squirt it a couple of times then roll up with an infrared torch later in the day and round all the squives up and dunk em’ in the Thames.

Or

Fill it with Hair Gel and squrt it at all the Bad Hair Day folks so they can get cheap trendy “do’s” You’d also capture a lot of Rats n Spiders and Pidgeons att he same time, the just buldozer over them laters like.

Can’t see a Prob me.

Boris Rox 🙄

and by civil unrest:not looting some shops for some new trainers, but a proper mass uprising

How long have lefties been wallowing in this fantasy?

Thats all it is, a fantasy!

Its never going to happen, another series of the X-Factor starts soon!

bearnecessities – Member
Thanks for sharing that Yunki. Signed.

Likewise. Haver also circulated it to a load of other folks too.

As a law abiding member of the public, the Police can have what they feel they need to protect the public and property.

You can’t let institutions like police forces get whatever they want.

I think it’s more of a public perception thing… Seeing the police beating people with sticks or firing things at them will cause the public to be shocked.

Firing at them with water cannons will no doubt be perceived as less violent.

There is also the fact that they are a big huge deterrent, in a riot the people at the front being beaten up might be crushed forward by the people behind who don’t really care as they’re not the ones being hurt. Where as a water cannon will ensure that a wider spread of crowd is targeted including those further back which actually means it’s a lot easier and safer to disperse the crowd.

They don’t just use these things on jet either, they have a mist function that is used first to soak the rioters through and demoralise them. As mentioned earlier, this normally has the affect of a lot of rain and everyone just wants to go home and dry out.

Someone further up the forum just announced there’s a heatwave coming.

What happens next is obvious to me!

As as for the Reeves furniture store fire?, i know Trevor Reeves through the VW Mk2 Golf scene and what happened was despicable and totally uncalled for – do you really think a water cannon would have made the slightest difference?

It might have put the fire out…

Apparently Boris has volunteered to be baptised by one, to show that they are safe, so as long as that’s filmed I now consider it money well spent. I’ll dip my hand in my own pocket if there’s an opportunity to fire one at May.

Apparently Boris has accepted a challenge to “test” the water cannons. Could be interesting 😆 Not that I wish him any harm personally but it’d be a nice way to demonstrate how dangerous the things can be if he was to come a cropper…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Wagner

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10654956/People-of-Britain-beware-of-the-water-cannon-a-warning-from-Dietrich-Wagner-near-blinded-in-Stuttgart.html

Man gets hurt by water cannon, big deal!

People have been hurt by police batons too

people have also been hurt by bricks, bottles, pieces of wood and petrol bombs being thrown by crowds of rioters a small minority of rogue elements intent on violence who consistently and repeatedly use the cover of peaceful protest to go about causing trouble by mingling in with crowds of innocent and genuine protesters who were doing nothing wrong

It just goes to show that a protest that begins descending into a riot is generally a pretty unsafe place to be, and that the best thing to do is either disperse and leave the area of the confrontation, or go and chill out calmly nowhere near the people who are throwing things, where you’re nice and safe!

A fantastic example was given yesterday by Somafunk about his girlfriend, who “received a broken jaw thanks to an over zealous police baton as she ran towards a crowd of 100+ fully geared up riot police with her arms open trying to get them to stand down”

Now, you see – that was never really going to end well was it? Now it might just be me, but when I see a crowd of 100 fully geared up riot police going about their business, I think to myself ‘should I run towards them, or away from them?’ and generally I find that ‘away from them’ is the least likely to result in getting twatted. If I choose run towards them to try and make them stop doing what they’re doing, then I can pretty much predict the outcome is not going to be in my favour…

As a general rule, if you’re close enough to be hit with a baton, or even a water cannon, then you were probably not standing in the wisest place to be at that time in the first place were you? – Simples!

It doesn’t matter how much you spend on ‘riot control’, you can never prepare effectively for when things suddenly spark off, like the London riots of 2011. And if such events happen in places like a shopping centre for example, riot cannon would be useless.

There won’t be any coppers available to deploy them anyway, as they’ll all be too busy in court defending their lies.

As a general rule, if you’re close enough to be hit with a baton, or even a water cannon, then you were probably not standing in the wisest place to be at that time in the first place were you? – Simples!

Nice bit of victim blaming there. Classy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ian_Tomlinson

when I see a crowd of 100 fully geared up riot police going about their business, I think to myself ‘should I run towards them

You’d be too busy masturbating to think about whether to run towards them or away from them.

As an aside from the inevitable and useless bickering that threads like this descend into; I shall hopefully be meeting Pauline Pearce, the ‘Heroine of Hackney’, soon. I shall ask her opinion of the aquisition of water cannon and possible deployment on our streets.

ninfan : I guess you had to be there at that moment in history to fully appreciate what was happening with regard to the rave scene and the incredibly heavy handed and violent policing of such events, i doubt you’d be the type to immerse yourself in such a culture and movement so i’ll refrain from posting any further comments and leave you to your thoughts.

Now it might just be me, but when I see a crowd of 100 fully geared up riot police going about their business, I think to myself ‘should I run towards them, or away from them?’ and generally I find that ‘away from them’ is the least likely to result in getting twatted. If I choose run towards them to try and make them stop doing what they’re doing, then I can pretty much predict the outcome is not going to be in my favour…

Mr wopit hit the nail on the head the practical impact of 3 water cannon in London will be slight . They can only be deployed behind a police line to avoid the risk of being over run . The met are stretched to cover large riots and the fast moving disperse and reform nature of modern public order incidents . Boris bought these to score one over May who has been talking about doing it but not acting for two years . He has outflanked her leaving her flapping and blaming the police . In the current Tory infighting he has ” parked his tanks on her lawn.”

I will be amused if when he does his demo the crew crank up the volume and go for a head shot. Boris will look so much wilder with an eye patch.

he has ” parked his tanks on her lawn.”

I don’t really want to think about that thank you ver much.

Nickc – just think what might have happened if he’d pissed off home when he’d first been moved on by the police half an hour earlier 😉

Somafunk, assume what you like, you’d likely be wrong – however I also remember the ‘heavy handed protesting’ that was going on from the hunt sabs etc.

Interesting days out them 8)

Well, why should the Met be the only large capital city police force not to have them ?
The Germans have 165 less the 3 clapped out 20 year old ones they want to flog us ! Even the Belgians have a state of the art fleet.

why do we need water cannons

We don’t but the bloke who bought them off the Germans probably needs the massive back hander in a nice brown envelope that will remain secret for a bit anyway.

I’m sure it will come out on a few years time.

water canon in the houses of parliament would be great

or how about