Would this 'army' help get a grip on the violence across the country?
After holding an emergency Cobra meeting yesterday in the wake of riots across England, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said a ‘standing army’ of specialist police officers would be set up.
The remark has been both welcomed and questioned as England enters its second week of unrest, with far-right rioters wreaking havoc across the country.
Starmer said: ‘There are a number of actions that came out of the meeting. The first is we will have a standing army of specialist public duty officers so that we will have enough officers to deal with this where we need them.
‘The second is we will ramp up criminal justice. There have already been hundreds of arrests, some have appeared in court this morning.’
Addressed the nation on Sunday, he told ‘thugs’ they would ‘regret’ engaging in ‘far-right thuggery’.
But what is a ‘standing army’ of specialist officers, and would they help get a grip on the violence across the country?
Each police force across the UK has ‘specialist’ officers, often deployed in cases of upheaval, such as the more tense pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrations late last year.
The ‘standing army’ referenced by Starmer is essentially an ‘enhanced’ version of the officers who often monitor protests and major events such as sporting competitions and state funerals, a Downing Street official told Sky.
Starmer said the officers will be deployed where they are needed, but the remarks have been met with some criticism.
Shadow home secretary James Cleverly said Labour ‘still don’t understand that they’re not in opposition any more. In government you can’t just say stuff, you have to do stuff.’
He went on to pose a series of questions about the plan, including: ‘Using the word ‘army’ always sounds tough but is he suggesting a paramilitary police force?
‘What new or additional powers will the unit have? Police forces across the UK have officers who are public order trained, but when not dealing with disorder they have other police duties.
‘Will this ‘standing army’ of officers have no other duties? If so, what will they do when there are no riots? Or is Starmer expecting permanent riots?’
The riots are being stoked by far-right Telegram channels, the Metro revealed, with a sophisticated network of influencers working to seed anti-Muslim and Islamophobic narratives, spread misinformation and stage violent demonstrations in some of the UK’s most vulnerable communities.
In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer condemned the ‘far-right thuggery’ of the rioters, and told those involved ‘we will find you.’
Follow our live blog for all the latest updates from the far-right riots
A Telegram spokesman told Metro: ‘The channels publishing calls to violence have been removed.
Telegram’s terms of service explicitly forbid calls to violence. Moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring of public parts of the platform and user reports in order to remove content that breaches our terms of service.
‘Each day, millions of pieces of dangerous content are removed before they can cause harm.’
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