Cameron in row with police over ‘zero tolerance’ strategy
Police protest his call to hire ex NY police supremo:
UK: British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged a “zero
tolerance” crackdown after recent riots, fuelling a row with police over
plans for a US “supercop” to help tackle street gang violence. Police
chiefs criticised Cameron’s decision to hire ex-New York police supremo
Bill Bratton in a bid to prevent a repeat of the violence in which five
people died, saying a home-grown policy would be better. “We haven’t
talked the language of zero tolerance enough, but the message is getting
through,” Cameron told The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
A four-day frenzy of looting and arson in London and other major
English cities has sparked a nationwide debate on the causes and
possible responses, with just a year to go until the capital hosts the
2012 Olympics.
The Conservative premier accused some people of over-complicating
explanations for simple criminality but admitted that underlying social
factors including “deeply broken and troubled families” had to be
addressed.
Interior minister Theresa May backed Cameron, saying the public
wanted “tough action”. Bratton himself, however, said zero tolerance is
“a phrase I hate”. “I would not advocate attempting zero tolerance in
any country. It’s not achievable.
It implies you can eliminate a problem and that’s not reality,”
Bratton wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
Instead the police expert, who is credited for tackling gang violence
in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, listed a raft of measures including
understanding how gangs work and using injunctions to curb their
activities.
AFP |