In the news

@ Catfood, as Hugh Orde says, those are tactics used in Belfast when officers were under live fire, petrol bombs etc. He says not justified here because this isn't (yet, thankfully) quite the same level of insurgency. Baton rounds certainly are bloody serious and I think people have been killed with them.

I'm not sure I agree with him personally, but just trying to answer your question.

bollocks to Hugh Orde's "yet". this isn't a paramilitary insurgency. the total number of guns accessible to these looters must be tiny compared to the paramilitaries in the Troubles and i doubt the the london gangs who can lay their hands on guns (a small subsection of the looters) are interested in shooting police over this either.