The Five Demands

Top police officer warns against use of plastic bullets on rioters (The Guardian)
Sir Hugh Orde says baton rounds should be reserved for life- threatening situations and urges response ‘be kept in proportion’
Sir Hugh Orde deployed plastic bullets against rioters when he was chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
Sir Hugh Orde, one of the only officers to have deployed plastic bullets, has spoken out against its use in London. As chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Orde – now president of Acpo – has deployed plastic bullets and water cannon against rioters.
He said: “I do not think it would be sensible in any way shape or form to deploy water cannon or baton rounds in London. Baton rounds are very serious bits of equipment. I would only deploy them in life-threatening situations. 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.”
Rubber and then plastic bullets have been deployed in Northern Ireland since 1969 and are still used today. Known as attenuated energy projectiles, plastic bullets are about 6 inches long. Unlike rubber bullets which are fired into the ground first, plastic bullets are fired directly at someone in a riot situation.
The police are supposed to fire at the individual’s legs but 17 individuals, eight of them children, have been killed since 1969 with rubber and latterly plastic bullets. Many of those killed were hit in the head or chest.
The first of these victims was 11-year old Francis Rowntree who was fatally wounded by a British Army rubber bullet on 22 April 1972 at the republican Divis Flats complex in west
Belfast. The last person to die in similar circumstances was Seamus Duffy, 15, who was shot by a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer with a plastic bullet while walking in the republican New Lodge district in north Belfast on 9 August 1989.
The teenager’s death provoked days of rioting across republican areas of the city and his funeral later degenerated into a unseemly spectacle when a German news photographer manhandled and upset mourners during the procession from the boy’s home to the cemetery.
Plastic bullets are fired from baton rounds which in London are only used by specialist C019 firearms officers. Officers carrying baton rounds have been on standby before in England, including at Broadwater Farm in 1985 and at the Notting Hill carnival, but while they have been used regularly in Northern Ireland they have never been fired in England, Wales or Scotland.

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’24 hour notice’ for NI water cannons (UTV)
Water cannons from Northern Ireland are on stand-by to be sent to England at 24 hours notice, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
After four nights running of serious violence – including looting and arson attacks – Mr Cameron declared the police “fight-back” was underway.
All officer leave for every force in England and Wales has been cancelled, in a bid to bring an end to the shocking scenes across London and a number of other major cities.
“Police are already authorised to use baton rounds and we agreed at Cobra that, while they are not currently needed, we now have in place contingency plans for water cannons to be available at 24 hours’ notice,” Mr Cameron said.
Six water cannons are held by police in Northern Ireland, where they have been used in a number of riot situations – but there aren’t any such vehicles in England, Scotland or Wales.
Former PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has also said the water cannons aren’t needed in England “at the moment”, but added that they had been “vital” in Northern Ireland.
“A water cannon buys you space. It is not a technique you can use in any other real policing environment,” he said.
“They are very heavy pieces of equipment – you need a number of them to be effective.”
Senior police officers had been reluctant to respond to the looting and arson attacks in England with force.
More than 100 officers from London’s Metropolitan Police have already been injured, with some even requiring surgery.
A member of the public was shot dead in his car amid disorder in south London on Monday night, while three men died in Birmingham after being hit by a car on Tuesday night.