Yes I understand that during the hysteria of the riots polling would be different but these polls still demonstrate that there is much public support for putting firearmed trained officers on standby in the rare instances that the circumstances demand it.

I do enjoy reading a lot of the peaceful content on this website and I am certain that most people within OLSX are peaceful and well intentioned (if misguided in my opinion). However, previous events show that there are those that use these types of events to cause violence, disorder and conflict with the police and I hope that these people are not allowed to hijack OLSX’s good intentions.

I continue to encourage OLSX to disassociate themselves from these types and make it clear that they condemn any violent or criminal actions.

The results of a poll taken whilst the general public where in a state of shock after the UK riots would obviously not reflect reality.

If you read a lot of the content on this website I think it is clear that Occupy LSX has peaceful intentions.

I completely agree, this could be a defining moment for OLSX. I hope it takes the right path.

Its bad that you have had bad experiences with policing but surely the criticism of the police during the August riots is that they stood back too much and were not hard enough, allowing extensive looting, arson and murder and allowing many in the populace to be terrified.

I agree that it shouldn’t be on standby on this country but it is because of the threat. I love the fact that the police in the UK don’t carry guns as a matter of course like in America and this is one of the great things about this country. But sometimes, unfortunately, the contingency is required in case the police need to defend themselves or the public. As I have mentioned before it is the fault of the rioters and the criminals within the previous marches (not the legitimately protesting students) who have sadly made this necessary. These precedents make it a realistic possibility that violence at these protests (caused by infiltrators) could become dangerous and in this case it is sadly necessary to have this contingency in place.

In a democracy the population does not have a say in every single decision. It elects MPS which debate the law in Parliament and then those laws are formed. You may by the way be interested in a YouGov poll in August which showed the general population was in favour of the police being able to use a range of tactics including plastic bullets during the riots.

Sorry for the weird formatting, I’m not great with computers.

Table 1: Do you think the police should or should not be able to use the following in the course of dealing with rioters? 65% were in favour of plastic bullets and only 7% against.

Should Should not Don’t know
Water Cannon 90 6 4
Mounted police 84 11 4
Curfews 82 11 7
Tear gas 78 17 4
Tasers 72 21 7
Plastic bullets 65 28 7
Firearms/live ammunition 33 59 7
Would you support or oppose using the army to help deal with the riots? Support Oppose Don’t know
77 17 6

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/2011/08/11/riot-polling/

Having said all that though, I understand your nervousness about having armed police on call.