The Day after the night before

The day after the night before.

Last night and Saturday night I sat and watched the news about the riots firstly in Tottenham and then they moved locally to Enfield and other places closer to home.

Today you look at the news and you see Hackney doing the same thing.

I went to work this morning and done my usual Monday thing where i finished at midday and then collected the wife on the way past home to go and view the wreckage of Enfield Town.

Heading into the town we soon came across the same problem we had last night the route was blocked by police vans so we drove round and parked up in the local Tesco car park and went for a walk.

The first thing we noticed was not the police but the amount of people that were around taking photo's of the area and just the quantity of people out to see what had happened.

We then noticed the police and the damage along with news crews and camera men doing reports.

The area is quite wide spread and there were major parts of the town closed off completely of ribbened off so you had to keep away.

Every member of the police are wearing the what look like jump suits and look like they are ready to don riot helmets and produce riot shields at the slightest sign of aggravation.

The main shopping area which was newly built a few years back (palace gardens precinct ) was completely closed off due to the amount of damage that had been caused in that area.

Walking down church street where the civic centre is the road is closed to traffic but pedestrians are able to walk on the opposite side to the shops as many windows are broken and bricks lay all over the road - there is a tiny car park on that side and if you take a close look you will see a wall with a major chunk missing out of it which was used to smash the window.

Walking back around to the other side where the new library is (which looks so peace full with is glimmering windows and new fountain) you find the other side of Enfield and the main route from the Southgate side still closed and the main part of the road into and both sides of the shops cordoned off including HMV which from what we was told took some major damage and lost lots of stock - which in my view is obvious as its all small and easily concealed.

The police presence is quite large with about 100 to 150 police scattered around the area and about 15 vans.

There were also a number of Enfield council staff walking around with ID tags and high visibility vests taking photos and making notes , when asked what they were doing they simply replied we are checking for damage for claims to be made - so translated that was they are taking pictures so nobody can put in force claims - The trusting world we live in today.

Once we had taken a few photos we headed back to the car to come home.

The sad thing about all of this is and id expect this to be echoed around by many people and many politicians opposing the government is that the Met are meant to be losing a significant amount of street police in the cuts that are happening?

The question is how will they will be able to cope with what occurs if they can not control the situation now as they will have less chance then.

Whats the answer ?

One answer is not to cut the police back and we could fund our police by either coming out of the European Union or by stopping giving aid to countries like Pakistan like Dave Cameron did for their schools when we have as much if not more of a need for it here.

Also maybe stronger and tougher policing so the police can be seen to be more active looking at the pictures of Hackney tonight the biggest impression I got was that the police were always on the retreat and backing away from the rioters instead of going in hard and stopping them.