Skip to Content »

Could NZ deal with youth rioting – the law

  • August 10th, 2011

In 2009 I investigated the background to the Police use of a LAV in the Molenaar siege, after debate about its constitutional propriety.  That reminded me that in a "tidy mind" fit 20 years ago our naive leaders deprived ourselves of a long tested and effective law that could be a vital part of suppressing the kind of wild destructive glee now on show in the UK.

We lost the Riot Act. That Act was simple and effective. Essentially it said, you are now warned that if you do not disperse and cease threatening riot, normal rules governing your rights to be in the street, and the state's relationhip with you are suspended, and you may be shot.

We no longer have that capacity.

 It should be reinstated, in all its simplicity, updated only to allow for modern methods of communicating the message, so that Twitter, Facebook, radio, TV could be used as well as the Mayor reading the proclamation to the citizenry.

Because the sight of David Cameron vowing to be tough just discredits authority. It means nothing while he is at the same time ruling out simple effective measures, like making it plain that the authorities will not be straitjacketed in responding to riot with at least the same level of force.

Even more simple for us, would be to restore to New Zealanders the right  only  lost in 1980, to protect their own property by force if necessary. The right of self defence is now restricted to yourself and others, not property.

Comments

Gravatar

Pining for the Red Squad, eh? There’s always the Special Tactics Group.

Gravatar
  • Jim Maclean
  • August 11th, 2011
  • 8:35 am

 
Anything that can be done, can be overdone and the further that a pendulum swings one way, the further it is likely to swing back the other way in reaction. Correcting misuse of police and judicial power and protection of individual rights was a good thing for as long as people knew that Police and the Justice system could still successfully protect individuals and the shops the community relies on. Once things degenerate to where rioters can parade up and down in front of Police throwing bottles and waving iron bars while in the background others rob, burn and loot at will then the social message is that if you lack the means to defend your own property then no one else can or will. Citizens deserve that those who protect them have available to them power to escalate response commensurate to the threat faced. Failing that, citizens should have the right to defend their homes and businesses with deadly force if the state organisations have abandoned them to the mercies of the mob. For myself I prefer the former to the American “wild west” approach, but I am well past finding wishful thinking an acceptable strategy.
 

Gravatar

The Riot Act was repealed in the UK in 1973.

Wikipedia (without citation) states that the last time the Riot Act was read in the UK was in 1919.

Gravatar
  • kowtow
  • August 11th, 2011
  • 8:03 pm

Steven,
Great insights at this UK police blog.
http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/the-patience-of-a-saint/

Gravatar
  • George
  • August 11th, 2011
  • 8:17 pm

Graeme, I doubt Wikipedia on this one. I know of two testimonies from men who had it read it to a rampaging mob in Karachi during the partition in 1946.  A magistrate was dragooned into reading it in the local dialect. He was handcuffed to an NCO for his own protection. He got half way through when the threatening sight of the mob got to him. He fainted and fell from the stepladder.  One or more mob ringleaders were then shot as a statement and the riot moved back. The patrol then backed out carrying the still unconscious fat magistrate.

Gravatar

George – I meant (and so did wikipedia) the last time the Riot Act was read in the UK, not the last time it was read anywhere.

Gravatar
  • George
  • August 12th, 2011
  • 11:39 am

My apologies, I failed to read your post comprehensively.

Gravatar
  • Stephen
  • August 12th, 2011
  • 10:14 pm

It was read in New Zealand at least twice. Once was in Taihape, before the first world war. The town was the Saturday night drinking resort for the men who worked in the bush, serving over 30 saw mills clearing the land.

The Act was read by the Mayor, who was in his shop when a terrified Maori man came in for protection. He had been greased for a game of 'catch the greasy pig' and was being hunted by a baying mob.

The Mayor read the Act and stood im his store with his shotgun. The 'rioters' dispersed.

Leave your comments:

* Required fields. Your e-mail address will not be published on this site

You can use the following HTML tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>