Taking stock

Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May has expressed her support for tough police tactics in response to rioting in London and other major English cities last week. May said she wanted to give police the tools required to tackle further violence.

"Under existing laws, there is no power to impose a general curfew in a particular area," although "curfew conditions can be placed on some offenders," May said. She also pointed to the fact that the police currently have only limited powers to impose a curfew on people aged under 16.

"These are the sort of changes we need to consider," May said. She added that new guidelines would be issued to address public order policing.

Violence first erupted in Tottenham, north London, on August 6, before spreading across England for four nights in the worst riots in decades.

In her speech on police reform, May also sought to calm tensions between the police and politicians by ruling out the possibility of a non-British officer becoming the new head of the police force in London.

May said that the head of London's Metropolitan Police had a "unique policing role in relation to national security, and that is why the post has always been held by a British citizen."

She made the remark in connection with a heated debate about government plans to consult Bill Bratton, the former US "supercop" renowned for this zero-tolerance tactics in New York and other US cities on the issue of urban gang crime.

Cleaning up

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced a series of "payback schemes" for convicted rioters. They are to be compelled to clear up the communities they devastated.

Clegg also announced an independent panel to hear from victims of the violence.

"It will serve as a way in which victims and communities can have their voice heard," Clegg told reporters in London.

However, the listening panel falls short of the public inquiry into the riots demanded by the opposition Labour Party.

Murder charges

Also on Tuesday, a 16-year-old boy was remanded in custody charged with the murder of a pensioner during the rioting.

Richard Bowes, 68, was punched to the ground in the west London suburb of Ealing on August 8. He was one of five people killed during England's worst public unrest for decades.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was also charged with violent disorder and four counts of burglary related to looting during the riots. His 31-year-old mother appeared alongside him in the dock charged with perverting the course of justice. She was also denied bail.

Three people appeared in court Monday over the murder of three men who were hit by a car while defending their neighborhood against looters in Birmingham early last Wednesday.

Another three people have been arrested and bailed on suspicion of murder following the fatal shooting of a man in Croydon on August 8 after he argued with a group of men involved in looting.

Author: Joanna Impey (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Susan Houlton