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Brilliant? This is perhaps the worse researched and uneducated slant on this I have read yet!

Are you an epert in police crowd control tactics? What knowledge or training do you think you have to intelligently comment on this situation? Oh, you have been to other protests have you? Good for you. You clearly do not have any understanding of fire department procedures.

They didn't call the fire department, because the policy for emergency services is that fire and EMS do not respond until police secure the scene. Doing so otherwise could result in dead or injured responders, complicating the situation.

Furthermore, a burning vehicle with no exposures does not present a significant threat to life provided people are kept away from specific hazards such as vehicle struts and safety systems.

Simply, the benefits of throwing a half million dollar fire truck with 4 firefighters into the middle of an escalating police emergency simply does not outweigh the risks of a burning police car.

An extinguisher will not extinguish a fully involved car, and to have a cop without appropriate PPE close enough to use it is extremely unsafe. Have you ever even used a fire extinguisher on something bigger than a garbage can? Honestly!

Common sense, and examination of past events, clearly shows that deploying crowd management units to relatively minor acts of vandalism such as breaking windows escalates the situation due to fear (as opposed to anger - you should do a little research about the psychology of crowds). They were probably "picking their noses" because doing otherwise could spark riot, which is a little worse than a broken window.

The police did not let it get out of control. A single officer is a deterent, and is not capable of managing crowd control. Hense the crowd management unit. Crowd management and other specialty teams, such as ETF, are small and designed for localized operations. They are transported to the scene.

It is more than reasonable to sacrifice a police car for ones own safety. When a crowd has reached the point of torching cars, it is too late for one officer to have an impact, a larger force is required.

Police did not cause this. Thugs who came to the city with the intention of violence did. They hide in the crowds and create havoc when the opportunity arose. They are criminals. Their actions can then lead into a crowd mentality. The peaceful protestors are the fuel - they are unhappy and they are doing something about it - albeit legal. When these thugs create a spark by lighting a car on fire or smashing windows, it can draw in frustrated demonstrators who were previously peaceful.

The individual police are simply there as a deterent to keep peaceful demonstrations from becoming violent. If they do become violent, there is little to nothing these deterent forces can do. That is why we have crowd management units. They are then brought in. There are only so many of these units, as they are very labour and equipment intensive (not to even mention the logistics).

The police did an excellent job considering there were people there intending to cause problems. If we want our police to control these more effectively, we have to give them the tools to do so, and not leave them handcuffed, so to speak.

My hats off to the police. They did an outstanding job at the risk of their own life.

P.S. Here is a little information for those who don't know better and accuse people of doing nothing to justify the cost. The front line personnel do not care about budgets, politics and justification. They care about going home to their familiy. They don't want violence, because it means they might not make it home. That means preventing this at all costs, and settling it down as fast as possible.

Everyone who went there, peaceful or not, contributed to the atmosphere, and thus, intentionally or not, contributed to what happened yesterday. If you look for trouble, you will find trouble. If you go somewhere you know there will be trouble and find it, you have noone to blame but yourself. Everyone there CHOSE to be there, EXCEPT the responders. They are the ONLY ones there I have ANY respect for.

But you carry on your blog, I'm sure it is very educated and well researched... Cough, cough (sorry, I'm allergic to HS).