BRITAIN began flooding London’s streets with 16,000 police officers on Tuesday, nearly tripling their presence as the nation feared its worst rioting in a generation would stretch into a fourth night. The violence has turned buildings into burnt out carcasses, triggered massive looting and spread to other UK cities.
Police said they were working full-tilt, but found themselves under attack – from rioters roaming the streets, from a scared and worried public, and from politicians whose cost-cutting is squeezing police numbers ahead of next year’s Olympic Games.
Sharp cuts planned for public services and rising unemployment have fed into growing frustrations in poor, urban areas.
London’s Metropolitan Police force vowed an unprecedented operation to stop more rioting, flooding the streets on Tuesday with 16,000 officers over the next 24 hours, nearly three times Monday’s total.
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