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Hugh Orde mette in guardia da utilizzo dei proiettili di plastica

Top police officer warns against use of plastic bullets on rioters

Sir Hugh Orde says baton rounds should be reserved for life- threatening situations and urges response ‘be kept in proportion’

Sir Hugh OrdeSir Hugh Orde, one of the only officers to have deployed plastic bullets, has spoken out against its use in London. As chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Orde – now president of Acpo – has deployed plastic bullets and water cannon against rioters.

He said: “I do not think it would be sensible in any way shape or form to deploy water cannon or baton rounds in London. Baton rounds are very serious bits of equipment. I would only deploy them in life-threatening situations. What is happening in London is not an insurgency that is going to topple the country. There are 8 million people in London and it is a tiny proportion doing this. They are gangs of looters and criminals and although it is concerning it has to be kept in proportion.”

Rubber and then plastic bullets have been deployed in Northern Ireland since 1969 and are still used today. Known as attenuated energy projectiles, plastic bullets are about 6 inches long. Unlike rubber bullets which are fired into the ground first, plastic bullets are fired directly at someone in a riot situation.

The police are supposed to fire at the individual’s legs but 17 individuals, eight of them children, have been killed since 1969 with rubber and latterly plastic bullets. Many of those killed were hit in the head or chest.

The first of these victims was 11-year old Francis Rowntree who was fatally wounded by a British Army rubber bullet on 22 April 1972 at the republican Divis Flats complex in west Belfast. The last person to die in similar circumstances was Seamus Duffy, 15, who was shot by a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer with a plastic bullet while walking in the republican New Lodge district in north Belfast on 9 August 1989.

The teenager’s death provoked days of rioting across republican areas of the city and his funeral later degenerated into a unseemly spectacle when a German news photographer manhandled and upset mourners during the procession from the boy’s home to the cemetery.

Plastic bullets are fired from baton rounds which in London are only used by specialist C019 firearms officers. Officers carrying baton rounds have been on standby before in England, including at Broadwater Farm in 1985 and at the Notting Hill carnival, but while they have been used regularly in Northern Ireland they have never been fired in England, Wales or Scotland.

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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