Brave Borough Police Deserve Our Thanks And Support

By the middle of this week, many of the men and women that make up our Borough’s police force had been on duty for in excess of twenty hours. They faced hostile groups armed with baseball bats and batons as pockets of disturbance sprung up in a handful of locations around Hammersmith and Fulham. I have been contacted by many local people who wanted to find out what’s going on, some of them frightened, but all of them extremely grateful and proud of our police officers who put themselves in harms way to protect them, their families, their businesses and their property.

We’ve now had record numbers of police on the streets for several days. Added to the regular police constables, there are Community Support Officers, Safer Transport officers, CID officers, Crime and Drug Squad officers, Intelligence Unit officers, Football officers, special police constables and more. What is clear is that together, they are successfully managing to contain the violence and put a stop to this anarchic, materialistic criminality whenever it appears in our neighbourhoods.

Whatever the situation around the death of Mark Duggan, there is absolutely no excuse for the violence, robbery and looting that has taken place since. We can and must spend time later coming to a balanced and informed view about why this is happening and what needs to be done to stop it re-occurring. For now, enough is enough and we need order fully restored.

The police are asking local businesses to keep all video footage and ensure their cameras have sufficient storage. We should all note that the vast majority of people arrested in this Borough for these crimes are not youths. That said, it would still be enormously helpful if parents and carers would make every possible effort to ensure their children remain supervised - particularly at night. Residents with information they want to pass onto the police should call the Major Investigation Team on 020 8345 4142 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. The police have also launched this website.

Chief Superintendent Lucy D'Orsi, our Borough Commander, has called a public meeting tonight to brief people what she and her team are doing on our behalfs. That will take place at 6:45 pm at St. Paul’s Church, Hammersmith. I may see you there.