Riot Police?

[Kev T]

Hi Everyone,
I am a Police Officer in the United Kingdom, Yesterday on the news they showed a brief clip of the riots in Seattle a few months back. In the clip they showed a couple of American Bobby's firing what looked like some sort of paintball type gun at the crowd, The guys were dressed in helmets and facemasks and seemed to be standing on some sort of kiosk or podium, they were hugely outnumbered and were totally surrounded, they were firing like crazy into the crowd at about 10-15 feet away. A few years ago I did a lot of paintball, and I am sure the weapons they were using were some kind of paintball gun. Does anyone out there have any ideas what they might have been, and what happened to the Bobby's?
Also the other question I have is that, I am a member of a team of Officers trained for riot duties, we are called PSU - Police Support Unit, The team is made up of Uniformed patrol Bobby's, who work PSU in addition to their normal work. We train for a week once a year and get called upon to deal with any public order type situations. We are kitted in helmets pads, shields etc.
I was wondering if the same type of thing exists in the USA and if so are they full time on the unit or do they do it in addition to their normal work like in the UK. I was just interested and would appreciate any help.
Cheers,
Take Care.
Kev T...

[R.White]

I don't know specifically what happened in Seattle...hopefully someone else can advise on that. As to riot control training, here in the States, its only a part time assignment. On a nationwide basis, not much of it has been done since the Viet Nam War era because we haven't had too many mass disturbances since then. As to what they may have been firing, paintballs make sense. They sting like hell but aren't lethal and could mark riot participants for arrest later in the day...kinda like exploding dye packs used in robbery bait packs do. Another possibility is that instead of paint, the balls may have contained pepper spray that was being used to dispurse the crowd. Don't know off hand if such things have actually been invented yet but they might be a good idea. For what its worth! RW

[mp200901]

deleted because comment contained outdated information

[This message has been edited by Michael J Pannell (edited 04-16-2000).]

[John from Maryland]

The paintball-type weapon was probably a Pepperball dispenser. As Michael suggests, this is a means of deploying OC. I believe that in addition to Seattle, LA County Sheriff's Department and some other California agencies are using them. They seem very promising and I hope to obtain at least one for my agency.
I am unaware of any fulltime riot control units in the US, though I believe some of the larger jurisdictions have special events units which may also be deployed for riot control. Usually the civil disturbance unit or mobile field force consists of officers pulled from other assignments for the duration of the problem. The Field Force concept seems to have been pioneered by the Dade County and Miami City Police in Florida and by LAPD/LASD on the west coast.
FYI, Seattle PD has posted its afteraction report on the WTO disturbance on its website.
Be safe.

[KenM]

Hats off to you guys in the UK. I watch with amazement everytime y'all have a riot at one of your soccer matches.

Just can't understand what's so good about soccer...............

[Tackleberry]

The statement about the paintballs carrying "pepper-spray" is probably true in what was used in Seattle. Working on the Emergency Response Team for my prison we have semi-auto weapons which fire paintballs some of which have OC contained within them, they are very effective and sting like hell!

Tac

[klar]

I have been trained in riot control from the time I spent in the Miltary as a MP. I have watched the scenes in Seattle and those that are going on Washington D.C. The officers are utilizing the peppers spray as the others have stated. As far as gear, I was always issued a flack vest, a helmet with full face protection in form of a shatter-resistant clear plasic sheild, and a three foot wooden riot baton. The officers I have seen in these two civil actions have the full proection of face shields/resporators (as needed) plus a padded coat possibly a flack type protection. This flack vest comes in handy when you have all kinds of foriegn debris being thrown at you. They also have a club that the utilize some looked to have pr-24s but I could not tell for sure.

As I stated before I have been trained in civil unrest and even have had the oppertunity to help train some national guard members some of it. I know the state of Iowa has quick reaction teams of national guardsmen who can be called up to help quench a civil uprising till the LEO and Miltary Police , who are trained in this thing, can arrive on scene to pacify the crowds. It has not happened that I know of but the training is intense. All our training exercises had persons who were instructed to use what weapons and objects at the scene as they saw fit. I saw lots of diffent things used effectivly. I know that civil unrest is a very explosive thing and that you want to quell it as soon as possible with fewest injuries to the public and the officers as possible. I hope this has helped some. I will shut up now.

Be safe out there.

Klar