Bristol's Riot.

For the past couple of months there have been tensions in Bristol, UK between a local landlord who has been leasing a property to the supermarket Tesco and protesters who were based in near by squat - more or less with the permission of the local council who own the property. At around 17:00 (local) on April 21st the local (Avon&Somerset) police received and anonymous telephone call telling them that the occupants of the squat were preparing petrol bombs to use against the Tesco store. As this is considered a terrorist offence the police had no option then to raid the squat and carry out a de facto eviction. As part of the planning for this raid Avon & Somerset police activated a mutual aid agreement with neighbouring South Wales police that put their officers on stand by in case there was trouble and more officers were needed.

At around 21:00 local the police moved in to carry out the raid. This part of the operation went quite well with the police quickly securing the property, arresting it's occupants and recovering objects including petrol, glass bottles and cloth - all of which can be used to make petrol bombs. The problem arose after local residents, many of whom had already started celebrating the long weekend, realised that the police had evicted the squat without due process and started to complain to the officers on the scene. Complaining quickly turned into fighting and the police came under attack from bottles, rocks and fists. As the situation got out of control Avon & Somerset were forced to call in the reserve officers from South Wales. They arrived on the scene at around 23:00 local and deployed riot helmets, long shields and baton charges. Although this is the tactic in the training manual questions will be asked about the decision to use it because on this occasion it only really served to arm the rioters as many of these long shields were snatched away from the police officers using them. By around 02:00 the rioters got bored, went home and the riot ended almost as quickly as it began.

Although that risk is reducing there is still a worry that this small riot could become the trigger for a larger riot. The high risk period for this happening will be between the evening of Sunday (24/4/11) and 00:00 on the morning of Tuesday (26/4/11). Bizarrely one of the main risk factors will be the new series of the TV show Doctor Who which will be shown this evening. If it's bad people will be upset and there will be a riot. If it's good then people will be happy and there won't be a riot. So no pressure there then.