Are Riga Disorders a Harbinger of Worse to Come Elsewhere?

One more thing, adding to what the previous speaker said. This was the FIRST riot EVER in Latvia.

Paul. I am sorry but you have got this wrong. I was there. The police that took part in the rally were told to not wear uniform. They were therefore off duty and could not take part in any further policing. At the rally were only about 12 police in uniform. These were from several different police commands. The ordinary police that were on duty were simply poorly led. The sad fact is not that they pulled back from doing their job for political reasons but totally for operational reasons. They were not equipped on the day for physical policing and they simply had no idea what to do. Their leaders kept their heads down because of that. I spoke to one avoiding the crowd and he was totally bewildered by the whole thing. The commanders were out of their depth. The public order police were not much better using policing methods that went out in the 1970s in most western countries. The police that I saw were doing the best of their abilities. It is their training and leadership that is at fault not their political allegiance to their country. But scratch the surface and you will find that they had no proper orders from above either. Sadly Latvia has a near academic police training programme. It is inadequate for real life. It is also not right to mention anything to do with Russia within the same Blog this time. These are just our problems.

There is only one decent solution to mass riots - have a well equipped, professional and well paid police force. Before we assign blame about the outrage that went on for 3 hours in the Old City of Riga on January 13, let us ask - how efficient is a police force, if it has been drastically cut in size, is overloaded, and its salaries are going to be reduced by 15% ? During difficult times it is proper to invest in security (both physical security - locks, security guards, policemen; computer/network security, etc.) During crises criminals are becoming more aggressive and their methods are more elaborate. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis (even though he has been Minister of Interior himself) does not consider well paid police force as a priority. We can hope that the ruling classes saw these events as an indication that security (in particular, salaries for policemen) is not a budget item, where one can achieve large "savings". It is much better to pay 100 LVL more for a 1000 of rank-and-file policeman, than to face losses of about 100,000 LVL of destroyed property in Riga.

vispar baigais konspirators, beidzot var redzeet, ka nevar 100% ticet vina rakstitajam. ta ir tikai interpretaacija