Letters to the editor: We must resist spread of Tasers

 
An institution in crisis: English National Opera’s production of Fidelio from 2013 (Picture: Tristram Kenton)
13 February 2015
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The news that up to 100 more police officers will be patrolling London’s boroughs armed with Tasers is something that we should be incredibly wary of.

While I appreciate that we exist in a period of heightened concern as a result of the shocking attacks in Paris last month, we must avoid knee-jerk reactions that involve further weaponisation of London’s police force. We already have an effective armed response unit and these extra measures will not be effective in preventing potential lone-wolf attacks.

Instead, an incoming Mayor of London must look at adapting practice to address the root of the problem through community engagement and education, rather than treating the symptoms with an increasingly militaristic approach.
Diane Abbott MP (Lab)

Increasing the number of police officers armed with Tasers is a dangerous reaction to a high-profile event.

Tasers are not “non-lethal weapons”. Between 2001 and 2013 there were 540 deaths resulting from the use of stun guns by US police officers.

The Met Commissioner’s assertion that an increase in Taser deployment is necessary to deal with the threat of terrorism is without evidential basis and typical of the authoritative creep of counter-terrorism policing. This move will bring more, not less, violence to the capital’s streets.
Kojo Kyerewaa, co-cordinator, London Campaign Against Police and State Violence

Our policing model, envied as it is worldwide, is geared up to police a society that sadly we’ve seen slipping away over the past few decades.

The call from police for Tasers has only come about since the terror scenario materialised. Police officers weren’t asking for a large-scale Taser roll-out before this.

However, 100 more officers with Tasers in the Met is a drop in the ocean and will hardly make any difference.

Just what are our expectations of our police? If we want them to tackle killers without needlessly laying down their lives, give them the means to do so.
Mike Pannett, director, 4Policing

Bill Bratton, New York City’s police commissioner, has warned Boris Johnson not to use water cannon in London.

Using them here is not just an unacceptably heavy-handed policing tactic, contrary to our culture of the police using minimum force, but is also impractical.

The idea for their use arose out of the London riots in 2011, when not even police officers could keep up with fast-moving outbreaks of violence, let alone a few lumbering water cannon.

The money for the cannon bought by the Mayor would have been better spent on more police officers.
Brian Paddick

ENO must move with the times

The “special measures” to be placed on English National Opera by the Arts Council are being painted by some on the Left as austerity’s latest draconian whim, and on the Right as a well earned punishment for inefficiency.

There’s an air of public shaming but the measures are far less severe than is being made out. It’s worth remembering that ENO’s internal crisis is not just the cause of its funding cuts but equally the cumulative effect of years of them. At the same time, no institution should be too big to fail, least of all one whose claim to be “creating the future of opera” is increasingly challenged by the experimental work of London’s independent companies.

The notion that classical music doesn’t need concert halls is probably even truer of opera, which, as Igor Toronyi-Lalic points out in The Spectator, may now be at its most vital in the art gallery. The Arts Council is rightly supporting projects that think beyond 19th-century assumptions about where and how art takes place, and it’s these projects that provide the key to a renewal of opera’s radical potential.
Sam Mackay, co-director, London Contemporary Music Festival

Reoffending is not just high for rioters

The level of reoffending by those involved in the 2011 riots is disturbing [Martin Bentham, Tues] but these figures are not that surprising given that 58 per cent of those released from a short spell in prison reoffend within a year.

In our charity’s experience, short-term prison sentences strip offenders of responsibility and fail to challenge offending behaviour.

We therefore advocate the extension of probation support to those sentenced to short-term imprisonment and the introduction of statutory supervision for all offenders when they are released. This should provide better access to a mentor and help with mental health issues and addiction, as well as providing advice and support in finding a home and a job.
Graham Beech, strategic development director, Nacro

Use property taxes to ease congestion

We desperately need to improve transport infrastructure in the capital and reduce congestion, which has a major impact on London businesses. But the fact that business levies or tolls are being considered as funding streams for these projects just highlights the need for a wholesale change in the way key infrastructure improvements are financed.

We have long called for London government to be able to retain all property taxes — just one example of an initiative that could be funded locally with greater fiscal freedom.

Infrastructure improvements are absolutely necessary but we must find a more sophisticated way to pay for them than simply a tax on business.
Colin Stanbridge, chief executive, London Chamber of Commerce

Local people want airport expansion

As many as 8,500 local homes may benefit from new noise insulation grants paid for by Heathrow, and polls also indicate overwhelming local support for the airport’s expansion. Just who are the local authorities representing? Ordinary residents who returned them to power or a vocal Nimbyist clique?
Alan Chapman

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