The Metropolitan Police Service announced late Thursday that it had arrested over 1000 people in connection with the riots, violence and looting that plagued the Britain over the last week and took four lives. A total of 1,009 people have been arrested with 464 charged so far.
“The large number of arrests is testament to the professionalism and dedication of all the officers involved in this operation,” Commander Christine Jones said in an official statement.
“We have outstanding officers who have been working around the clock to proactively arrest those involved in disorder both on the street and as a result of detective work through Operation Withern.
“We’re sending a clear message to people: if you get involved indisorder we will catch you.”
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Kavanagh said, “Tonight in London we are maintaining our presence on the streets with the similar huge numbers of officers – 16,000. London has remained calm for the last two nights and I certainly hope and pray it stays that way.
“The scenes we awoke to on Tuesday morning are still shocking, sickening and almost beyond belief. It was a truly sad day for London. A day that no one expected, with violence having ripped through 22 of our 32 boroughs, over 1,700 calls for the fire brigade to deal with fires, and groups of looters trashing people’s livelihoods,” he added.
“It certainly stretched us. It is clear we did not have the numbers on duty to deal with that despite having mobilised the same number of officers as the total staff of West Midlands Police. Our officers did the very best that they could, they did it bravely and they put themselves in danger to do what they could for the safety of London.
“They showed discipline and professionalism, which should never be seen as a sign of weakness. Scenes of officers catching a woman as she jumps from a burning building, officers in shirt sleeves running towards disorder and just four PCs tackling a mob of 40 are scenes we should all be proud of. Equally, we should be proud of those members of the community who joined us on the streets to persuade those gathering from attempting to repeat such criminal devastation.
“Since making the biggest peacetime deployment of officers we have had we have filled the cells of London twice, courts are sitting through the nights and we are tracking down those who brought fear and shame to our city.”