Exclusive: A squad of a thousand riot-busting cops has been mobilised to tackle disorder
Violence erupted in Manchester and Bolton at the weekend. Masked men were involved in running battles with riot police as fences were torn down and misses were thrown.
In a frank interview with the Manchester Evening News, today Chief Constable admitted the force 'is stretched' and was bracing itself for more trouble in the coming days. He revealed GMP has cancelled rest days and leave as part of an effort to coral a squad of 1,000 officers, some of them riot cops, available to mobilise at any moment.
In an interview with the Manchester Evening News, Chief Constable Watson said: "For us it's about saying there's a massive differentiation between the vast majority of the law abiding public, and it includes people who protest legitimately which is something we respect because it is part of our democracy... and what we have seen on our streets which is a straight-forward system of orchestrated criminality.
Greater Manchester's top cop continued: "I think that by definition we draw the distinction between people involved in lawful democratic protest and we know what that looks like because we police such things every weekend in Greater Manchester. This was not that. It was not lawful legitimate protest. This was organised, intended disorder. The intent was to harm, to damage, to frighten and that cannot be tolerated.
The M.E.N. suggested to the chief constable English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, had been considered by some to have been 'orchestrating' events from a sun lounger while on holiday in Cyprus. His name has been sung at many of the protests.
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