London Bridge Is Falling Down

Sunday, March 29, 2009 by TimesOnline/UK

G20 Protesters Face Police with Tasers

by David Leppard and Steven Swinford

LONDON - Scotland Yard is to deploy officers armed with 50,000-volt Taser stun guns to deal with violent demonstrators planning to disrupt this week's G20 summit in London.

Thousands of demonstrators take part in the "Put People First" march through central London. Tens of thousands of demonstrators from trade unions and environmental and anti-capitalism groups marched through London Saturday, starting a series of mass protests ahead of the G20 summit.(AFP/Leon Neal)

The centrepiece of the security plan will be hundreds of officers from the Metropolitan police territorial support group, who are routinely armed with speedcuffs, extended batons and CS gas spray.

The Met confirmed yesterday that they will be supported by officers equipped with Tasers on stand-by should trouble break out.

"There will be an armed response vehicle element to this operation and [those officers] will be carrying Tasers," said a spokeswoman.

The Met's admission that Tasers could be used for the first time in the UK during riots came as protest groups claimed police had contacted them to warn that a day of protest in the City on Wednesday would be "very violent".

All police leave has been cancelled and 10,500 officers, including reinforcements from other forces, will be deployed in the biggest policing operation undertaken in London.

Demonstrations intended to bring the capital's financial centre to a standstill on Wednesday and disruption to the G20 summit at the ExCel centre in Docklands on Thursday will provide the first big test for Sir Paul Stephenson, the new Met commissioner. He will be aware that the protests provide an opportunity to show the world that London is up to the security and public order challenges of the 2012 Olympics Full Story