Policing the UK riots?

(c) William 79

Earlier this evening I tweeted: 

16,000 police being deployed in London tonight to quell #UKriots. Why not last night or night before? Police making a point about govt cuts?

Given that only 6,000 police were on the streets the night before, one has to wonder why has there suddenly been a sudden 267%  increase on the number of police being deployed tonight.

Last night was night 3 of the disturbances. Whilst the major politicians were away on holiday, only returning to the UK today to address the situation, there were still people present, whom I am sure it is in their job description, that are supposed to step up and deal with situations like this. Tonight, the 16,000 strong police force appear to have extinguished the ardour of those seeking to set fire and loot. At what point, did those left to deal with the disturbances not think that it might be worthwhile having a more visible police presence on the street the last couple of nights?

One has to wonder whether the police were sending out a message to the public and the government. We know that recent government cuts are due to hit police forces all over the country over the next few months. We know that they claim that this is going to put the public at greater risk. Yet those in charge of police operations in London over the last couple of evenings have blatantly failed to safeguard the public. Nobody has come forward to explain why more police were not deployed earlier to protect the public.

For me, it seems that the police have only taken full ownership of the problem tonight. There does not appear to be a good reason why they did not so before, unless they had ulterior motives.