Rejected petition Reintroduction of a Riot Act

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The country has suffered numerous riots where effective policing has been restricted by the concern of police officers that they could lose their jobs / liberty if someone innocent inadvertently gets hurt or they are deemed to have over reacted.

We therefore petition the government to reintroduce a riot act. On reading of the riot act people will have a set period to withdraw from the locality; if they fail to withdraw within this timescale they will be assumed to be guilty of the offence of riot.

After the expiration of the notice period if the police deploy appliances or weapons their use will be deemed to be legitimate (for civil, criminal, disciplinary and promotion purposes) unless gross recklessness or gross incompetence can be shown.

Weapons and appliances anticipated to be used are:
Truncheons of standard and baseball bat type length
Water cannon
Tear gas
Tasers
Baton rounds or plastic bullets
And in the most extreme circumstances live ammunition

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 9 August 2011
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