Speech provided by Police Chief Brad Duncan, given at today’s Press Conference.
Last night London experienced the worst case of civil disobedience that our community has ever been subjected to. Never in my 32 years as a police officer have I observed behaviours that escalated to the point that there was risk that individuals could be seriously hurt or killed. The Fleming Drive area has been the subject of much discussion over the last several years and recently our efforts during Project Learn, our fall back to school initiative, was seemingly making a big difference in terms of negative student behaviour. I reference students ; however, we are aware that the large street parties, that have been the pattern for the area, also attract other attendees who are not necessarily students.
As is the case for all major events and circumstances that require special resource considerations, a structured operational plan was researched, reviewed and, established. This plan was completed by officers experienced in operational planning and included extensive review of previous year’s activities, as well as contemporary intelligence information related to planned or possible activities that may be in violation of laws or create public safety concerns. In addition, variables such as weather and time of year are also considered.
Unlike other party related dates, St. Patrick’s Day creates specific challenges, as parties and drinking associated with this day, commence during the morning hours and continue throughout the day and evening. It is fully anticipated that this day will included thousands of people gathering at locations throughout the city, but particularly in the areas of Richmond Row, Western University and Fanshawe College.
For the most part, history demonstrates that despite an increased consumption of alcohol on St. Patrick’s Day, the vast majority of participants are respectful of other persons and property.
As in past years, the London Police Operational Plan for this day included increased staff deployment, directed specifically at Richmond Row, and neighborhoods around Western University and Fanshawe College. This deployment included members of the Public Order Unit.
Three separate command structures were in place to cover our dayshift, afternoon shift and night shift. The Fleming Drive area was constantly under surveillance the entire day. A visit to the area will quickly demonstrate that we have a student enclave that spreads over many streets. The general practice has been for residents to consume alcohol on the rental properties effectively reducing the ability for police intervention as it is private property.
It must be kept in perspective that when people are on front lawns drinking, they are not breaking any laws; however considerable efforts were made to address liquor violations, both open display and underage drinking by London Police members who were on patrol in the area. Despite other busy areas, such as Richmond Street, the Fleming Drive area consumes the majority of our resources and yesterday was not different.
Regarding the areas of Richmond Row and Western University, other than dealing with the movement of extremely large crowds and various parties, there were no major incidents. This was not the case in the Fleming Drive area east of Fanshawe College. There were extremely large crowds in this neighborhood and we had a large police presence.
At approximately 10pm calls were received regarding a brush fire on Fleming Drive. London Fire Department attended and were almost immediately confronted with numerous persons throwing bottles and bricks at the firefighters and fire vehicles. Fire Service members requested police assistance to allow them to pull out of the area to prevent injury to their members. Additional police resources were directed to this area and the fire service vehicle and members escorted to safety. As police officers entered, they too were met with an increasingly large crowd throwing bottles and debris. Police members were instructed to don their helmets for protection. It is significant to note, that had police officers not put on helmets, several would have received serious injuries as many were struck in the head with various thrown items. Several officers did receive less serious soft tissue injuries from being struck.
A tactical decision was made to remove LPS vehicles from the immediate area and marshall all police members to ensure they were accounted for and initiate a containment of the area. As police commenced to extract to a meeting point, they were surrounded by a large crowd estimated to be approximately 1000 persons. Police vehicles were pounded with 2 x 4’s, bricks, tire rims and other various items. Seventeen police vehicles have been damaged including windows and dents to vehicle bodies. Members of the Public Order Unit had to deploy smoke canisters in an attempt to disperse some of the crowd.
At 11:01pm an announcement was made declaring that the situation was now an unlawful assembly. It was repeated again at 11:08pm. Car tires and rims were now rolled at officers. By approximately 11:25pm, all police vehicles were removed and marshaled at a separate area. At 11:30pm, information was received that a CTV news vehicle had been rolled over and set on fire.
London Fire attended to address the car fire and met with police. Fire command staff determined that no homes were in jeopardy and rather than subject fire personnel to attacks, fire vehicles were assembled away from the volatile crowd. Police sent UC officers into the area to monitor for public safety and determine whether the vehicle fire posed a risk for homes as there were grave concerns that the disobedience would be directed towards other vehicles and structures. The London Police Service remained on scene until day light .
Moving forward it is obvious that the student s and residents in the area are under the illusion that they can engage in unlawful behaviour; that they can commit serious criminal offences with impunity; and that they can reject the lawful authority of police and other emergency services personnel. As Chief of Police, responsible for the safety and security of our citizens I can emphatically state that we will not tolerate this lack of respect for our community, our laws and specifically this neighbourhood. I have directed that we maximize our resources in terms of visibility and strict law enforcement. We already have a team of investigators reviewing statements, video and witness information.
To the students and others who committed these criminal acts we are engaged in identifying those involved. We are already receiving many tips with respect to the responsible parties and there will be further arrests and charges in connection with last night’s melee. The amount of video taken last night was substantial and I have viewed many clips that have been posted. We will undertake to identify and charge those responsible. If you were involved I would urge you do the right thing and present yourselves at police headquarters.
To the parents of students who rent and live in this area I ask you to take appropriate action. You need to have conversations with your children. There were a number of individuals burned last night. The severity of this mob mentality could have easily resulted in a death and how tragic would that have been for a parent to have a member of our service knocking on their doors to inform them that their son or daughter had been killed.
To those students who have expressed disgust and outrage thank you for being the positive face that we want our academic institutions to reflect. A number of students have posted comments urging those responsible to step forward and be accountable for their actions.
Aside from the dangers that were encountered our wider community will be facing considerable costs. Early estimates place the damage costs to vehicles, street pavement and light standards, cleanup costs for the neighbourhood, and personnel costs at close to $100,000.00. This is an incredible expense to our community based on such irresponsible actions of a few.
Finally, to the men and women of the London Police Service, both sworn and civilian who worked through these difficult circumstances, responding to almost 400 calls for service over the course of the day, I thank you for your professionalism and restraint. Every one of our members in attendance on Fleming drive was assaulted. They were literally attacked with full bottles of beer and liquor, bricks, wood planks, 2 X 4’s, debris, tires and rims. In additions members of the crowd used laser pointers aimed of our officer’s eyes to try and disrupt our response. Our community can be very proud of the extent to which our member’s engaged in a dynamic, dangerous highly charged situation and ensured that injuries to the crowd were kept to a minimum and housing structures were not set ablaze.
We remained on site for the entire night knowing that if but for our presence that neighbourhood may have been heavily damaged. I also want to commend the efforts of our London Fire Service and Middlesex London EMS who provided their professional assistance.
The London Police Service arrested 11 persons over the course of the evening and they face a variety of charges including unlawful assembly, assault police, and resisting arrest. Of the 11 arrested, 7 have been identified as Fanshawe students. As I indicated we fully expect more arrests and charges to be forthcoming.
via The London Free Press
