History Of Cannons

London Riots: Will UK Police Use Water Cannons?

As citizens flee neighborhoods in fear, both politicians and newspapers are calling for the use of water cannons, and possibly even tear gas, to drive looters away. Although England has never used the method, water cannons are employed as crowd-control tools in many Euopean countries, as well as the United States.

Home Secretary Theresa May, who has been vocal during the whole ordeal, rejected the idea outright Tuesday.

"The way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon," she said. "The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities."

However, some politicians disagree with May, and are insisting that the police be allowed to use any means necessary to quell a situation that has so far been uncontrollable.

"I am not saying that is necessarily what we want, but we have got to allow the police to use their powers and, once they have arrested individuals, for the judiciary to be able to punish them," Patrick Mercer, a Conservative MP and former army officer, told BBC Television Tuesday morning.

"They should have the tools available, and they should use them if the commander on the ground thinks it is necessary. I don't think we have necessarily to mollycoddle Englishmen because we don't mollycoddle Irishmen," he added, referring to the use of water cannons on rioters in Northern Ireland last month.

Demonstrators have thrown firebombs at police officers and torched property, cars and London city buses. In Tottenham, where the violence started Saturday night, rioters smashed store windows and burned buildings to the ground.

Rioting and looting has been continuing in the British capital since the weekend, when angry citizens of Tottenham marched to police headquarters to protest the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan. The anarchy then spread to Hackney, Peckham and Lewisham on Monday afternoon and by nightfall reached the neighborhoods of Ealing, Camden and Croydon.

A total of 16,000 police officers are currently in the capital. At least 400 people have been arrested in London at last report.

In what police and the British media have called a "copycat riot," gangs of masked youths began looting retail shops in the center of Birmingham Monday night, and the new Bullring shopping complex was attacked. Anywhere from 30 to 80 people have been arrested so far in the Midlands city, according to varying reports.

Fort Point: A Fun, Free History Lesson (with Cannons!)

Explore a Civil War-era fort, see the Golden Gate Bridge from underneath, and learn to load a cannon…all for free! We’ve driven over the Golden Gate Bridge hundreds of times, spent many fun afternoons and Crissy Field, but never have we ventured down the road a bit to Fort Point until this past weekend.

Fort Point is a Civil War-era fort, which I thought I misheard because I’ve never thought about California’s role in the Civil War. My husband wondered aloud if it was a political patronige project, making San Francisco the Alaska of it’s time. The enemy never came, but the fort remained. It was almost dismantled when the Golden Gate Bridge was built, but the architect of the bridge decided that the fort was an example of artistic masonry and the bridge plans were amended to spare the fort.

History of the Cannons United Methodist Church

Library history

Cannonade, great artillery actions of history, the famous cannons, and the master gunners

A dictionary, practical, theoretical, and historical, of commerce and commercial navigation

A dictionary, practical, theoretical, and historical, of commerce and commercial navigation, illustrated with maps and plans