A woman interrupted, saying: "You talk about robust policing.
So there was clear justification for robust policing.
This is an incendiary combination in any society; water cannons and robust policing are not the solution.
As well as promising "robust policing" of the event, Johnson took the time to pose with members of Genesis, a band and dance troupe attending this year.
"Robust" was very much the word of the week; robust policing, robust sentencing, robust rosy-cheeked district nurses cycling through picture-postcard English villages.
"Despite extensive work with both clubs and the London Stadium partners as well as a large and robust policing operation, there were unacceptable incidents inside and outside the stadium, before, during and after the game.
He said of the policing of the demonstration: "There was a general feeling that it would be robust policing, not just going and picking on people, but robust as in keeping the demonstration where it should be".
"From the offset, Cheshire constabulary adopted a robust policing approach using the information coming into the organisation to move quickly and effectively against any person whose behaviour was likely to encourage criminality.
"I think [the prime minister and home secretary] are confident that robust policing using the traditional British model of minimum use of force, albeit … proportionate but very robust, will deal with this issue.
A new order will most urgently need robust policing rather than armed force.The West does indeed have a dog in this fight: if Colonel Qaddafi can be replaced by a decent regime, the forces of modernity and reform across the Arab world will get a huge fillip, which in turn will benefit the West in a host of economic and political ways.
As British officials promised to end days of widespread riots with "more robust policing," and 16,000 officers fanned out across London, American readers might be surprised to learn that most members of the force charged with ending the rioting remain unarmed.
