David Cameron had better be prepared to park within the lines and drive below the speed limit for an extended period the way things are going between him and the British police.

The CBC reports that U.K. police upset over U.S. ‘supercop’ consultant

Several U.K. police organizations have blasted Prime Minister David Cameron for turning to a U.S. law enforcement expert to help tackle gang violence in Britain in the wake of recent riots in urban centres.

Former New York city police commissioner Bill Bratton was confirmed Friday as the government’s anti-gang expert, offering his services for free and saying the British government cannot “arrest their way out” of systemic problems facing the country.

The criticism, led by Association of Chief Police Officers leader Sir Hugh Orde, underscored deep tensions between police and Cameron’s coalition government over who was most to blame for the failure to stop the four-day rioting that raged in parts of London and other English cities until Wednesday.

The UK police shouldn’t be upset, because Bratton will probably recommend a return to the traditional police practice of ‘community policing’, i.e. get the cops out of cars onto the streets they patrol to establish a connection to the community.

Cameron won’t do it because it means more officers. The whole purpose of patrol cars was to reduce the number of officers, and since Cameron wants to cut the budget, he won’t go along.

Naked Capitalism has a sizable list of experts in multiple fields who have been warning about riots for some time: Austerity and Runaway Inequality Lead to Violence And Instability.

If you don’t trust the ‘liberal academics’, read the MI6 or Pentagon versions. They are all saying the same thing – austerity is a really bad idea if you want to maintain public order and avoid riots.

Position: 30.2N 63.3W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North-Northwest [345°] near 12 mph [19 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 45 mph [ 75 kph].
Wind Gusts: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1008 mb.

Currently about 170 miles [275 km] South-Southeast of Bermuda.

Gert should be due East of Bermuda at about 7AM CDT tomorrow. The biggest threat will be from the surf on the eastern coast of the island.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Bermuda.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]