LONDON - British police flooded thestreets to ensure weekend drinking does not reignite the riotingthat swept London and other cities this week, shocking Britonsand sullying the country's image a year before it hosts theOlympics.
Steve Kavanagh, deputy assistant commissioner of theMetropolitan Police, said 16,000 officers, instead of the usual2,500, would remain on duty in London in their biggest peacetimedeployment -- a measure of the perceived public order challenge.
Other forces, including those in the cities ofNottingham, Birmingham and Liverpool, said they would maintain ahigh level of policing over the weekend, although they said theywere not anticipating further trouble after a couple of nightsof quiet.