[bdunbar]

Plus, in the UK the cops aren't generally armed with anything more than a club. So they have to use their heads a bit more.

I attended riot-control training in the Marines: from the way things look on teevee the cops are doing pretty much what we trained to do.

Guns are out[1]. Clubs, chemical agents, are in. Using your head is the order of the day.

Because it only takes one guy not using his head, throwing a CS grenade into the crowd, upwind from your lines, to ruin your whole day.

[1] Let me (slightly) expand on the guns thing and Marines. We _had_ rifles in the Marines, but doctrine and training had us running around without ammunition, or with ammunition kept in pouches, and only allowed to be used with permission of a commissioned officer.