I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 88: Commanding officer

"Team, drop everything you are doing, all officers are required in  Hyde Park, order of Chief SuperIntendant." half-yelled Gregory, storming  into his adjuncts office.
With no further informations all the  officers, excepted Anderson who was not counted as an intervention  force, dropped their ongoing work, grabbed their equipment and followed  their superior to the stairs.
"Any idea of what is going on ?" wondered Sally while jumping three steps at a time.
"I  don't really know but apparently a savage party had turned into chaos  and they are gathering every force they can find to manage with the  situation." replied the detective, slamming the car park's door open.
"What's  the operation's radio frequency ?" enquired the young woman, taking a  grab at her radio stored in her jacket's pocket and turning it one.
"18." simply responded the DI, quickly climbing into his car, joined by his officers who squashed on the back seats.
He  took off and switched on the blue lights as soon as he got into the  London traffic. The informations they were receiving through the radio  were confused but gave them the feeling something definitely serious was  happening with already two stabbing or attempted stabbing – it was still unclear –  reported. As he was cursing a pedestrian who had crossed just in front  of his fast running car despite having clearly seen the blue lights, the  inspector felt his phone buzzing in his coat pocket.
"Can you have a grip on that please Sally ?" he demanded, speeding up again.
"It's Mycroft. Shall I take it ?" she informed him.
"Yep.  It may be related to what is happening. If it's not tell him that I  will call him back later." nodded the policeman as they were approaching  the park.
"Hello Mycroft, Donovan speaking." she introduced herself when taking the call.
"Hello Sally, can I speak to Gregory please ?" the official greeted her.
"I'm  afraid you can't. We've just been called on a major operation in Hyde  Park and he is driving at the moment." the policewoman denied, holding  herself to the door handle with one hand as the DI took a left turn at  high speed.
"In fact I'm calling about this operation, may you put me on speaker please ?" the auburn requested.
"Sure, here you go" accepted Sally before holding the phone in the air near to her boss' face.
"Listening." the latter informed his interlocutor.

As  they arrived on location, Greg was already more aware of what was  happening around him and the news he just had received was certainly not  to calm him down. Apparently, thousands of youngster had gathered in  the park in a savage meeting and for some yet unknown reason the thing  had gone out of control, outbreaking in violent riots against other  group of youngster and the few police officers that were patrolling the  park. The situation was now completely out of control, some rioters  throwing stones and glass bottles at the police and many fights, some  involving serious weapons, happening everywhere within the premise of  the park.
To limit the incident to the park and to be sure it  wouldn't spread to the nearby streets, the first reinforcement teams  that had been deployed had closed every gate, trapping the huge crowd  inside the park, managing to upset them more as much as protecting the  surroundings. Sally and her colleagues equipped themselves and joined  the other specialise officers that had been requisitioned from Scotland  Yard to face the situation while their boss was joining the other  commanding officers, including his own superior the Chief SuperIntendant  Jameson.
"Lestrade, here you are. Have you been briefed on the situation ?" the latter asked him as soon as he had seen him.
"Yes,  roughly." nodded the detective, acknowledging the plan of the park laid  on one of the car's bonnet, which was showing their position and the  position of the main groups of rioters, according to the information  that the helicopter patrolling the sky was sending them.
"It has been  requested to put you in charge of the west group of the forces while  Detective-Inspector Denzel will manage the east group." the Chief  continued, pointing his finger to a middle-aged woman with whom Greg had  already worked before and who was usually in charge of the anti-gang at  the Yard.
"Alright. Have we got the order to intervene yet or are we  still expecting some back-up ?" wondered the inspector, going through  the files Kenzel had just handled him.
"Apparently the riot  intervention team is unavailable for at least two more hours so we are  to decide do we wait them, knowing that things are escalating quite  quickly and that we already have six officers that had been injured by  projectiles, or do we intervene with forces that are not use to this  type of operation and under equipped." explained the female officer.
"Can't  we have our hands over more shield and tasers from any local police  stations ?" requested the yarder. "It would be madness to send  unprotected officers in this mess, especially if there is that many  projectiles and stabbings."
"I suppose we can get you about 50 more  shields in the next twenty minutes or so but most of the team deployed  there, as your own, never have been equipped with any shields. We  certainly don't have enough shields in all greater London." sighed the  SuperIntendant. "The only solution would be to request some from the  army but we will need at least one hour to get some."
"Alright, well  it's worth asking I suppose." accepted Gregory, knowing that it wasn't  the best solution but that it was one at least. "How many forces do we  exactly have ?"
"638 officers and 17 heavy vehicles that can be used  as protection or rams." another officer informed them. "Even if you wait  for the riot tactical team, it will only add up 52 people to this  number."
"Well, I don't know you, but I personally don't really want  to take the risk of things going even worse than they already are for 52  back-ups." remarked the detective
"That seems the same to me." nodded his colleague. "The question still remaining is 'where  are we going to lead all those youngsters' ? We can't arrest them all  but we can't just lead them outside of the park and risk the riot to  spread out in the streets."
"Agreed.  At the moment they are locked inside but as soon as we will open the  grids we can expect some of them to escape and go back home, those who  have been involved in something that was clearly not what they expected,  but most of them will or resist to the evacuation or run to the nearby  streets to avoid the police and continue their fighting." confirmed  Greg. "I would advise to separate the force in two, one group which  would process to the evacuation through one or two gates only to control  the spreading and the other group in the street on which they will be  evacuated and in the nearby tube station to control any fights that  could debut."
"That could work. Which gates would you use ?" accepted Kenzel.
"Due  to the fact that we are standing near Hyde Park Corner tube station and  that I wouldn't advise to lead them anywhere near the water to avoid  any accident I think surrounding them to lead them to St George Fields  is the safest option. The speakers' corner would be closer to Marble  Arch station and would help to a quicker dispersion but it's to close to  the US Embassy for me to take the risk."
"So like, Cumberland Gate and Albion Street would probably do no ?" suggested the policewoman.
"Yes.  We will need to close Bayswater road and all the smallest road ending  on it and same with Park lane to avoid any incident between a large  crown running out and the vehicles." nodded the inspector while a junior  officer was taking notes.
"We shall dispose our forces on Bayswater  in the corner of Hyde Park street, Then on Park lane in front of the  Marriott and in every street north of Bayswater and east of marble arch  Station. Plus some officer inside the station. That would require at least 370 officers if not 400." remarked the woman, pointing out the streets on the plan.
"And  leave between 258 and 238 inside the park. We will most probably need  the heavy vehicles inside but I would advise to park some lighter cars  across the cut roads to avoid any vehicles entering the zone and to  split up any kind of large crowds that could form." agreed Gregory,  trying to make abstraction of the shouting and apparently very hostile  crowd he could hear in the background.
"How many marked cars do we have ?" enquired DI Kenzel.
"37." replied the younger officer that had already given them the number of forces available.
"That will do. How do we part the teams ? Because only about two third of the forces on location are actually uniforms officers and with no disrespect to our own teams, the other third are definitely not trained to this kind of operation." remarked the policewoman.
"I  would advise to have more uniforms inside if possible because  evacuation is a sensitive operation and I know that at least my team  have probably only very little idea of how to manage that. On the  outside we can have more non-uniforms officers, armed and unarmed, to  maintain the peace and the remaining uniforms to back them up." proposed  the yarder, suddenly realising that his forces were definitely not prepared for any action of this type.
"That  seems right to me too. Considering the large zone on which the outside  forces will be spread, there will be a need of deputy officers to back  us up, I suggest at least four of them." nodded his main interlocutor.
"I  would probably have a go on some local uniforms as they have a better  knowledge of the surroundings. Maybe the head of the local police  station and three of his most relevant adjuncts." suggested the detective.
"That's  settled, if you would please bring me Chief Constable Beam and three of  his forces please." the woman agreed, speaking to a junior officer,  before turning to Greg. "You are a more senior officer than I am so I  suppose the leading of the biggest team is all yours."
"If that's alright with you." nodded the man before turning to another officer to request the teams to be formed and sent on their locations according to what had just been discussed.
Once every detailed had been solved, the inspector joined his team that had been allotted  before the Marriott Hotel on Park Lane, encouraging them before  climbing up on the top of the nearby Marble Arch, a position which would  allow him to a have a general view on the Bayswater Road and all the  nearby smaller roads on which the crowd was to surge.
As soon as he  was settled and had received the signal that all his forces were steady,  he contacted DI Kenzel to trigger the operation and less than half a  minute later the first people were out in the streets, most of them  trying to find a way to escape and go back home, scared and chocked by  what they had just witnessed. It's only about a minute later that the  first real rioters roll in on Bayswater road, half of them willing to  fight with the police when the other half was chasing and beating up  each other in violent fights. The police proceeded to more than fifty  arrests in less than five minutes but were unable to prevent all the  fights and soon the most violent of the rioters were taken to custody  when the other were spreading across London more or less quietly, acknowledging  that the riot was over and not willing to be arrested, leaving on the  pavement only those too injured to go anywhere, including a certain  amount of stabbed teenagers, some of them in critical situations.
Gregory  climbed down of the arch and joined the other commanding officer that  had gathered near Cumberland Gate to debrief what had just happened. As  he was walking the few meters from his position to theirs, he thought  that once again, it was a heavy night that was to come.