“Nothing should be off the table,’’ he said. “Every contingency is being looked at.’’
He promised swift justice, even as the authorities turned to a tough reckoning after the days of rioting, looting, and arson, with courts in several cities open through the night.
The police said more than 1,200 people had been arrested, mostly in London, since the frenzy of violence broke out Saturday. The situation eased only after thousands of police reinforcements flooded the streets of London and other cities.
The convulsions of violence prompted widespread criticism of police for an ineffective initial response and deeper failures including corruption and collusion exposed by the broadening phone hacking scandal.
Few members of British society were spared: Politicians came under fire for failing to break off summer vacations immediately to confront events; and they in turn denounced a society that has allowed hooliganism, public drunkenness, and gang culture, including thuggish behavior toward the weak and disabled.
Cameron echoed some of those criticisms in the marathon appearance in Parliament yesterday, wrapping himself in his Conservative Party’s law-and-order banner to grapple for almost three hours with his most serious political challenge since taking office in May 2010.
For the first time, Cameron said police commanders had acknowledged that they had misjudged the situation and deployed too few officers.
“Initially, the police treated the situation too much as a public order issue rather than essentially one of crime,’’ he told the summoned lawmakers, blaming a wide social breakdown for the violence.
“This is not about poverty, it’s about culture,’’ he said, “a culture that glorifies violence, shows disrespect to authority, and says everything about rights but nothing about responsibilities.
