This morning Sir Mark Rowley revealed that the fightback has already begun, with dawn raids being carried out in the capital to deal with those suspected of taking part in the riots. He told BBC Breakfast: 'These are criminals, they're thugs, they're no patriots.
'We've been out doing some dawn raids this morning, the people who were most violent in the Whitehall protest and violence last week.
'Yesterday and today it's going to be more than 20 people, about 70 per cent of them have got criminal backgrounds - we've got criminal damage, violence, weapons offences, football banning orders - these are criminal thugs.
'Any suggestion they're patriots or they've got a cause that they're protesting about is nonsense.'