Use of rubber bullets was authorised after the police finally got their act together. I don't think it was a worthy desire to avoid escalation that prevented their use earlier on .. more lack of organisation.
Do you have a source for that? Everything I've read suggested the police were only considering rubber bullets or water cannons as a last resort.
...Godwin and his team came very close to issuing the order for firearms teams to use plastic bullets.
At that point the Met's officers were "stretched to an extent never seen before," deputy assistant commissioner Steven Kavanagh said. "We did absolutely consider it through the night," Kavanagh said. "But these were very fast moving mobile groups and by the time we got baton rounds there this groups would have moved away."
Do you have a source for that? Everything I've read suggested the police were only considering rubber bullets or water cannons as a last resort.