The tube attack

[JohnD]

A terrorist attack can most certainly be compared with a terrorist attack.

the death toll would have been much lower

is very unconvincing and in no way excuses the planting of a murderous bomb.

I am aware that people who support the IRA terrorists seek to place blame on others, but the crime was committed by those who planned, prepared and delivered the bomb.

 

[HawkEye244]

You have an armed force and shout "Drop the knife".

Joe in a city of millions of people all crowded together the police are expected to have an armed response unit within ear shot of every person in case they might kick off ?

 

[HawkEye244]

Tell that to Lee Rigby.

... and I'm not saying the Lee Rigby incident wasn't tragic, but many hundreds of people are killed every week in the Middle East, most here don't really care do they, because they're not considered human, there just sort of this 'thing', this 'problem'. You've got people and you've got politics, power structures and government in the middle driving a wedge between everyone.

 

[joe-90]

Joe. There is a big difference between criminals and terrorists. Most criminals want to live to enjoy the life they finance by crime. Most terrorists are happy ( brainwashed ) to die "for the cause".

Therefore there is a big difference between the methods used to fight crime and the methods used to fight terrorism. The police we see on a daily basis are crime fighters, those who fight terrorists are mostly covertly looking for terrorists in the hope of arresting them and sucessfully charging them before they can commit an act of terror.

How many have been charged this year? Who pays for all the surveillance of ten thousand muslims? Do you really think the SAS were watching plod playing at Keystone Cops in the Underground? How many shots can a tazer fire? How many shots can an AK47 fire? There are plenty of knife attacks in Israel. How do they respond in Israel? Do they send the Keystone Cops in?

 

[joe-90]

You have an armed force and shout "Drop the knife".

Joe in a city of millions of people all crowded together the police are expected to have an armed response unit within ear shot of every person in case they might kick off ?

They seem to manage it in Paris. Plod would spend all afternoon doing a risk assessment, followed by 'negotiation' teams.

 

[joe-90]

Tell that to Lee Rigby.

... and I'm not saying the Lee Rigby incident wasn't tragic, but many hundreds of people are killed every week in the Middle East, most here don't really care do they, because they're not considered human, there just sort of this 'thing', this 'problem'. You've got people and you've got politics, power structures and government in the middle driving a wedge between everyone.

Which is exactly why I've been against bombing all along from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria.

 

[joe-90]

surely anyone shouting 'Alan's snack bar' or in this case 'For Syria', should be treated as a terrorist.

If you are dealing with a nutter, you can expect them to shout all sorts of things. He might equally have been shouting "I am Santa!" or "Death to gays!" or "No Pope here!"

The police say they are treating it as a terrorist event due to his words. Perhaps they will find some other evidence to support the suspicion. Perhaps not.

If you are right it will be a major coup to capture a terrorist alive and have the opportunity to interrogate him.

And if he's stabbing people you shoot him. We all agree then.

 

[JBR]

Whenever the suggestion that our police routinely carry sidearms is raised, the inevitable response is "what about America?"

What about America? Why compare us to them? I sometimes think that they are a nation of nutters. Almost every other day there is a news item about Americans shooting each other. They seem never to have progressed from the days of the 'Wild West' and I'm sure many Americans still regard themselves as cowboys.

Why does no-one ever mention Holland, or France, or Germany, or almost any other European country where all the police carry sidearms every day? I have always felt perfectly safe when travelling in such European countries; probably more safe than in parts of Britain, especially London.

And I think I should feel safer in this country if the police were armed, bearing in mind the present threat from IZAL.

 

[Bosswhite]

Any type of Incident involving the Public will be publicised as a Muslim Terrorist Incident from now on, to justify and promote Camerons Decision for Bombing Syria.

The fatal stabbing of the Person in Leytonstone two days earlier hardly got a mention in the News Media, neither were the fifteen other fatal stabbings in London so far this year related to Terrorist activity.

 

[joe-90]

I lived in Australia with armed Police for twenty years. It makes sense. No problems.

 

[JohnD]

And if he's stabbing people you shoot him. We all agree then.

No. If you can disarm and arrest a suspect, you do that.

 

[joe-90]

Have you seen the video? I think we should export Plod to France and Belgium to show them how to handle a terrorist.

 

[jockscott]

I will assume that these policemen on the scene were British Transport Police ?? They are allowed to carry Heckler and Koch guns. I'll also assume that there are only a handful of officers licenced to carry these weapons. Given the size of the London Underground, what's the chances of having an officer carrying such a weapon, being at the same station, some mad tw@t decides to start stabbing people? Very small I'd say.
As it is, they have the man arrested and in custody (where no doubt he'll claim his human rights have been infringed in some small way) He'll be found guilty anyway and the courts will decide to lock him up for a long time. He'll then appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and they'll no doubt, reduce his sentence to a community order (as well as awarding him a couple of million in compensation). Theresa May will want him deported back to wherever he came from, but the same court will agree with the perpetrator that because he has a dog/ cat/ budgie/ hamster, this infringes his human rights to a family life here in the UK. The government will have no option but to spend zillions on surveillance of this chap for the rest of his life.
Welcome to modern Britain.

 

[JohnD]

Leytonstone is in London, and the area is well supplied with regular police from the Met.

If you go to the Leytonstone Tesco's, which is quite close to the underground station, the employee in the doorway wears a stab vest. There are plenty of drunks and nutters, regardless of their place of birth. I'm sure East Lothian is much the same.

London, which has a substantially larger population than the whole of Scotland, had about 100 homicides in 2014, and Scotland 61, with Glasgow over-represented.

I see over the last ten years East Lothian has been stable at about one homicide per year, but Glasgow has more than halved from 32 to 14, which is very commendable though possibly we should thank a reduction in brain damage from leaded petrol.

 

[JBR]

And if he's stabbing people you shoot him. We all agree then.

No. If you can disarm and arrest a suspect, you do that.

I believe that if someone is either threatening someone else's life, or in the process of ending their life, it is perfectly permissible for the police to shoot to kill.