Should the UK have armed cops/troops on our streets full-time?

[byeo]

Except, as came out in the final reports, that never happened.

 

He knew they were police, he knew they wanted him, he ran.

[dosxuk]

He knew they were police, he knew they wanted him, he ran.

 

If by ran you mean he walked through the station, paused as he swiped his oyster card, walked to the escalators, stood on them on the way down, walked to the waiting train and then sat down, then yes.

 

The Police admitted they were at fault, and the whole situation came about due to poor intelligence and a sweeping belief that they were following the right person and he was enroute to commit an attack and that they were within their rules of operation to take him down without warning.

 

The initial reports about shouting, running, leaping over barriers and the like were released by the worried Police officers when they realised how badly wrong it had gone, and were quickly rubbished by witnesses who saw none of it. The story properly falls apart when you look at the claims that he was shouted at, and decided to leap over the barriers, and run through the station, yet his body was shot in an empty carriage on a train below the station. The Police really couldn't have shot him in the meantime?

[llamatron]

Given the awful terrorist atrocity recently in London, and the fact that our security forces are fighting a 24/7 Global war on terror as we speak, should we have a visible presence of Police and Soldiers on our streets full time?

 

Atrocities like the Woolwich killing, and the nationwide riots of 2011 (in which we were reminded that it was morons of all colours and backgrounds that were implicated), might well have been lessened?

 

Westminster in London does have those red Volvos full of mobile armed cops driving around, ought they be nationwide?

 

And before the racists of any colour latch onto the topic of religion or race- as they are trying online (Marine le Pen, etc)- the last Victoria Cross winner was black (Beharry Johnson) and I think the IRA/INLA/Fenians who have attacked Britain since the 1840's, are not black?

 

It would have no effect on either

 

-it took the police 10 minutes to get to the woolwich murder so unless the armed police can bring people back from the dead it was irrelevant.

-in the riots they had all the armed response units and army they wanted

 

we need more unarmed police on the streets-I rarely see any except in London.

[callippo]

As the country slides even deeper into poverty, although just kept afloat through the practices of the financial sector, and the defence industry busily selling weapons to mainly Middle East dictatorships with plenty of oil dollars to spare, it just might be necessary to one day control our own population.

 

Militarising the police, getting the public to accept guns in the hands of an authority on the streets, seen as normal practice, allows individuals to possibly reconsider bothering to demonstrate, question government policy in public, which just might be the point.

 

As for fighting a 24/7 war against terrorism, in which we invade, and kill civilians in foreign lands, which creates resentfulness, making the natives want to fight the invaders, which we them justify calling them terrorists. Strange when the IRA were bombing the nation, blowing up civilians, it was never in that war, very close to home, in which far more damage was done, including failing to kill Thatcher in Brighton, did not require a weaponised police force to parade itself on the streets.

Obviously different values for different times.

 

this guy is just a total screwball. Every time there is an incident like this, and a police officer or in this case, even more rarely, a soldier is killed on the UK mainland there is a predictable kneejerk reaction by some to call for the routine arming of the police. This is the moment where we previously expected Michael Winner to make an appearance, however seeing as he is now deceased, having died peacefully in January, that is no no longer possible. You knew it was coming only moments after the Woolwich incident happened. The Daily Fail et al, get in on the act and get on the phone and start ringing round all the senior police officers and ministers in the country, in the hope that they can find even one that wants to see it.

 

however they are always disappointed. Out of a pool of maybe 200 people, i.e. all the senior officers of each of the 43 police forces in the UK and so on, they cannot even find a single one of them that wants to see a routinely armed UK police force.

[Danny_Boy]

Coincidentally I have just returned from a stag do in the Algarve and was having this discussion with a friend in a bar.

 

I was extremely uneasy with having very young looking Portuguese Police officers walking up and down the strip armed with hand guns.

 

Police officers are only human and humans are prone to mistakes, life is a very fragile thing and having armed police in my opion would cause much more harm than good.

[alchresearch]

Riots in Portugal after police shoot rubber bullets to intimidate:

 

[Vague_Boy]

Given the awful terrorist atrocity recently in London, and the fact that our security forces are fighting a 24/7 Global war on terror as we speak

 

The "War on Terror". LOL.

 

Historically, freedom has been trampled upon with little remorse or protest during war. Enhanced domestic surveillance, the outlawing of political dissent, the internment of suspected enemies without due process, robust inflationary policy, higher government spending, increased taxation, and stifling economic intervention are all common occurrences during war. They are policies that in the absence of war would garner a greater amount of pushback from the public. Even more crucial is the effect war has on national identity. Simple reasoning says that government is composed of a small group of individuals; it does not represent in some metaphysical sense all of “the people.” This distinction is blurred and forgotten during war however as those who insist on fighting appeal to emotion rather than reason. With the media’s assistance, allegiance to the state is championed as a display of support for war. Dissenters are openly ridiculed as unpatriotic and friends of the enemy.

 

LINK

 

You sir are a gullible fool.

[bullerboY]

All the Police in Germany carry side arms,ive been going for 20yrs and do not feel uncomfortable about it in fact quite the opposite.

[Waldo]

The "War on Terror". LOL.

 

LINK

 

You sir are a gullible fool.

 

Thankfully, I think the majority of people are intelligent enough to see through government spin and propaganda etc. Yes, there will always be a few gullible folk like the OP, but I think, they're in a minority.

[SqueakyPete]

Armed police?No thanks.

But it is quite alarming that any future terrorists know they have about 15/20 minutes without being challenged.

Im surprised no squaddies came out of the Barracks,don't they have armed soldiers onsite?

I know its not their job to tackle these 2 idiots,but im sure natural instinct would have overridden protocol.