pc fiona bone and pc nicola hughes

[Guest pikemedals]

on a sadder note my condolences go out to the love ones and colleagues of pc fiona bone and pc nicola hughes of the manchester police who was killed in the line of duty today in manchester by a SCUMBAG

[peter monahan]

I read the shocking story in the news this morning. What a tragedy! And, sadly, more fuel for the argument that all PCs should be armed. Impossible to tell from the few details over here [Canada] whether it would have helped in this case, but...

I have always thought it both admirable and encouraging that UK forces don't feel the need to arm all constables but the nostalgia for the 'good old [non-violent] days' may need to give way to the sad realization that we dealing with a different type of criminal these days.

A thought and a prayer for the two PCs and their families. God bless them all.

[paul wood]

Alas said scumbag will cost the taxpayer many hundreds of thousand during his stay as a guest of Her Majesty, while the abolished method cost a minute fraction less.

Paul

[Mervyn Mitton]

A great - and very sad tragedy.

Peter, I don't think firearms would have made any difference - he shot them in the street - as I understand - when they approached.

The British Police are not defenceless - many cars carry firearms and lots of specialist armed units. No one could have foreseen this.

BRING BACK HANGING

[Kev in Deva]

They were sent to investigate a reported burglar at an abandoned property, possibly the killer called it in,

He planned and executed his attack as an ambush, one of the P.C. was killed while attempting to deploy a Taser.

Mervyn is absolutely correct, even armed, the chances are they would still have met the same fate.

Gun crime in the U.K. is stillrelatively low when compared with the USA.

In the last 12 years six officers have been shot in the UK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...e_line_of_duty

In the USA the figures are far higher http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/us...rise.html?_r=0

May the innocent victims of this heinious crime + Rest In Peace +

Sympathy & Condolences to their Familes, Friends and Collegues

[peter monahan]

Mervyn

Yes, a later account I read suggested that in this case - an ambush - guns would not have helped. However, living next to the 'gun nation', I am deluged weekly by the calls to arm everybody to prevent more crime!

I recently listened to a radio show on California's notorious 'three strikes' law, which sends criminals to jail for a minimum 25 years for their third felony, even if that crime is stealing a slice of pizza - one reported case - or breaking into cars. An unexpected consequence has been a rise in the number of police officers killed by criminals who figure they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by resisting arrest!

Edited September 21, 2012 by peter monahan

[Robin Lumsden]

BRING BACK HANGING

Agreed, Mervyn. That's the answer, Human Rights Act or no Human Rights Act.

But they should use the old 'string them up' method ..................... whereby the perpetrator choked to death over a 15 minute period, spewing vomit all over the place.

Not the later trapdoor and 'quick break of the neck' version.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Mervyn

Yes, a later account I read suggested that in this case - an ambush - guns would not have helped. However, living next to the 'gun nation', I am deluged weekly by the calls to arm everybody to prevent more crime!

For me the argument for arming against criminals fell kinda flat with the shooting in new york last month... If I remember correctly the first headline was along the lines of "9 shot at empire state building... police kill shooter"...

then it turned out the shooter was not a gunman run amok, he had had killed one specific person... the 8 other folks shot were hit by 2 policemen out to save the folks around them...

imagine the total of people shot if just 2 or 3 civvie bystanders had pulled out guns... the cops would have shot them as well, not knowing they were "good guys"... unless they had shot each other first, thinking the other shooters in civvies clothing were probably bad guys as well.... just run the scenario through your head and figure how it would have played out...

A guy shoots another guy on the street... cops arrive and open fire hitting 8 people... 3 other guys pull guns and suddenly lead is flying and noone knows who is who...

Then another cop arrives... do you think he is going to assume that a civvie with a gun is a good guy? Will he take a chance?

Total clusterfck.