'Outrage as police officers armed with huge guns pose with children at Christmas market'

Thekwango said:
Don't get what the issue is. The public will cry out and be up in arms when a terrorist attack happens 'where are the police, where are the army to protect us'
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"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

The police don't carry guns to protect us from a terrorist attack, they carry guns to protect the ruling class against an uprising.
 
Nodiggidy123 said:
People who know nothing about firearms getting twitchy at the sight of them.
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I'm still amazed how many people don't know basic stuff about armed police:

Armed officers don't just attend weapons incidents, they may turn up at your verbal domestic if they're the closest unit.

In most (if not all?) forces, officers will always carry their sidearms, even when buying lunch.

They still carry batons, CS/PAVA spray and taser just like many other officers, just because they carry a gun doesn't mean they shoot anyone who gets a bit twitchy.

Although there is an ARV uplift project nationally to increase numbers, it's still a relatively small, specialist resource.
 
mmj_uk said:
So is it normal now for armed police to hang around markets? feels like we're steadily becoming a totalitarian state what with snoopers charter etc.
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This time of year with such crowded places I imagine there's some losers hoping to make the news :(.

99.9% sure it has nothing to do with the governments ideals.
 
As a firearm owner myself I do not like the idea of armed police on the streets. A number of years ago I remember reading about a police official saying he will never arm the police as could force criminals to arm themselves.

As for the anti terrorism argument I feel that to put these changes in place such as armed police on the streets, body scanners and having to put bottles of liquid into plastic bags just shows that we have let the terrorist won and they have us living in fear. It just shows we are going in the wrong direction in society. Just my opinion.
 
Libs again.

opstrat said:
As a firearm owner myself I do not like the idea of armed police on the streets. A number of years ago I remember reading about a police official saying he will never arm the police as could force criminals to arm themselves.

As for the anti terrorism argument I feel that to put these changes in place such as armed police on the streets, body scanners and having to put bottles of liquid into plastic bags just shows that we have let the terrorist won and they have us living in fear. It just shows we are going in the wrong direction in society. Just my opinion.
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Nah the terrorists win when they kill hundreds of people in public because they were sitting ducks, or blow a passenger plane out of the sky due to inadequate security
 
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stopper said:
The police don't carry guns to protect us from a terrorist attack, they carry guns to protect the ruling class against an uprising.
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If you think about this logically, you are somewhat right.

The first part of the sentence is certainly true for a larger proportion of time than it is certainly false. How many random terrorist attacks has a bystander with a gun managed to stop? How many random terrorist attacks can you say for certain will be stopped simply because there was a guy/officer with a gun nearby?

Shooting a machine gun in a packed square during Christmas is pretty stupid thing to do once a terrorist has probably already blown himself up at the other corner of the square. I mean it just doesn't make sense. In this situation it simply doesn't make sense because an attacker could walk right up to anyone and push a button and they wouldn't have a clue let alone any time to turn off the safety. They don't have some sort of magic senses. This is why it's a stupid to assume they're there to stop a terrorist attack; this is real life, not a movie. To "stop" a terrorist attack you need to have prior intelligence (this does not justify nor require having random officers with guns), and then again it would be an utterly disastrous idea/charade to decide to start "stopping" only once they've gotten to the middle of a packed square.



Not sure about the uprising part though I think we should save that for another thread.
 
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As someone who lives just outside Newcastle and regularly shops there I am quite pleased to see armed police at this busy time of year. Terrorist attacks involving shootings and stabbings have vastly outnumbered suicide bombings in the past 5 years; I believe that armed police are a good deterrent to this as they pose a considerable risk to any would-be terrorist in that they could stop them from carrying out, or continuing to carry out, their act of terror far more effectively than unarmed police. With the current threat level at 'Severe' I don't understand why people are questioning this course of action during such a busy time of the year.

I'm going to Berlin this weekend to sample their Christmas markets, I know that the sight of armed police will make me feel safer than if they weren't there.
 
Stringy said:
As someone who lives just outside Newcastle and regularly shops there I am quite pleased to see armed police at this busy time of year. Terrorist attacks involving shootings and stabbings have vastly outnumbered suicide bombings in the past 5 years; I believe that armed police are a good deterrent to this as they pose a considerable risk to any would-be terrorist in that they could stop them from carrying out, or continuing to carry out, their act of terror far more effectively than unarmed police. With the current threat level at 'Severe' I don't understand why people are questioning this course of action during such a busy time of the year.

I'm going to Berlin this weekend to sample their Christmas markets, I know that the sight of armed police will make me feel safer than if they weren't there.
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Lol.


http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2016/terrorist-attacks/ again you're more likely to be killed by a drunk driver. In 10-20 years, i hope you'll love the police knocking on your door for having seditious opinions.
 
asim18 said:
If you think about this logically, you are somewhat right.

The first part of the sentence is certainly true for a larger proportion of time than it is certainly false. How many random terrorist attacks has a bystander with a gun managed to stop? How many random terrorist attacks can you say for certain will be stopped simply because there was a guy/officer with a gun nearby?

Shooting a machine gun in a packed square during Christmas is pretty stupid thing to do once a terrorist has probably already blown himself up at the other corner of the square. I mean it just doesn't make sense. In this situation it simply doesn't make sense because an attacker could walk right up to anyone and push a button and they wouldn't have a clue let alone any time to turn off the safety. They don't have some sort of magic senses. This is why it's a stupid to assume they're there to stop a terrorist attack; this is real life, not a movie. To "stop" a terrorist attack you need to have prior intelligence (this does not justify nor require having random officers with guns), and then again it would be an utterly disastrous idea/charade to decide to start "stopping" only once they've gotten to the middle of a packed square.



Not sure about the uprising part though I think we should save that for another thread.
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the latest attacks haven't been simple bombings nice, btaclan, Charlie hebo, the stabbings through out europe and the us.

they're more lone wolves with vehicles and weapons which an armed officer on scene is very useful to have.

as for an uprising, that's what the army is for, not a hand full of armed officers at a Christmas market.
 
dowie said:
no, I'm happy for them to air their views, no complaints there - I'm simply disagreeing with them
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dowie said:
WTF is wrong with people, a couple of highly trained police firearms officers, who are there of the safety of the general public decide to be all friendly and approachable, happy to pose for photos with kids, smiling etc... and people complain about it?
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That is a complaint. Well, technically it's a whinge but.. to-may-to, to-mah-to.
 
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