Should British Police be armed.

[rigsby]

With news that German police have shot dead an axe wielding Afghani, who attacked people on a train, coming so quickly after the murders in Nice. Is it time we had more armed police in Britain.

By all accounts had the lorry in Nice managed to continue a bit further down the road he would have been into the main crowd who completely filled the street so the death toll would have been in the hundreds.

When drummer Lee Rigby was murdered the unarmed police and public had to wait around for 15 minutes for an armed response unit. Luckily for the people of London the killers were more interested in publicity rather than killing more people.

I'm not saying arm the likes of the 'Hobby Bobby' with the blue stripes round their hat but say anyone with a certain level of experience.

By the way I have always thought the old cliché of 'But the criminals will just have to arm themselves too.' to be total rubbish. I myself prefer to see armed police walking round Stanstead etc. What do you good people think?

 

[RHB]

An interesting post with the Col U friendly coming up, but I think this belongs in Homers bar.

 

[Jam_Man]

Fine as is.

Arm a policeman and if he gets into a physical confrontation with a large unarmed man there is always the fear of being overpowered and losing your gun, thus making a shooting of an unarmed man more possible.

If we need more armed response units thats one thing, but no the normal police shouldnt be armed.

 

[rigsby]

Fine as is.

Arm a policeman and if he gets into a physical confrontation with a large unarmed man there is always the fear of being overpowered and losing your gun, thus making a shooting of an unarmed man more possible.

If we need more armed response units thats one thing, but no the normal police shouldnt be armed.

Should we expect the police to take a good kicking from large unarmed man?.

 

[Jam_Man]

No, but they shouldnt be allowed to shoot him or for him to take their gun and get shot either.

Being unarmed removes that situation completely and ensures they are trained to deal with it using other means.

 

[rigsby]

No, but they shouldnt be allowed to shoot him or for him to take their gun and get shot either.

Being unarmed removes that situation completely and ensures they are trained to deal with it using other means.

But lets not compare our the USA. Nearly all the EU countries are routinely armed and their police don't have to go around shooting unarmed people. Even thugs think twice about attacking someone who is armed.

 

[Pubey]

Dunno if it's just me (maybe I look suspicious) but I see armed police everywhere. In cities, shopping centres, train stations, airports.

Personally think the downsides and risks outweigh the slim benefits - we're pretty safe when out and about.

 

[MK Shrimper]

As America is in a cycle of cops kill black man - black man kills cops I'll say no.

 

[rigsby]

As America is in a cycle of cops kill black man - black man kills cops I'll say no.

That's due to the absolute ease that anyone can arm themselves. We are completely different to the USA.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Fine as is.

Arm a policeman and if he gets into a physical confrontation with a large unarmed man there is always the fear of being overpowered and losing your gun, thus making a shooting of an unarmed man more possible.

If we need more armed response units thats one thing, but no the normal police shouldnt be armed.

Responses to aggression go up in a sequence, before the use of deadly force I would expect the Police to consider safe distance, calming, baton, dog, CS, tazer .
I agree regards every day arming of all, it is unwarranted : but there ought to be more armed officers, with committed response times to feasible events.
And they, the cops, need to know that hard, difficult, possible split second decisions will be understood and recognised as that AND supported.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Absolutely not.You only have to look at the States for a negative example.

 

[rigsby]

Absolutely not.You only have to look at the States for a negative example.

Or Spain for a positive example

 

[OldBlueLady]

Fine as is.

Arm a policeman and if he gets into a physical confrontation with a large unarmed man there is always the fear of being overpowered and losing your gun, thus making a shooting of an unarmed man more possible.

If we need more armed response units thats one thing, but no the normal police shouldn't be armed.

^^ This, absolutely.

 

[Uncle Leo]

My brother-in-law is a DS in the Met. At times like this, he always says he is pretty happy that most of his idiot colleagues aren't allowed a gun. Sounds about right to me.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Or Spain for a positive example

"Let him have it." :smile:

 

[Beefy]

I think it is a really interesting question and definitely there's a debate to be had. I'd say no. I still find it weird being in other countries and seeing armed police as a matter of course. Our gun crime rates are low and I think a reason for that is that there isn't the normalisation of the gun that there is in other countries and which obviously is at its extreme in the US. I think the more police who are armed the more criminals will be armed. to me that's just common sense.

Had what happened in Nice happened in the UK I don't think it would have been stopped as quickly and I think it is fair to guess that more people would have died. That said, France is in a state of emergency and armed police and troops on the street is a part of that.

 

[mrsblue]

Sadly the day will come when police will resemble Robocop whilst armed to the teeth.

 

[Napster]

Had what happened in Nice happened in the UK I don't think it would have been stopped as quickly .

The speedbumps on the roads would have slowed it down in the UK. Plus the traffic and roundabouts.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Had what happened in Nice happened in the UK I don't think it would have been stopped as quickly and I think it is fair to guess that more people would have died. That said, France is in a state of emergency and armed police and troops on the street is a part of that.

I like to think that our police would have been slightly more difficult to dupe in the first place - someone delivering "ice-creams" in a non-refridgerated truck should surely have been required to produce documentation?

 

[rigsby]

I like to think that our police would have been slightly more difficult to dupe in the first place - someone delivering "ice-creams" in a non-refridgerated truck should surely have been required to produce documentation?

I'm pleased you have such confidence in our guys in blue. However as he was armed, so Britain he could have just pointed the gun and asked them to kindly step aside. Which brings me back to the original point.