Friday 6 July 2012

High Noon On The M6

You heard about the police response to someone having an electronic 'cigarette' on a coach on the M6 I suppose? The care-in-the-community senior officers that run policing in Britain today have very quickly pointed out that the response was 'proportionate'. They are quick to say it to hopefully plant that thought in your mind, before you think about it for yourself.

Because if that was proportionate to a no-credible-threat scenario, we must presume that if a bomb was actually known to have been on the coach, the police would have used a nuclear strike to 'neutralise the threat'. Proportionate I'm sure you'll agree.

I said above that there was no credible threat and I used this phrase because the police have said the exact opposite.To them 'some vapour' on a coach is clear evidence of a terrorist plot. Probably with the caveat that it is 'better to be safe than sorry'. Of course, bearing in mind the reckless way the police handle firearms, I don't think allowing a group of them to point guns at a coach-load of innocent people is a 'safe' option.

What the police are saying is, that Britain is a country so constantly threatened by terrorists, that anything like this has to be assumed to be a real and plausible threat. Whereas, back on this planet, the balance of probability sits firmly on the side of no likely threat. Generally, the population isn't a seething mass of bombers (evidenced by the almost complete lack of bombings) and proof of such intent needs to be firmly established.

Someone had phoned from the coach. Was it a bomb expert? No. So, you get a load of back up ready, but you stop the coach with one marked car. Previously, you have gone back to your source on the phone and told him that an officer will enter the coach and ask for 'Dave Biggar' to make himself known. The informant raises his hand and the single officer (the other waiting by the coach door) makes his way down the coach. As 'Dave' perhaps walks with the officer past the suspect he indicates and the officer grabs the man's hands, the other officer is summoned and more cars move up.

Because the suspect thinks the police are there for someone else he is not alert and should be easy to contain. This is just one idea, another might be to stop the coach because 'smoke is coming out of the wheels' as the brakes might be stuck. Whilst evacuating the coach 'for safety' the police grab the suspect.

But no, the great idea our proportionate minded police have is to deploy fire engines, erect decontamination tunnels, ambulances, armed police by the squadron and bomb disposal. Just to find out what is actually going on. It is similar to having police burst through windows and doors of a suburban semi, shouting with a helicopter hovering overhead and police dogs barking, because raised voices had been heard.

'Everything alright?' the officers would say. And once it is discovered that in fact all is in order they would troop out, without a hint of shame, merely pausing to add, 'you might want to turn your telly down a bit'.

It is clear from incident after incident that the police don't have a plan (apart from how to get to work in the morning and that is taxing enough), for any eventuality and they are supremely poor at making one up as they go. It is also quite clear that they are very, very keen on weapons and having them, want to deploy them whenever possible.

It used to be that you had to try to keep police officers from getting too excited by the blue lights and sirens, now it is the most senior officers who have a fetishistic love of drama and display. A dangerous place to be, when we also have such dilettantish politicians.


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