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In 2013 Lee Rigby, a British Army soldier, was walking back to his barracks in Woolwich, southeast London. He was attacked by two Jihadists. They hit him with their car and then hacked him to death with knives and a cleaver. They attempted to behead him but failed to do so.
In 2022 two London Met officers were stabbed by a knifeman in Leicester Square:
Mohammed Rahman became violent when he was approached by PCs Joseph Gerrard and Alannah Mulhall over a robbery before overcoming batons, Tasers and Pava pepper spray to stab them. - Daily Mail
A secret Met report is advising that line Met officers be armed with pistols.
The Met review said the force had a duty to keep officers safe from threats. 'The dangers faced by police officers are genuine and can have catastrophic results,' it said. 'By not training to negate or at least mitigate these dangers the Metropolitan Police Service has failed in its duty to safeguard its own staff.' Armed units continue to face a shortage of recruits following widespread anger after one of their colleagues was charged with murder for shooting dead a violent gangster. Sergeant Martyn Blake was cleared of any wrongdoing at an Old Bailey trial after shooting dead Chris Kaba to stop the fleeing motorist running over colleagues. The fatal shooting on September 5, 2022 happened after armed police started tailing the vehicle that Kaba was driving because the Audi Q8 had been used as a getaway car in a gang-related shooting the night before in Brixton, South London.
Kaba was involved in a gang shooting the night before he was shot and killed. The officers did not know he was the shooter, but that doesn't matter because he was trying to use a four-wheeled bullet to kill them.
Sgt. Blake may still lose his job, and there is some pushback by higher-ups who do not want to arm line cops. But they aren't on the frontline risking their lives or trying to prevent attacks on the citizens of London.
The timeline of the Lee Rigby murder:
Shortly before 14:20 hours, the attack on Rigby begins.
The Metropolitan Police received the first 999 call about an assault at 14:20 and unarmed police were deployed.
Unarmed police arrive at 14:29, the two Jihadists refuse to put down their weapons — a gun, knives, and a cleaver. The officers set up a cordon and remained behind the cordon.
Armed police officers are dispatched at 14:24 and arrive at 14:34. The Jihadists attack the armed officers and are shot and wounded.
Tasers do not always work. Baggy clothing and heavy jackets can prevent the darts on the wires from making contact. In the US, taser use training encourages that two or more officers be present who can provide lethal force if the taser fails to stop an attacker.
I worked with a partner, and I've worked a car by myself on some nights. I'm glad it wasn't in London.
Discussion (7)
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Probably glad it's also not in Portland today.
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You can tell a lot about a society by how it treats its criminals.
You can tell a lot more about how it treats its police.
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This will continue until a few more cops are killed and then it will continue some more, until the island eventually slips quietly under the waves.
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Naw, as soon as the Muslims take over all of this stupid patty cake playing goes poof and any Englishman worth his salt takes out some of the Saracens when he buys it. While Starmer enjoys his crumpets on the balcony overhead.
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I watch a lot of old British mysteries and detective shows on Britbox. I often find myself thinking--that detective probably wishes he had been issued a gun about now.
Admitting that some areas being patrolled warrant regular issuance of firearms or that there is any actual threat from jihadists is apparently a political bridge too far for political types happily willing to sacrifice cop lives to maintain false impressions.
The likelihood of jihadist violence may be directly proportional to the size of more recent immigrant Muslim population--no point in jihad until they have the numbers on the ground. Aggressive pushback and broad inconvenience to a potential jihad-supportive community may be the way to go if looking the other way continues to be a failed policy.
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