I Am Impressed By The British Police

jyl · jyl's Garage

Are you impressed by the British police, or what?

Multiple suicide bombings on 7/7, and they had the guys identified in a couple of days. Then multiple attempted bombings on 7/21, and they've already arrested the four suspects and seem to be on the trail of some larger organization. Yes, having London blanketed with closed-circuit TV cameras (for which I gather the IRA should be credited) helps a lot, and there was the unfortunate killing of the Brazilian electrician. But on the whole, I am really impressed. I think our British Pelicans have a police force to be proud of.

Do you Brits agree? Or am I getting the wrong picture from the US media?

HardDrive · 07-29-2005, 08:19 PM

I agree. I think the police have done an amazing job.

I would hate to see the bungling FBI get a case like that......

bryanthompson · bryanthompson's Garage

They seem to have an all-business, ass-kicking attitude, which I like. They also seem to be pretty tight-lipped and we haven't seen many leaks out of them, which is good.

It's sad that the Brazilian ran and was killed... it's unfortunate, but given the circumstances, I can't really blame them.

HD, don't you think we can praise the Brits without bashing the FBI for one thread? I'm sure the FBI has many many successes, which we will never ever hear about.

Dottore · 07-29-2005, 08:42 PM

Yes the British police are brilliant. We had some jewellry stolen from our hotel room in Park Lane.

We called the police. They brought along three guys, dusted the place and grilled the staff, and within 24 hours we had our jewellry back. We were asked if we wanted to press charges - but declined - given the problem in travelling for court appearances etc.

But the police were amazing. Hail Brittania!

campbellcj · 07-29-2005, 09:16 PM

I was thinking the same thing this a.m. as I watched CNN...rarely do we see such expeditious and successful efforts in similarly major cases on this side of the pond.

RallyJon · 07-29-2005, 09:32 PM

The Brits have nothing on us. We'll show them who has the best investigators when we find that girl in Aruba. Even if we have to send every cop in the U.S. down there to search.

artplumber · 07-29-2005, 10:37 PM

The Brazilians sure don't think so....

If anything, I'm impressed with how the bobby's have managed to avoid getting sued or having mass protests after a brazenly unjustified murder.

dd74 · 07-29-2005, 10:58 PM

Well, Britain doesn't have rival organizations such as we have (or had) at the time of 9/11 - the CIA and FBI. The crimes were a bit different in how they were executed, at least not as massive and jarring as WTC Towers coming down. Britain had criminals on the lamb who were photographed. Ours killed themselves as they flew into the Twin Towers. Britain's farthest reach in this dragnet was Rome with quite concrete information on the perp. Ours goes to Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden has played hopscotch in multiple caves and across various borders. No one truly knows where he is now...

Most importantly for Britain is their history with terrorism which is something we do not. Notably, decades of conflict with the IRA. So they are well prepared for this sort of thing and probably have done as much hunting down IRA terrorists. Only now do we get to see them at work...

Milu · 07-30-2005, 01:26 AM

What the Met police did was very impressive. It was only marred by the shooting of the Brazilian. I understand why it happened and I think they acted according to their procedures. (The use of the headshot has been querried by Israeli experts used to dealing with suicide bombers but that is another matter). Why did the Brazilian run - well if three big men in plain clothes were chasing me in that part of London common sense would make me want to run too. It was very unfortunate and very regrettable but I don't think anyone can be held to blame, not the man who chose to run or the men who followed procedure and shot.

layzee · layzee's Garage

There has been some critiscm of the police over the a) Brazilian b) use of a tazer to detain one of the attempted bombers. I think this is really bad for the country - they have done a stunningly good job at rounding them all up.

There were some great LIVE pictures on the BBC yesterday. A BMW X5 hauled up to this apartment block in London, SWAT-style unt piled out, balaclavas on with full attack gear. They had these two half naked standing out on their balcony after they had cleared the place with tear gas, with snipers trained on them from the surrounding buildings. Very cool.

Milu · 07-30-2005, 02:42 AM

One of the suspected bombers has just been arrested in Rome and the Italian police have carried out a series of raids on houses.

Guess where the next target is likely to be.

CRH911S · 07-30-2005, 06:11 AM

I'm impressed as well but not surprised. In America it's politics, money, money, and more money. Oh, and incidentally, shouldn't we at least be making it look like we're attempting to protect America from religious terrorism?
Don Young, representative from Alaska is a perfect example, saying, "Names are strange things," he said. "After you're gone you don't remember the name. But it will be legacy for my grandkids, (who will say) 'That's my grandpa." And that certainly makes me feel good. So instead of honoring dead American soldiers a bridge to no where will honor a self righteous indignant greedy politician.

1967 R50/2 · 07-30-2005, 06:56 AM

The British were aided by the VERY extensive camera system that they installed back during the IRA bombing era.

In the US, such surveillance would never fly as it is too much of an intrusion on privacy.

But the Brits put up with a lot of things that would never fly here like traffic camera speed traps. This time it happened to work to their advantage, but most of the time it can be a big irritant. Worse, it could be an avenue for abuse of civil rights.

All that said, Scotland yard still did a fine job of finding these guy fairly fast.

Rick V · 07-30-2005, 08:07 AM

I think the Brits should be very proud of thiel law inforcement. The policy of shoot to kill is something that should be concidered as long as the cops make it perfectly clear who they are. If a person is inocent than they have no reason to run from the law and will therefore not be shot(one would hope).
My father is a part time deputy sherrif in the county where we live and the rules he must follow are insane. The criminal has more freedoms than the officers we hire to protect us. Inocent until proven guilty is a good thing but the inocent don't run from the law!
Just the opinions of a Va country boy ( old man as my teenage children refer to me as)

Joeaksa · 07-30-2005, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by 1967 R50/2
The British were aided by the VERY extensive camera system that they installed back during the IRA bombing era.

In the US, such surveillance would never fly as it is too much of an intrusion on privacy.

But the Brits put up with a lot of things that would never fly here like traffic camera speed traps. This time it happened to work to their advantage, but most of the time it can be a big irritant. Worse, it could be an avenue for abuse of civil rights.

All that said, Scotland yard still did a fine job of finding these guy fairly fast.

Its a lot more extensive than many know. They have records of every frigging car that drives into and out of the city of London. Recorded on CCTV because there are times when its limited and if you have not paid your "city" tax you are not allowed to drive in certain areas. If your car drives in the city at the wrong time you are fined...

Regarding the person who was killed, when the police say stop and you do not stop, something bad is going to happen. Sorry that he was killed but after working in England for a while I can guarantee you that most if not all people would understand the word stop and comply when their clothing say "police" on it...

All in all, they did a very good job and their counter terrorism division is very good. Course so is the SAS and SBS so they have some good people to draw upon.

joeA

schnellfahrer · 07-30-2005, 11:50 AM

The Brits could have used the bombings as an excuse to invade Finland or something, but instead they decided to catch the bad guys. Good call.

Joeaksa · 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by schnellfahrer
The Brits could have used the bombings as an excuse to invade Finland or something, but instead they decided to catch the bad guys. Good call.

The US had already been to Norway chasing bad guys but then that was during something called WW2 while taking care of another group of terrorists called the Nazi's. After we were attacked on 9/11 we decided to go after the terrorists in their own country this time instead of waiting for them to come to Europe.

The Brits were a bit luckier, many of them did not have the guts to blow themselves up along with the bombs, and ran away. One even went to Rome. They are now in custody and believe that they will have a long time to think about their actions. Then they can rot in hell...

We might consider that the Dutch govt just handed down life in prison 3 days ago to the Muslim activist who stabbed Theo Van Gogh to death last year. Then we have the terrorist actions in Spain last year with the trains being blown up. More and more of this mess is moving to Europe it seems.

It was a good call... Hope you guys over there can handle it without asking for our help for the third time in the last century.

We all have to stand together in this fight but it would be nice if everyone would realize that there is a war going on and its everyone in the world against a group of radical muslims. This radical group of muslims should not be confused with the law abiding muslims who are not trying to force their views upon everyone else but sometimes get swept into the mess by accident. The sooner everyone realizes this the better and I believe that the actions in Holland last year and London this month illustrate it very well.

Joe A

schnellfahrer · 07-30-2005, 12:45 PM

Well, it seems quite a few of you use the effort you put in during ww2 as an excuse to do whatever you want. Europe appreciates what you did, but that was in the good old days when the US was concidered the "good guys".
(Btw the Nazis weren't terrorists.)

You f@#%¤ up badly in Iraq. You have no reason to be there, apart from trying to put right what you put wrong.

I agree that the "war" on terror as your "war president" calls it is something we should all take part in, but we must go after the right people. I'm deeply disturbed by what is happening, and I'm afraid to travel in Europe. It's frustrating to see the amount of money and effort spent in Iraq. It has only spawned more terrorists.

artplumber · 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Joeaksa
...Regarding the person who was killed, when the police say stop and you do not stop, something bad is going to happen. Sorry that he was killed but after working in England for a while I can guarantee you that most if not all people would understand the word stop and comply when their clothing say "police" on it...

joeA

Joe, I think they were plainclothes guys. Speaking as a noncaucasian, the issue of race is even more pronounced in England than here in the US. Hence, easy to see how some dark skinned, not completely fluent in english guy decided to take off after 3 unknowns start waving guns and chasing you (that's what I understand of the story)

Plus they headshot him which pretty much guarantees the outcome. I'm not suggesting they try some silly cowboy shoot the knees or shoulder. But it was definitely a "kill shot" not a body shot.

turbo6bar · 07-30-2005, 03:11 PM

Something tells me the guys who were arrested are being interrogated quite aggresively. I hope the terrorists are praying for Allah to take them away, and I hope the world never hears their story.

Society should cope with the loss of an innocent life (Brazilian) if it means aggressively fending future terrorist attacks (multiple injuries and deaths). That's easy for me to say, since I'm not the dead guy.
just my opinion.