trigger-happy goons

[EternalOptimist]

The witnesses in the tube wagon now say that they did not hear the shooting team shouting they were police, this seems corroborated by multiple witnesses there, if this version of events is accepted by court I think there would be strong criminal case against the shooting team.

I don't think so. They do not have to give a warning if they are 100% certain of their target, if they have been cleared to shoot and if they are facing an immediate threat.

They will claim all three.

[stackpole]

IIRC, they don't have to shout that when it's a suspected suicide bomber, they're allowed to shoot away.

Please don't get me wrong, shooting this poor lad was a complete travesty, and SOMEBODY should be punished - but I don't think any of the actual police shooters are going down for it.

That may be the case, but the point of this thread is they lied to try and cover it up. It reduces public trust - I could never trust policemen not to give false evidence to frame me or others.

[EternalOptimist]

Nobody likes being shot in the brain seven times and then being lied about

[AtW]

That may be the case, but the point of this thread is they lied to try and cover it up.

That's exactly the point - they can be done for obstruction of justice, can carry life sentence you know.

They certainly won't be working in UK firearms team, they'd be lucky to get out of this one without going to jail. Granted, their superiors should be done too, but firearms officer who shoots to kill MUST be personally confident they do the right thing on the right subject.

[Diver]

They were probably crapping their pants at the time that he was going to set off a bomb 6 feet from them.

Put yourself in their position!

A man a few feet away from you has a rucksack and matches the description of a bomber.
Several bombs have already gone off in the underground.

If he sets off a bomb, you are dead, you have a gun pointing at his head, everybody is terrified and screaming.
He moves his hand.............................................. ......

How many of you would have pulled the trigger?

Training day after day for life threatening situations; does not teach you to hesitate, it teaches you to act.

[Spacecadet]

They were probably crapping their pants at the time that he was going to set off a bomb 6 feet from them.

Put yourself in their position!

A man a few feet away from you has a rucksack and matches the description of a bomber.
Several bombs have already gone off in the underground.

If he sets off a bomb, you are dead, you have a gun pointing at his head, everybody is terrified and screaming.
He moves his hand.............................................. ......

How many of you would have pulled the trigger?

Training day after day for life threatening situations; does not teach you to hesitate, it teaches you to act.

did he have a rucksack?

they didnt know what the target looked like, it was the job of the surveilance team to identify the target, they would then direct the shooters

[TimberWolf]

A bit off-topic but if anyone saw "The Unsinkable Titanic" the other night you can see big cock-ups aren't anything new. You've heard the phrase 'a chain is only as strong as the weakest link', but in this case the documentary showed that it was a chain of errors that led to the disaster, and that it might have been averted but for many of these links being present.

These ranged from last minute changes to the design, not enough life boats, not filling them properly when they were used, poor quality iron/steel, binoculars not available on watch, ignored ice warnings (in part due to poor practises used in the wireless room) and travelling too fast. And hitting the iceberg. Even a lifeboat drill scheduled earlier had been cancelled.

[NickFitz]

A man a few feet away from you has a rucksack and matches the description of a bomber.

He didn't have a rucksack, or a bag of any description: he'd left his tool bag with a work colleague the day before. The only thing he was carrying was a Metro newspaper.

[Diver]

He didn't have a rucksack, or a bag of any description: he'd left his tool bag with a work colleague the day before. The only thing he was carrying was a Metro newspaper.

That's a crime punishable by death on its own

[Moscow Mule]

That's a crime punishable by death on its own

Yes, shoot everybody in London doing that in the head 7 times.

Would make my commute a lot more enjoyable.