Britain’s Response To Terror Threat: Keep 90 Percent Of Police Officers Unarmed

dailycaller.com ^ | 3/24/2017 | Jacob Bojesson

[rktman]

The officer stabbed in Wednesday’s terror attack in London was unarmed, like more than 90 percent of the British police force.

Ketih Palmer, 48, was stabbed to death while guarding the entrance to the British Houses of Parliament unarmed. Just 2,800 out of London’s 31,075 police officers are armed, which the police force considers a safety measure.

A cornerstone principle of the Metropolitan Police in London is that guns send the wrong message to communities by provoking crime rather than preventing it. Most officers are only equipped with batons, handcuffs, a mace and in some cases, stun-guns. A small number of specially-trained officers are the only ones carrying guns on patrol. These include counterterrorism police and some officers in high-risk areas like the Parliament.

While countries such as Germany, France and Belgium have put more armed officers on the streets in response to a wave of terror attacks around the continent, the United Kingdom has maintained its “policing by consent” approach to security. The Metropolitan Police increased the number of armed officers by 600 after the truck attack in Nice last July, but the total number is still a mere 9 percent of the entire force.

[lavaroise]

I like this British civil society of unarmed police, but islam is a military threat.

[lavaroise]

Problem is they had acknowledged the IrA as a foreign like terror organization. They do not consider, however, terrorists who dream out loud of killing Britons as spies, so they let them spout it until they do it.

[Graybeard58]

The officer stabbed in Wednesday’s terror attack in London was unarmed, like more than 90 percent of the British police force.

He wasn't a security officer, he was a security monitor.

[ABN 505]

I thought it was a monty python skit.

[rktman]

Run away, run away!

[NoCmpromiz]

We note how stupendously effective this is...

[moose07]

There are a number of forces at play with this.
Personally I would rather see armed citizenry than armed Police on the streets.
This may appear rather odd from your perspective,but the physiological traits of most UK police officers are on the shall we say “the kid who was bullied at school” side.
A loosening of some of the laws with regards to the use of violence in self defence or the defence of others would be a good start.
If it comes to Police being routinely armed i want a firearm as well.
The use of the weapon will have to be as tightly controlled as the taser is now, other wise the police state mentality will blossom into a nightmare.

When you aren’t allowed to carry, the sight of a person with excessive powers already , having the power of life and death controlled by a suspect personality does make one rather uneasy.
Whilst the secret security agencies are able to cope, let's keep things as they are. Unless of course they are a little more involved than is palatable to contemplate...

Executive summary:
Most brits hate the sight of firearms in public places.

[Reily]

Physiological traits? I think you mean psychological!

You mean they don’t stand around and say “ Now now what’s all this?”

[moose07]

LOL, oops. :)

[Oatka]

And don't forget how very few British police die as a result of violent crime - still only 26 since the year 2000.

That will change in the coming months.

[Winniesboy]

Always possible, but still highly improbable. There is no sign of a rising trend in jihadist attacks in the UK - at least not in ‘successful’ attacks, although there has been a rise in the number of conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism convictions - ie. planned attacks which were discovered by te Police/MI5 before they could happen.

[Oatka]

Always possible, but still highly improbable. There is no sign of a rising trend in jihadist attacks in the UK - at least not in ‘successful’ attacks,

I hope you are right. It seems that all of Western Europe have assumed the fetal position with these people.

[mewzilla]

It’s not just about the cops serving unarmed. That bridge has no barriers in place to mitigate the risk of a vehicle attack.