Armed coppers in Tesco - people get upset...

[Andy632]

The issue for most people that I spoke to about the appearance of armed police on the streets wasn't that they were against it for its own sake but the fact that it was just introduced without any discussion or debate about whether plod should be routinely armed or not.

It was the arrogance of the chief constable that got most people rather than the guns.

isn't that a requirement for the job?

Apparently not, 'cos he got the Bullet! (albeit the 'Golden' one.)

[Maggot]

I'm glad I live in a country where we don't need routine armed police in our towns. I'm glad to see them around our capital and ports but equally glad they are absent from my local Tesco's

But at the same time the counter terrorist units are doing what....sitting on their hands?

[Blackstuff]

Look out everyone, its a genuine Hoplophobe! aaarggh

Its over emotional tosspots like her, (999 times out of a 1000 with nothing better to do with her time as she doesn't work and her kids have left home) who are behind the anti-gun 'movement'/complaining for the sake of complaining etc etc. Hobbies should be mandatory to keep people busy and out of other peoples business.

[shugie]

Needless to say that personnaly I actually can not understand either that No-ID business nor that un-armed police non-sense

That's 'cos you is foreign innit?

You should know by now how attached Brits get to tradition, and unarmed police and the right to wander bereft of ID are just two of the more sensible traditions. Why should we give either of those traditions up just because of some jihadi nut jobs?

Of course we don't always get to keep our traditions, so we no longer have right to arm bears sadly. At least not without approval from the ploddery.

[dromia]

It is not just about traditions it is a constitutional issue.

The state is accountable to the people not the other way round.

Compulsory ID cards that have to be produced on demand, to an armed instrument of the state, means that positions have been reversed and the populace has now become accountable to the state and its agents.

[Tony-c]

Regularly see them in the local McDonalds,
my daughter was sat looking at them and I think shocked them when she identified the pistols and started asking how often they practised and what sort of groups they could shoot LOL

[froggy]

That's 'cos you is foreign innit?

Probably

You should know by now how attached Brits get to tradition ...

Wasn't it, once upon time, compulsary in Englands green & pleasant Land to practice archery every sunday on the pleasant pastures and over the clouded hills ? So unless the State brings it back with the modern & current equivalent of the bow I see no reason not to have those ID cards thingy ...


The state is accountable to the people not the other way round.

as if ... as mentioned before it is about time that the public realise that times have changed

[dromia]

it is about time that the public realise that times have changed[/i]

?????

[shugie]

That's 'cos you is foreign innit?

Probably

You should know by now how attached Brits get to tradition ...

Wasn't it, once upon time, compulsary in Englands green & pleasant Land to practice archery every sunday on the pleasant pastures and over the clouded hills ? So unless the State brings it back with the modern & current equivalent of the bow I see no reason not to have those ID cards thingy ...


The state is accountable to the people not the other way round.

as if ... as mentioned before it is about time that the public realise that times have changed

My passport says I'm a subject of HM Queen, not sure how that sits with this accountability idea, although the opportunity to vote once every five years in a safe seat where the incumbent is not even close to my political views doesn't really cut the mustard either.

It was indeed once compulsory to practice with the bow on Sunday, but once the powers that be realised that an armed populace could be problematic (see American Independence, Wars of) such practices came to be disapproved of.

I don't have a problem with the ploddery getting told off for taking guns into Tescos, it's just not good manners though is it? One of them could have remained in their car with the firearms while the other went to get their juice and sweeties.

[froggy]

My passport says I'm a subject of HM Queen, not sure how that sits with this accountability idea,

When the Chilcot report eventually comes out and if Blair ends up in the London Tower I might have a greater confidence on that "accountability idea" ... until then


it's just not good manners though is it?

I would disagree. IMO, there is nothing offensive/ashaming about it. I would argue it is the public to be educated that guns have a legitimate purpose whether as an defensive/offensive tool depending on the uniform worn or a sport tool when used by a civilian. It is the liberals that have the bad manners to want to take mine away & that have brain washed the public that I have a problem with ...

Personally, I love Switzerland where you see reservists or shooters walking around, doing their shopping or waiting for their train with their STGw 90, same in the Tyrol when the Schutzenvereins parade around with their K98 .

Maybe it is indeed a Johnny foreigner thing but seeing guns in the correct hands don't shock me the slightest and quite frankly it is the un-armed coppers that kinda seems weird.