As a copper from 1990-96 who was firearms trained and authorised

I would just like to say this.

Imagine the immense pressure the Met was under when 50 odd innocents had been murdered by suicide bombers just a couple of weeks beforehand. Pressure, whether direct or indirect is still pressure and as a force they were under huge pressure.

Yes the intelligence was s**t and yes the surveillance wasn't up to much either, but no plod went out onto the street that day with the intention of killing anyone.

For whatever reason, the 'trigger man' perceived an immediate danger either to himself, his colleagues and the public, or a combination of all three and in such a situation, you invariably have no more than split second in which to decide whether or not to fir your weapon.

As OG quite rightly says below, if confronted with a potential suicide bomber, you probably do have to fire first and ask questions later. If you don't and people get killed as a result, there is a whole other s**t storm waiting to fall on you.

What is unforgivable is the lies and the cover up. They f**ked up that day and they should have manned up and said so, both individually and as a force, but lets not lose sight of the fact that these guys and girls have a fiendishly difficult job to do in trying to keep us all safe and sometimes, like all human beings, they get it very wrong. Thankfully its rare, but once is too often.

Posted By: Kirrie on July 22nd 2015 at 14:40:13

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