love the look on the face of the policeman who gets out the car, after the first one's started laying into the muppet - it kind of says "I'm going to kick the st out of you".

guess if armed officers had been deployed, they might have taken a shot, when he pointed the gun into what I assume was a shop window?

wonder what made the guy wander around with a replica firearm anyway, presumably trying to look "gangsta"

:O

If an ARV had been the first to turn up to deal with this character he may not have been lucky enough to appear in court in the first place.

I'm fairly sure if they'd have witnessed him pointing that (albeit imitation) firearm at anyone they'd have pulled the trigger and been justified in doing so.

Alarmingly there was very little reaction from most of the MOP's wandering about with exception to a mother who steered herself and her young child away from him as he walked past.

Yikes

most people are completely oblivious to what's going on around them though, and walk about like sheep.

You can actually use reasonable force to protect others - so YES, you could turn your car around and run them over, but it would be up to you to prove the 'immediate danger'. Someone pointing what MAY be a firearm is not really immediate danger - there is some doubt - even Armed Response officers are not 'allowed' to shoot people - when they do so they are subjected to exactly the same legal process as you or I (in theory) - they have to 'prove' immediate danger.

I have no sympathy with such a 'gangsta' and he deserves to be shot, if only to remove him from the gene pool. However, IMHO an armed officer would NOT be justified in shooting him, as there had been no discharge of the weapon, and waving it around (real or imitation) does not necessarily demonstrate immediate danger. I realise this is a very fine judgement.

However, if said scrote had discharged a round (even a blank one) whilst pointing the weapon at someone then YES, I would say an officer would be justified in shooting - but that assumes the officer (even a firearms one) is not trained to a high enough level to be able to tell the difference between a black powder blank round and a live one. That is not a disparaging comment about their level of training - I would just be surprised if it goes to that much detail (but I may of course be wrong now - it certainly never used to be)

If there IS one aspect of the heavily paperwork ridden aspect of modern policing I do approve of it is the massive restrictions on armed officers and the justification they subsequently have to provide if they discharge a weapon. I think this culture of 'think very carefully first' means there are very few mistaken police shootings (yes I know there are some before you keyboard warriors get going, but they are very rare).

O/T I would be very interested to know if Trident (or is it Trojan?) officers in the Met are trained to the same level as provincial armed officers - I ask as whenever I see them on 'watch the cops' TV the Met officers seem MUCH more situationally aware with their weapons, and much more confident in their carrying - they just seem better trained.

Brave but high-risk. Not sure about baton to the legs first, but I wasn't there.

Kid deserved a hard stop from armed officers.

Are you looking at that from the perspective of not knowing whether it's a black piece of metal, or whether it is an clearly a gun but not necessarily a real one?

Would an ARV gamble that you haven't pulled the trigger yet if you start pointing it at people? If they have a clear shot I think there would be every chance they would proactively shoot.

Interested to hear if that is not the case - but I don't think armed police have to wait for you to fire to make a decision about lethal force.

That has got to be a dry run to see how long it took for the authorities to react. I'd expect something more sinister to follow.

If he'd been shot, the Daily Wail (and PH) would have had a field day moaning about Police shooting a man with a toy

Can't beleve that hardly a single person noticed, reacted, or even did a double take.

I swear you'd spot someone carrying a gun?? Or wouldn't you?

Are you for real?
I think I speak for most folk when I say, if you wave a gun around, real or fake you must expect for it to be taken seriously. I would not hesitate in taking down such a fool. If you fancy waving around a gun then expect bullets, and some may come your way.