Spanish Police Response To The Terrorist Attacks In Spain

[anonymous-user]

I saw our good friend Derek Smith make a comment on this and he is quite correct its subject worth a look at.
Simply put I think the way they took out the second lot of attackers was excellent.

This article is well worth a look

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-...

I am given to wonder however that if a similar situation arose in the UK that the police may be called to account for killing a bunch who only had "fake" suicide vests on.
Personally I have considerable respect for the Police which might surprise some. I often think rank and file officers are sometimes led by pen pushers who seem more concerned with box ticking than dealing with crime.
Its mentioned somewhere else that one officer was responsible its also been mentoned that the officer may have thought his time was up but whatever the reasons the officer deserves some significant honour. As Mr Smith himself put it

"Well done that officer."

Please do not do the usual and turn this thread into the usual direction. The context of the motives of the attackers is part of it ie suicide vests and a likelihood to press the switch but putting the motives of the attackers to one side this should be more about what we expect from our police forces. Again personally I think many of our officers deserve more credit than they get

[bitchstewie]

I don't think they'd be called to account in those circumstances.

I think it's more a question aound how they could respond as effectively as we saw in Cambrils if something similar happened in Paignton or Torquay for example.

So far we've been "lucky" that events have been in major cities where armed Police are routinely not that far away.

[dandarez]

Wasn't it only a couple of months back that police in London did encounter and fire over 50 rounds to shoot dead 3 terrorists who had 'fake' vests on? The officers got praise. Deservedly so. I doubt anyone would not think so.

Except do-gooders of course.

[D-Angle]

I think it's a long-established idea that if someone brandishes a fake weapon as though it is real, police are allowed to assume it's real until known otherwise.

[21TonyK]

bhstewie said:

I think it's more a question aound how they could respond as effectively as we saw in Cambrils if something similar happened in Paignton or Torquay for example.

Rarely see police in Paignton and only in Torquay on a Saturday night in the summer. Paignton police station closed years ago but i'm pretty sure there are a few firearms officers in Torquay. But, they're not on the beat, they are a "response unit", mate of mine used to be in it before he retired.

Not really the subject of this thread but maybe it is time we had a % of armed police on the street nationally.

[Dromedary66]

dandarez said:

Wasn't it only a couple of months back that police in London did encounter and fire over 50 rounds to shoot dead 3 terrorists who had 'fake' vests on? The officers got praise. Deservedly so. I doubt anyone would not think so.

Exactly that, so it seems a strange question for the OP to ask given that the answer is already known from a very high profile recent event...

[Jonesy23]

techiedave said:

Its mentioned somewhere else that one officer was responsible its also been mentoned that the officer may have thought hisher time was up but whatever the reasons the officer deserves some significant honour.

Minor EFA.

Assuming it's the one I think you mean then (especially considering the circumstances) she did an excellent job. Abrupt attack, colleague seriously injured, 4 armed assailants shot dead. Difficult at the best of times let alone under that sort of pressure.

[SantaBarbara]

There have been incidents in the UK over the years.
Hunger ford for example about thirty years ago exactly.

[SpamDisco]

dandarez said:

Wasn't it only a couple of months back that police in London did encounter and fire over 50 rounds to shoot dead 3 terrorists who had 'fake' vests on? The officers got praise. Deservedly so. I doubt anyone would not think so.

Except do-gooders of course.

One of the first to respond tried taking on all three with just his baton.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-40437677/london-br...

[Derek Smith]

I'm against arming every police officer who comes up to an acceptable standard.

After the second Spain incident, one has to wonder how many lives the police officer saved by her remarkable action.

I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

[21TonyK]

Derek Smith said:

I'm against arming every police officer who comes up to an acceptable standard.

After the second Spain incident, one has to wonder how many lives the police officer saved by her remarkable action.

I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

Would you advocate training all officers to a fire arms standard and then arming a percentage on rotation with ongoing training throughout their career for all?

[dromong]

dandarez said:

Wasn't it only a couple of months back that police in London did encounter and fire over 50 rounds to shoot dead 3 terrorists who had 'fake' vests on? The officers got praise. Deservedly so. I doubt anyone would not think so.

Except do-gooders of course.

And the "do-gooders" in these types of situation are actually the do-badders, the type of people that think terrorists should have the same human rights as the rest of us.

A very warped mindset.

[Derek Smith]

21TonyK said:

Derek Smith said:

I'm against arming every police officer who comes up to an acceptable standard.

After the second Spain incident, one has to wonder how many lives the police officer saved by her remarkable action.

I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

Would you advocate training all officers to a fire arms standard and then arming a percentage on rotation with ongoing training throughout their career for all?

I'm more an ideas man. Detail I leave to others. However . . .

The way the service is organised in this country is considerably different to most other EU countries, and certainly those which might be, and have been proved to be, targets for terrorists.

I policed Gatwick for a while when, as now, there were a number of permanently armed units. These had the assault rifle type of gun, although then they only had single shot but were self loading. For a location under threat I can see the reasoning of the 'elite' squad. I was in one for 30 months, years ago though.

But that would not provide an immediate response to a terrorist incident.

The London Bridge incident had both Met and City of London firearms officers, all highly trained, on scene within a few short minutes. The first thought that ran through my mind was that they were acting on information received. But say a terrorist incident occurred in my force area. Outside of Brighton, the most a division could immediately throw at such a problem is scarily low.

I think a 'sidearm', a semi-automatic pistol, worn overtly, might - just might - be the answer. I would bet that there would not be a long queue to be armed first of all, but as time went by it would be accepted as the norm.

What would have happened if five terrorists in a car were stopped by a PC in, well pick your own seaside town? I know what would happen a few days later. Officers would be told to be armed.

I'm against arming all officers but the situation seems to have changed somewhat. I don't know what's the best, but I do know that a knee-jerk reaction to deflect blame from politicians always turns out badly.

[Zod]

dandarez said:

Wasn't it only a couple of months back that police in London did encounter and fire over 50 rounds to shoot dead 3 terrorists who had 'fake' vests on? The officers got praise. Deservedly so. I doubt anyone would not think so.

Except do-gooders of course.

Exactly. Hence this thread confuses me.

I don't remember any do-holders complaining btw, not even Corbyn.

[Pesty]

While this grave woman made these terrorists good terrorists and she should be lauded.

I'm wondering about the lack of action after the house blew up, just assumed it was a gas leak or something despite 30 or 40 other gas canisters in the back yard in a place were recent asylum seekers were staying.

[coanda]

The political landscape within policing means that you will have a seriously hard time finding volunteers for firearms - it's bad enough trying to get people on to taser in the force I am familiar with, and there has been a big big reduction in frontline policing. Regardless of what press releases might say.

Derek, I fear you are not in touch with modern day policing outside of the capitol.

I also wonder if the Policia have removed the officer from duties for an indeterminate amount of time to carry out a full enquiry in to her doing the job (in an excellent manner, I might add).

Edited by coanda on Saturday 19th August 23:47

[CAPP0]

dro said:

dandarez said:

Wasn't it only a couple of months back that police in London did encounter and fire over 50 rounds to shoot dead 3 terrorists who had 'fake' vests on? The officers got praise. Deservedly so. I doubt anyone would not think so.

Except do-gooders of course.

And the "do-gooders" in these types of situation are actually the do-badders, the type of people that think terrorists should have the same human rights as the rest of us.

A very warped mindset.

Indeed, "do-gooder" is a significant misnomer.

[Troubleatmill]

The training they get is impressive.

But, this is beyond training - this comes down to character of the person.
As much as I believe I could do what the police did. I know I would falter and run and hide.

I just wish we didn't have so many feckwits in our planet deciding that their sky fairy demands that others must get wiped out.

[croyde]

techiedave said:

I saw our good friend Derek Smith make a comment on this and he is quite correct its subject worth a look at.
Simply put I think the way they took out the second lot of attackers was excellent.

This article is well worth a look

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-...

I am given to wonder however that if a similar situation arose in the UK that the police may be called to account for killing a bunch who only had "fake" suicide vests on.
Personally I have considerable respect for the Police which might surprise some. I often think rank and file officers are sometimes led by pen pushers who seem more concerned with box ticking than dealing with crime.
Its mentioned somewhere else that one officer was responsible its also been mentoned that the officer may have thought his time was up but whatever the reasons the officer deserves some significant honour. As Mr Smith himself put it

"Well done that officer."

Please do not do the usual and turn this thread into the usual direction. The context of the motives of the attackers is part of it ie suicide vests and a likelihood to press the switch but putting the motives of the attackers to one side this should be more about what we expect from our police forces. Again personally I think many of our officers deserve more credit than they get

Love to read it but you have to subcribe.

[AW111]

dro said:

And the "do-gooders" in these types of situation are actually the do-badders, the type of people that think terrorists should have the same human rights as the rest of us.

A very warped mindset.

So you think terrorists should have no human rights?
Who defines what a terrorist is?