The Army take to the streets of London....

[TTmonkey]

...In order to supplement the police force that is struggling due to the continued cuts and additional requirements being placed on the Police.

But as this terrorism issue is likely never going to go away, is it time we considered an additional, national paramilitary police force such as the French have to take over armed policing duties, leaving the current police force to concentrate on 'every day' policing?

[TTmonkey]

Chicken Chaser said:

The government can't even afford a decent well staffed police force so where are they going to get the funds to recruit an entirely new organisation?

Cancel a few useless white elephant vanity projects....?

[TTmonkey]

RobDickinson said:

Then may as well put the cash into the police?

The Police should be policing, not guarding, should they not?


And using the army has another flaw... the troops deployed today were carrying assault rifles that are too powerful to use in an area potentially full of civilians. A round from an sa80 could do a lot of unintentional damage after passing through or just missing a target.

[TTmonkey]

Ginetta G15 Girl said:

What do you mean by "an SA 80"?

SA 80 is a family of weapons.

Hint: It stands for SMALL ARMS 1980.

Given that there are images of people carrying the L119A1 (basically a Canadian cut down version of the AR-15) which uses the same 5.56 x 45 mm NATO round, your point is what exactly?

It's been known as the SA80 for 30 years and you are being pedantic.

Most of the police that carry weapons do not carry weapons that use 5.56 mm and you also know that I suspect, but again are trying to score a pointless win. Only police that have additional special training carry more powerful weapons.