An off-duty cop “rugby tackled” one of the London “Religion of Peace” terrorists.
From BBC:
[…]
An off-duty policeman – an amateur rugby player – was stabbed after tackling one of the three attackers. He remains in critical condition.
Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick praised the “utterly heroic” actions of the officer, who was taken to hospital in a police car.
She added: “It’s hard to pick out individual stories but I am immensely proud of him and what he did.”
A British Transport Police officer, who faced the attackers armed only with his baton, was seriously injured but is now in a stable condition.
Chief Constable Paul Crowther from the BTP said the bravery he showed was “outstanding”.
[…]
Terrorism is on the rise.
It would be good for you to develop good situational awareness skills and, especially if you are responsible for a spouse and children, form some plans. Other kinds of training could be a good idea, depending on your state in life.
And, of course…
GO TO CONFESSION!
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These officers were heroic. Imagine what a different outcome if all British law enforcement were properly armed. I suspect this is why the jihadis do not use these tactics here in the US. They understand they would be met with swift, lethal force.
First: just a point of information to readers of this blog, lest anyone get the wrong location. This incident took place on London Bridge, the modern six-lane road bridge over the River Thames into the City of London from the south, not Tower Bridge, the two-lane Victorian medieval-style rising bascule (drawbridge-like) bridge next to the authentically medieval Tower of London. I understand that some Americans get these bridges mixed up. Perhaps many British people would get the George Washington and Brooklyn Bridges confused? I know that some get the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay bridges mixed up.
It seems from what I heard on BBC radio this morning that there are now *fewer* armed police constables available to patrol the streets of Britain than there were a few years ago. It is still the case that most British “bobbies” do not usually carry a gun on duty, but highly-trained specialist firearms personnel are readily available (we are told), especially in central London. In this incident the specialist firearms officers were on the scene and had shot the perpetrators dead within eight minutes of the start of the incident. But it still would be better if all constables were trained to use guns and carried them on duty. The tradition of an unarmed police force just isn’t realistic in this day and age, I’m afraid.
“They understand they would be met with swift, lethal force.”
Or over here they choose a really soft target like the party in San Bernardino
where people thought they were all fellow workers and friends.
It is all about killing the largest amount of “infidels” before being killed and going to their
imagined great reward.
Fort Hood is another example of Islamic cowardly behavior in the US.
God bless that brave man. Other news reports describe pub patrons holding a pub door shut against an Islamic barbarian, and others throwing bar stools and bottles.
The Daily Mail has a report today of an apparently unarmed Moroccan man shouting “Allah Akbar” charging the altar of San Pablo Church in Valladolid Spain during a wedding. The article said he “tried to throw liturgical items and attack the priest.” Video shows groomsmen, after some difficulty, detaining him.
A possibility, if firearms are not practical for legal or personal reasons, is bear spray, pepper gel, or a tactical strobe flashlight (results vary).
“They understand they would be met with swift, lethal force”
France – armed police force – Paris and Nice attacks.
Belgium – armed police force – Brussels Airport attack
Germany – armed police force – Ansbach, Würzburg and Berlin attacks.
I’m a Brit and I cherish our law enforcement model (properly funded).
Excellent point about situational awareness. Being originally from London you develop it early on; don’t go down that street, avoid this corner, cross to other side of the road early (and nonchalantly) if you spot a group of teenagers/youth coming in your direction, avoid eye contact with that person, don’t give another glance at this person, walk with intent, etc, etc. Basic urban survival skills that since I emigrated to Canada became blunted…except anytime I’ve been back visting London over the years. Since a last close call when last visiting (isolated bus stop, surrounded by 3 youths asking for ‘directions’ which I bluffed my way out of by not appearing cowed, making direct eye contact as I spoke to each in turn….my Guardian Angel was close to me that day, phew!) I decided to take up Krav Maga once back in Canada. Krav Maga is an extreemly effective and brutal form of self defense used by Israel’s IDF and ordinary citizens in the event of a personal attack….and they’ve had lots of those in the last few years. Think the London Bridge attack on a daily basis. It’s not judo, karate or MMA it’s just an effective, explosive form of controlled aggression to get you AWAY from an attacker. Majority of the class are females (including my daughters) and the confidence they express since taking just a few lessons is remarkable. If interested make sure you go with anything sanctioned by the IKMF.
@tominrichmond:
They may “be met with swift, lethal force”, but it won’t be from a Police force. Eight minutes is pretty much in the middle of the response time paradigm for a priority one response. Our folks try very hard to get it under five minutes.
I suspect they’d be met by armed citizens happy to send them on to Satan.
What does this teach me? Soft, stab resistant/bullet resistant body armor. WEAR IT. Always. Lots of cellotex blood clot agent; I’m a big fan of Cellotex as it’s an Isreali company. Gone to HP 9mm sub sonic rounds. Less noise, very lethal close in. Practice, practice, practice.
Semper Gumby – pepper sprays are illegal to carry here in Britain. Googling more information it appears that it is legal to carry an axe, crossbow or catapult which I did not know before.
pelerin: Good point. Perhaps stashing one of those items on the premises (church, pub, etc.) might work. Then again, legal crossbows are too cool. So too a ballista or battleaxe.
Good points re Krav Maga, blood clot, etc.
Kevin Jones:
Not so way back Brit police were unarmed – the public however could be. It may be that the near certainty of fast capture and the death penalty soon after a rapid trial ( neither ever so certain nor swift statesside this last century )were deterrants to criminals and evildoers, using guns, or even knives, or it may have been more deterrrant, I certainly hope so, that you could not be certain noone had a gun handy; or both. (I am not happy with the idea that the death penalty be effective enough to be necessary and acceptable for the protection of women and the innocent. But it may be so)
Killjoy statist prigs started gun control UK after wwi. But in my post wwii boyhood I remember plenty of guns in many homes, and for obvious reasons , most men could shoot, but didn’t, and a good many country cottages had a semi illicit but winked at shotgun, for poaching.Guns were seldom used – about 300 murders a year for the whole kingdom in the sixties, very very few public shootings of any kind whatever- but guns were out there – I remember not thinking much of a shotgun on a bus. Not the city, ok country district. City and countryside a knifeman or gunman could perhaps count on there being very few guns around and probably none carried , but not count on no firearm appearing a damn sight faster than a policeman ,let alone knowing that the entire kingdom would be on the alert after guncrime.All this has been done away with by hysterical feminist feely thinking and the war on men used by rightthinking freedomhaters and powermaniacs , not wholly limited to the left. I dont know how old you are , but its recent , as recent as criminals with guns , a boom in the murder much more violence of every sort, sky high burglary, and so forth. I would be happy to see that very British muted and understated private ownership of guns return to GB.
I am glad to see in today’s (6th tuesday )Spanish (yes) local papers that the war on boys has failed in quite a few cases , not just two brave off duty policemen, without all of whom the number of deaths from knives would have been doubled, the distraction and defence of fallen wounded which prevented their being finished recurred in several accounts – its not all been shouting policem an civians running hands up , sureender posture, run hide tell is bloody unmanly.
With hindsight yes there were only three, their suicide vests were fake, they didnt have firearms nor bombs.
But most of those individual heroes went down some may be dead or dying – those three knifemen could have been rushed. Yeah , I might well´ ve panicked or chickened on the spòt myself .That’s not the point.
You cousins haven’t made enough of” lets roll.” One film and forgotten . A ll too many if not all Brits seem to have had men working in a team, as men, protectors ready to sacrifice themselves, pussied out by hag feminist teachers, social workers ,magistrates and the like , some of whom are christians and even good catholics, sadly .
The 8-minutes it took for armed officers to arrive is an eternity in terms of an attack, more than enough time to kill multiple victims. As this article points out (http://neoneocon.com/2017/06/05/even-now-why-do-only-one-in-ten-london-police-officers-carry-guns/), only about 10% of British police are armed with firearms. In a heavily policed urban area like downtown London, if all police were armed, that 8-minute window could have been significantly shortened, and lives saved. I recall past such incidents where the unarmed bobbies actually *ran away from* incidents because they were unarmed. But as the article also points out, some officers fear being armed because of the threat of discipline/lawsuits if they use lethal force. Perhaps the UK needs to update their view of what tools the police need to protect the public adequately. In the meantime, if I were a Londoner, I’d definitely consider maximizing personal self-defense options (which I’d do anyway, in accord with the maxim: “when seconds count, the police are only minutes away”).