maxtorque

Statement: In the UK, where our Police officers are, as a rule, un-armed, an attack like this would have been potentially unstoppable.

Discuss?

You would have to hope/assume that either police or members of the public would use cars to stop or slow the truck. Wouldn’t be viable in every situation, but then again neither would the specific circumstances of the Nice attack.

nickc

oh, you’re a mental health expert now as well?

How would you assess the mental health of the 9/11 hijackers? Insane? Not insane? (bearing in mind they flew jets into buildings killing themselves and 3000 innocent people).

Seen through western secular eyes virtually every terrorist murder/suicide is an insane act or the actions of someone with mental health problems. To islamist they are rational, not to mention …sainted martyrs.

Meh, if it happened in London I think it would be stopped fairly quickly. So many coppers around and I keep seeing what I swear to god are plain clothed squaddies on patrol. Buzzed heads, khaki boots, day bags, earpieces, walking in pairs etc

How would you assess the mental health of the 9/11 hijackers? Insane? Not insane? (bearing in mind they flew jets into buildings killing themselves and 3000 innocent people).

Seen through western secular eyes virtually every terrorist murder/suicide is an insane act.

Being legally insane and thus not being responsible for your actions is so utterly rare that it doesn’t apply here. That kind of insanity is found in Schizophrenia or Psychosis – and it’s not helpful either to suggest that is what caused the attack in Nice. Schizophrenics kill people at a much lower rate (barely above the average for the normal population) than Islamists do.

Tom_W1987 – Member

if it happened in London I think it would be stopped fairly quickly. So many coppers around and I keep seeing what I swear to god are plain clothed squaddies on patrol. Buzzed heads, khaki boots, day bags, earpieces, walking in pairs etc

Next time they do it the lorry will be packed full of explosives on a dead man switch.

Meh

😐

So many coppers around and I keep seeing what I swear to god are plain clothed squaddies on patrol. Buzzed heads, khaki boots, day bags, earpieces, walking in pairs etc

“plain clothed” squaddies (who do a significant amount of work in the UK) would not look anything like your description, and they certainly wouldn’t be identifiable by the average joe!
These are the same guys and girls who carry out close surveillance in Baghdad and lots of other dangerous places, so their tradecraft is dot on.
They are more likely to be dressed as a tramp drinking a can of special brew.

Hah. Fair enough wrecker – could be walty coppers I guess – or just your average American lunatic.

Doubtless doing a job, but they won’t be the type that the military supply for that kind of thing. A few former colleagues are at it and their attention to detail is jaw dropping.

wrecker

“plain clothed” squaddies (who do a significant amount of work in the UK) would not look anything like your description, and they certainly wouldn’t be identifiable by the average joe!

Very different to an average plain clothed cop though. I used to work in a place that had the exclusive CTW contract for the PSNI. After about a day plain clothed police became comically easy to spot.

When was the last time a mentally ill person went on a totally and completely secular killing spree in the Uk and Ireland?
Dumblane?

Cockermouth 2010.

Statement: In the UK, where our Police officers are, as a rule, un-armed, an attack like this would have been potentially unstoppable.

Discuss?

Yup. As we saw in Hungerford we are not at all ready to deal with such a situation particularly someone with an automatic weapon who’d be likley to have 1hr plus before armed responce arrived. Even with a truck attack we would have to rely on police with tasers

Massive critism in France as a max of 60 Police where on duty (public holiday?) vs say 700 who would have been on duty for a euro 2016 match. Getting very ploitical as UMP stated that he had written to Government (PS) asking why so few rescources where made available for July 14

No need for explosives. Vehicle attacks have been used in France and Austria already as well numerous fatal rammings in Israel. Sadly this was not new and the barriers and security where woefully inadequate

jimjam – Member

Next time they do it the lorry will be packed full of explosives on a dead man switch.

Not really- this dude had no capability to do that. TBH this is the scary bit about it, it’s a very long overdue realisation that anyone can lay their hands on a deadly weapon, it’s something that’s not caught on over here. Remember the Glasgow airport “bombing”? Amateurs trying to make a bomb ended up making their 4×4 statistically less dangerous than one doing the school run. The take-home lesson from that was pretty obvious. You don’t need accomplices, equipment, specific hard-to-obtain knowledge, any of that stuff which normally makes terrorist attacks hard to do. All you need is the inclination. And also, you don’t need much of a target either, so it’s basically impossible to police for- Bastille day was a huge event but you can find a decent sized crowd in any city in any week, you can’t build a wall around everything.

OTOH, this being Britain, killing people with a vehicle is barely even an offence so maybe it’d not have the terror effect they’d hope for. Imagine the terrorist’s face when he’s given community service.

Sadly this was not new and the barriers and security where woefully inadequate

Why would you think that the security measures should be anything other than woefully inadequate?
I’ve just been for a walk round town and the security measures were woefully inadequate too, fortunately there wasn’t a mentally ill truck driver hooning around, very few barriers (but trust ne I’ll be talking to the council tomorrow about this).
Being able to criticise the security measures as being woefully inadequate as you are, where do you think security should be tightened next in order to prevent the next attack?

From the Regional Government (politically right!

I did not underestimated the risk.
As recently as the 13th of July, I sent a letter to François Hollande to attract his attention on this critical situation for our safety.
The government has a duty to respond to the questions we ask ourselves. Why in an area accessible by vehicle, was there not more ways to prevent this tragedy?
There was last night more municipal police officers than national policemen on duty.
The municipal police of Nice had arrested the author of this attack in January for acts of extremely serious violence. Delivered into the hands of justice, he was released and has not been monitored
It is the government who gave permission for opening a place of worship in Nice which belongs to the Saudi clerics advocating sharia law.
Is it that every 6 months we’re going to tell us the same story? The same story for Charlie Hebdo? As for the Bataclan? And now the same story in Nice ?
The rhetoric of Mr. Cazeneuve and Mr. Holland that’s enough talk. We need to lean the lessons and move on to the action.
The people are angry, and are waiting for some answers.

@captain the street could have been close to all traffic, the road blocked with concrete barriers as they use on the motorway and for example at bus stops in Israel. London has had a “ring of steel” since the days of the IRA

And?
Where and how is next? You seem to be able to predict after the event, so put your money where your mouth is.
My local police have arrested a few for violence over the last few weeks, which one of these is the next perpetrator?
You’re posting reactionary bullcrap that fits a strategy of trying to scare and satisfy your own agenda. You have a position on Europe and are finding stories and writing your own headline to support this. Your Brexit posts are full of conditionals and modals of possibility (not even probability).
So go on, what’s next?
Where should we increase security measures and what level would you find adequate?

the street could have been close to all traffic,

QED

Cockermouth 2010.

True but the actions of the mentally are is still nothing like the levels of Islamic terrorism seen throughout Europe and the Middle East.

I don’t see why it’s socially acceptable to blame it on mental illness but not religion. The latter is a choice, the formed isn’t.

I don’t see why it’s socially acceptable to blame it on mental illness but not religion

Who says it is? It’s unacceptable to blame either.

So it’s emerged that the Nice attack may have been planned for up to a year in advance by a group of at least five conspirators. It’s also come to light that the killer Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was a committed Islamist as opposed to some kind of rapidly radicalised loner.