Armed Police - Casually strolling

[Two-lane]

Someone in an above post mentioned seeing the police in Strand Street carrying assault rifles. Mind-boggling.

The problem for the politicians is not so much that they should not be involved in day-to-day policing actions (although policy perhaps so), but they are caught in a dilemma:

1. They want to emphasis that the IoM is a good place to be where it is safe to bring up children - e.g. no guns

2. Like the Derek Flint, the Chief Constable and others, they are obsessed with the display of power. They want to go to the next big meeting of G7 and say "Hey, we're big boys now. We got SWAT teams with armoured tanks and all that stuff"

And as members of the ruling elite, they will never criticise the police anyway.

Edited to add:

When we arrived here a couple of decades ago with a very young child, we thought the place was quiet and peaceful. If we had seen police with automatic rifles walking down the street, we (in particular my wife) would have been heading straight back to the boat.

Edited Saturday at 03:53 PM by Two-lane

[Passing Time]

Above all else, will we see a rise in local villains carrying weapons?

[Two-lane]

Just now, Passing Time said:

Above all else, will we see a rise in local villains carrying weapons?

If an empty vodka bottle is justification for them to point a rifle at someone, the merest glimpse of a proper gun will cause them to pull the trigger.

[Barlow]

4 hours ago, thommo2010 said:

At no point have I ever said what my occupation is on this forum. 

A bit of an ICBA looking but I would like to suggest you have. Not that it matters, but just saying like.

Edited Saturday at 03:49 PM by Barlow

[Shake me up Judy]

It's not so long ago that coppers had little more than a truncheon/stick, a pair of handcuffs, and a bit of the old common sense. Above all, they also had the willingness to get stuck in, because that's what policing is when all else fails. It worked too and people had respect. They knew where the line was. That's all changed and it's been trained out of them. The scrote in Port Erin on that video was surrounded by a SWAT team armed to the teeth with lethal weapons but he was still taunting them and taking the piss. Years ago, two unarmed coppers would have taken him down straight away and there was no need for guns, procedure or protocol. Just a bit of old fashioned authority and in the van in thirty seconds. You still see it in plenty of other countries. I know what the counter arguments will be, but we've forgotten what basic policing is and jumped too far to the hardware. 

[WTF]

56 minutes ago, Passing Time said:

Above all else, will we see a rise in local villains carrying weapons?

i imagine mugging a couple of bobbies in costa would be a good way of acquiring said weapons.

[A fool and his money.....]

It's an absolute nonsense to have police walking around with guns in Douglas and a complete waste of money.

It's like the millions we continue to pay every year for defence. Who the hell do they think is going to attack us?

Throwing money away on non existent threats.

[Gladys]

The defence payment isn't one we can negotiate on.  In a way, it is the price of being in the 'British Club'. 

[Passing Time]

10 minutes ago, A fool and his money..... said:

It's an absolute nonsense to have police walking around with guns in Douglas and a complete waste of money.

It's like the millions we continue to pay every year for defence. Who the hell do they think is going to attack us?

Throwing money away on non existent threats.

You’d be surprised just what the defence costs cover 

[immortalpuppet]

Have we seen the end of community policing?

I don’t see how a gym queen in a posh tracksuit and police baseball cap  carrying a firearm is going to gain the same level of respect as a traditional Bobby.
 

Conscious bias aside, I wouldn’t expect many people would see some of the current displays of local police staff as approachable or empathetic.

[cissolt]

33 minutes ago, A fool and his money..... said:

It's an absolute nonsense to have police walking around with guns in Douglas and a complete waste of money.

It's like the millions we continue to pay every year for defence. Who the hell do they think is going to attack us?

Throwing money away on non existent threats.

Non existent threats is quite correct. No evidence of an increase in weapons being used, 1-2 knife incidents a year doesn't warrant a full cadre of armed police.

Most people would attribute the rise in anti social behaviour to a lack of police on foot patrol, these incidents are happening nightly around the island.  What we need is foot patrols, but the new police seem too keen to play rambo and forget the basic stuff.

https://www.three.fm/news/isle-of-man-news/antisocial-behaviour-contributed-to-pensioners-death/

[Shake me up Judy]

12 minutes ago, immortalpuppet said:

Have we seen the end of community policing?

I don’t see how a gym queen in a posh tracksuit and police baseball cap  carrying a firearm is going to gain the same level of respect as a traditional Bobby.
 

Conscious bias aside, I wouldn’t expect many people would see some of the current displays of local police staff as approachable or empathetic.

They're no longer seen as serving the public. The police have become an instrument of the State. Most of them don't even look like coppers these days and they've dropped the uniform.

Guns are for the military and you have to be prepared to pull the trigger. They're not much use for arresting people or keeping the peace on the streets. A taser is actually far more effective because you can actually use the damn thing. At the end of the day it's a bit of muscle that wins the day if all else has failed. The public used to understand and respect that. They still would.  

[kevster]

I pulled in behind an ARV (I could tell from the decals in the rear window) at the sea terminal a couple of weeks ago. Two coppers got out, with holstered sidearms and went into the building - but turned right and into the security office. My main reaction was how young one of them looked - but even prime ministers look young to me these days.

When I worked in Castletown a couple of years ago, I would see armed police popping into the co-op. Not sure if they were from the airport or (as a work colleague said) they'd been on a traing session somewhere local.

[P.K.]

2 hours ago, Two-lane said:

When we arrived here a couple of decades ago with a very young child, we thought the place was quiet and peaceful. If we had seen police with automatic rifles walking down the street, we (in particular my wife) would have been heading straight back to the boat.

Presumably to sail off to somewhere without any armed police.

Where would that be then...?

[Barlow]

45 minutes ago, A fool and his money..... said:

It's like the millions we continue to pay every year for defence. Who the hell do they think is going to attack us?

Throwing money away on non existent threats.

 

35 minutes ago, Gladys said:

The defence payment isn't one we can negotiate on.  In a way, it is the price of being in the 'British Club'. 

Travelling say to South America or Far East on a British/British Manx Passport as opposed to a (**sniggers**) hypothetical Isle of Man Passport, you would soon know what it means to have that "British" word on your passport, and the automatic protection of embassies throughout the world etc. Worth every penny actually.

I'm as patriotic as the next Isle of Man resident, but fuck that full indepence nationalist carry on. Right off.