Suicide by Cop!

Well there has been little to get ones teeth into in the news lately but one thing I feel I have to post about is the shooting of barrister Mark Saunders...

A while back I posted on Raoul Moat and was not very polite or supportive of police methods, a little later I was over at Insp Gadget's place commenting on something or other and some of the commenter's (I assume police personnel) were complaining that we blogger's always rip them a new arsehole whenever they fuck up!

Very true!, we do have a go at them on a fairly regular basis (but they do also lay themselves wide open for it ) they (the commenter's) said that we never said anything positive about them...well this time, this time I am going to congratulate them for their actions...read on...

Mark Saunders, for whatever reason, was not a happy bunny!...and holed himself up in his expensive flatlet in Chelsea, from where he was taking potshots with a shotgun at his neighbours properties. Why a supposedly highly educated (Oxford) barrister should be doing such a thing we may never know, he was drunk is about the only excuse I have heard so far...

The police tried to negotiate with him for 5 hours before he again appeared at the kitchen window with his shotgun...I was surprised he was not shot immediately...but he in fact was allowed to sway around for a minute or so before he lowered the gun...and raised it again...still not shot, I was amazed...and then lowered again this time a bit too far ...upon which he was taken out in a small hail of bullets from police marksmen.

Whether they had been ordered to fire over their radios or had determined to fire independently, it is my belief that it was entirely the right thing to have done...

The man was clearly dangerously reckless of anyone else's safety, whether he wished to die (commit suicide) or not, he was a fool with a gun and fools with guns should not be given the chance to harm others.

A great deal was made of the Moat shooting/tasering, and there seems to be little difference between the two incidents. Both involved standoffs with men with guns, the reason why the Moat killing was unacceptable was his gun pointed only at himself, whilst Saunders pointed his at the world in general.

Well done to the police concerned in this case, you showed the restraint that I called for previously and did a hard job in difficult circumstances, and from what I know of this case I for one can/will not fault you!

Is this the face of Tasercop? was he the trigger man?

To me this is NOT the face of anyone I want to be in the Police force, how does he strike you?
Does he come across as a person weighed down with the responsibilities of an armed siege, looking for the best outcome?
Or does he look to you as he does to me, a blood thirsty gung-ho yob who is itching to pull the trigger ?

This is the sort of face I have seen too many times on drunken yobs, about the business of starting a fight, nasty, brutish and just eager to do as much damage to someone as they possibly can...

This is not the expression that we need on the faces of those who uphold the law, it is a difficult enough job to ask anyone to do but those who should be doing it should, to my mind, NEVER look like this...

This is the face of hatred, the face of Papa Baby Docs enforcers, the face of totalitarian state police who care little if anything for the people that they are supposed to protect!

Seriously look at him, would you want that face anywhere near your life/family? I wouldn't!

It is the expression of the animal rage and blood lust that lies under the surface of far too many of the people who have positions of power over us, we have seen it before in the Hunt protest policing and various other places where confrontational situations have occurred.

It is time these (people) were weeded out of the Police service and cooler heads put in their place.

Was he, or someone like him, the one who tasered Mr Moat? I am sure he would have if he could have, aren't you?

Funnily enough out of all the pictures I have seen of Mr Moat if you had put the worst of them beside this face and asked me to choose who was the more dangerous to my well being... I would unhesitatingly have answered this one!

No wonder they waited till it was dark, eh!

Mr Raoul Moat was undoubtedly a bad and dangerous problem for society to deal with, but it should have been the duty of the Police as PEACE OFFICERS to arrest this man to stand trial for his crimes. Society needed to see what if any reasons he had before pronouncing sentence on him, (I will agree that such sentences that are available are too lenient for this type of crime) society needed his 'myth/legend', call it what you will, to be defused in the undergrounds popular imagination! It was a stupid act to leave doubts in anyone's mind as to whether the death was 'fair' or not, for that only leaves the door ajar it does not close it!

I do not believe that a line will ever now be able to be drawn under this affair, too many people do not believe the Police versions of events in the general run of life and dealings with them, and this could have been completly televised/recorded so there was no doubt in anyones mind...do not tell me that it would have been too graphic, they televised 9/11 and 7/7 didn't they?

Sanitising death in such circumstances does society no favours!
 
Thanks to Rantin Rab for finding the picture