Liverpool Heroic Police

[JellyStarb]

I haven't seen much media focus on them yet. Security was terribly messed up but the Police officers on the ground were incredible. In the footage, the car comes to a stop and a baying Mob swarm and attack the driver. You see multiple Hi-vis' run to the car, fight off the mob to secure the drivers arrest and protect him (in as far as this their role) and form a ring of steel around the vehicle to apprehend him without complications. All the while they actually had no idea if that driver was armed, wearing explosives or if the car was packed with explosives and were at risk of aggression from the crowds turning on them.

Whilst the mob was understandable, if they'd had their way he'd be dead or cabbaged and we'd never have a true idea of what happened- I presume not only his answers but his demeanor etc will give a good insight into this.

As individuals on that day they acted with immense bravery. Hopefully their heroic stories will come out eventually.

Agree, given all the recent terror incidents which are similar, bloody brave of them!

It was their fault it bloody happened! He "tailgated" an ambulance onto a closed road and they didnt once stop him before he did what he did. The police and council have a lot of questions to answer.

Given the distance he travelled, I dont think its likely it was those particular officers. Note I am praising the ring of steel officers, not the police force. I have no facts on the polices action elsewhere to make judgement, you only have hearsay yourself, unless you were witness to it.

The fault is that of the driver.

I beg to differ on that.

On this occasion we know it wasn't a terrorist and his intention doesn't seem to be to kill as many people as possible.

But what if it had been a terrorist hell bent on killing everyone?

There most certainly are questions left to answer here to stop a similar thing happening but with a worse outcome.

He should not have been able to tailgate in these circumstances with such a large crowd as it's a massive vulnerability and demonstrates that the system they have in place isn't good enough to protect the crowd.

I think both are true. There are definitely lessons to be learnt here, but those officers who were in the thick of it were very brave. I hope the driver is not allowed to claim mitigation that he feared for his safety having taken a poor decision and panicked and accidentally shot forward.

I agree, a car should not have been allowed to enter the closed street. The people who let it in should be in a lot of trouble.

No one mentioning that the driver was apparently high on drugs?

That was reported initially but he hasn't been charged with any drug related driving offences

Yes. The officers who detained him did an amazing job.
I can understand the fury from bystanders but they couldn't have been allowed to kill him.

The police officers there and all other emergency workers were incredibly brave. They ran towards danger to protect the public and ensure due process was followed.

Of course lessons will need to be learned about how he was able to get through but that is completely irrelevant wrt the bravery of these individuals.

Well, we don't know the full story yet, and we will have to wait until at least the trial for the full facts. There may well be CCTV that hasn't been released yet.

But if we assume that he tailgated the ambulance, how do you propose that the police should have stopped him? He clearly wasn't going to stop if they just stuck up their hands. If they had stepped out in front of the car he would have run them down. And even if he had just been confused, he could have crushed their legs accidentally against the ambulance, which was presumably moving slowly.

So you would need to have armed police prepared and authorised to shoot any driver dead the instant their car crosses the line where the barriers have been removed to allow the ambulance through, on the mere suspicion that he might be about to start running people over, and when the whole area is full of thousands of people who could be hit by stray bullets. The chances of it being genuine a terrorist attack are also greatly reduced by the fact that the presence of the ambulance was entirely fortuitous. You wouldn't have a car standing by on the off-chance. We already saw with Jean Charles de Menezes what can happen when those are the rules of engagement, and I don't think people are ready to be policed in this way. Imagine the headlines, "Innocent 53 year old family man and company director gunned down by Starmer's police goons while trying to get home".

My guess is that we will find that the guy went on a bender, came out of the pub to find his car blocked in by the parade, lost it, and tried to get out by whatever means he could. People do just flip sometimes.