Hundreds of officers, one-tenth of the UK’s armed police, sniffer dog handlers, 20 armoured cars, several helicopters and several RAF Tornados were involved in the multimillion pound manhunt for Raoul Moat. It is going to be one of the most expensive manhunts in Britain.
All that high tech gear against a lone camper, albeit a crazed and not very happy camper.
Over the next few weeks we will get a bit of the story and find out a bit more about his motives. I suspect there is more to this than we have been told but in the end he was a criminal who had killed someone. Few things can justify taking someones life and seeing a woman does not justify death.
The episode does show two things clearly. Plod would not have caught him if he had not murdered someone, in fact I wonder if the same effort would have been expended if he hadn’t been targeting Plod, and they had not put so many jack boots on the ground.
In addition it actually puts into perspective what our soldiers face every day. Abdual Moat hidden by their entire village and rarely identified. Free to pop up and kill our soldiers. At least Moat was hiding most of the time and not active in his search for victims.
It does go to show that Plod are really only effective in urban areas. They want CCTV and snitches with all the trimings as well as the overwhelming firepower and technology. Take them out of that area where they can’t get support quickly or the support they get is more experienced in dealing with car theft, drunks and football hooligans and they don’t perform very well. Lucky for Plod that most of the gun crimeis in urban areas, unlucky for them the latest two have been in rural areas where they were pretty useless. They are used to high tech support and against a high tech adversary. Lucky for our society we, and by we I mean the criminals, are all used to the high tech life or we would have a million criminals on the run in the country.
Plod were very lucky that they weren’t facing someone that knew what they were doing or they would have been wiped off the map.
The H&K is no match for a M107 or the like and if anyone got their hands on something like a M82A1 even the plod chopper would be in trouble.
None of the above changes the fact that all of the ‘policing’ in the UK needs a complete overhaul. Personnel responsibility and firearms need to be returned to the people – without a piece of paper saying you can carry a gun. IF the country were to go in that direction then most of plod would be redundant, something they would fight tooth and nail to prevent.
Plod are hard pressed, even in urban areas with all the tech at their disposal, to solve crimes, so anything that requires using the tech between their ears is beyond them – hence their poor showing in the countryside. As for their record on stopping terrorists, so far they have managed to kill an innocent electrician!
It does go to show that Plod are really only effective in urban areas.
And then only in certain situations.
Ivan,
I do still think that Plod and the public can work together. We need Plod to administer the laws but they need to be rolled back to a reasonable level. Around 1950 should do for a start and then work backwards. Basically we should end up with a modified 10 commandments.
Giving us our rights back and guns can only benefit us. If someone shoots someone breaking into their house then provided it meets the criteria there should be no repercussions. If they don’t then they should face a court.
Plod certainly does not want the general public to see them as the enemy. Most people now are still OK with them but many are seeing them as enforcers and on the other side. Not to be trusted or helped. That is why when they are looking for public help nobody helps them now. If it gets much worse people will avoid helping them. In fact I think this is what happened with Moat. targeting Plod and not the public made the public not interested. Plod were forced to say Moat was after the public to get them to help. Just a theory mind.
Remember there are only about 150,000 Plod now and they live among us not in special compounds. They can’t afford a war.
James,
Yes. And not very well their either according to the true crime stats but to be honest I blame the politicians for that. There is still hope for Plod.
We have a few good police and a serious abundance of egotistical, corrupt and dangerous plod. The worst of these demand the most lethal weapons and try said arsenal to the max using pretexts agreed amongst themselves. Non criminal plebs may not have lethal weapons and may be tortured/murdered by plod as discretion permits. An unarmed pleb may have a pitchfork, sling or piece of 4X4 planted on their corpse.
In this climate you can almost sense a collapse in public support for plod which will guarantee a desperate response from any schoolyard bully. It is time to arm OURSELVES.
Lord T,
I remember our local plod in the late 40s, early 50s. He was someone that us kids could talk with if we had problems and his kids went to school with us. Those were the days each village had its own police house with office and local plod knew everyone in the village – and what they were up to because he lived there.
It might be a good idea to go back to those conditions, not only with respect to plod but also with the laws. All this stupidity of a ‘war on terror’ is just that – stupidity meant to control the population, it has not had any real effect on terrorists and their ways.
MTG,
I can’t argue with anything you say. We should all apply for a shotgun licence at least.
Ivan,
Can’t disagree with you either. Although I suspect there is a middle ground here which means that with the transport infrastructure as it is you don’t need as many Plod in rural areas. Providing we can shoot intruders of course.