By now, everyone has read about the incident at Manchester Airport and seen the virtue signalling and grifting from the range of usual suspects. There is no need to link to the wall-to-wall media coverage. But I fear our spineless authorities will throw the officer involved to the mob. The video clip circulating may shock some and indeed if it had been the arrest of a lone shoplifter or similar it might be considered “excessive force”. But let me lay a few thoughts before you.
Imagine you’re an armed anti-terror officer. You get a call that your colleagues are being attacked, You arrive on the scene. It is chaotic. People shouting. Several bearded Muslim men are attacking officers. A female officer has blood streaming down her face. In the few seconds that follow, what do you think is going on?
Would it necessarily be the same conclusion that people who have after-the-fact viewed multiple CCTV images, phone footage, and taken witness statements – and who are now in possession of all relevant facts, will draw? Unlikely. You are required to make snap decisions to protect the public. There is a cost to hesitation. Remember this almost identical scene in Germany a few weeks ago?
Hesitation cost an officer his life. The knifeman that killed the officer had, seconds before, been pinned to the ground, concealing a knife under his body in his non-visible hand. He managed to break free and then struck. So the simple fact of “being on the ground” does not mean you are no longer a threat.
Consider too that the incident in Manchester happened on a high terror-alert day, following the conviction of terror-chief Anjem Choudrey, and less than 24 hours after a serving soldier had been attacked and almost killed in a frenzied knife attack in Gillingham, Kent. There had been speculation that this might be a revenge attack for the jailing of Choudrey. A terror attack was expected.
Speaking of hesitation, you may recall that a fear of being thought ‘racist’ deterred security at the Manchester Arena from following their gut instincts and preventing the attack which killed children attending a pop concert in 2017. Is this what we want the outcome of caving to the mob to be now? We cannot have our police officers second-guessing themselves when they see a threat, and like it or not, the men engaged in affray at the Manchester airport look exactly like the men responsible for almost every single terrorist attack in the UK in the last quarter century. Shuffle their images with those of the 7/7 bombers, the attempted 21/7 follow-up bombing, and most of the others, and it would be a confusing job to unshuffle them.
Now, look at this image:
Do either of these two show any visible signs of injury – keeping in mind this is less than 24 hours after they were supposedly beaten by police? The one in the blue hoodie is the one supposedly suffering now from a “brain cyst”. Not a bruise, not an abrasion, not even a sign of swelling! Still our gutless an gushing media faithfully reported their lawyers ridiculous claim they’d survived an “assassination attempt” without even thinking to consult a medical professional to ask if such a thing were even possible.
The whole thing stinks, and it is obvious that political grifters will try to turn this into the UK’s “George Floyd” moment, while the media pours fuel on the fire for clicks and giggles.
And let’s face it, had this been a group of ‘lively’ Manchester United football fans off for an away-brawl, it wouldn’t even be an issue.
Don’t be under any misapprehension that those who plot terror attacks on the West are watching. They are counting on our response being what it inevitably will be. They are taking note of the fact that causing this sort of affray could be a very effective diversionary tactic should they wish to distract the armed police from an attack. They relish that our police will be forced to wear kid gloves when tackling violent men in beards, and most of all – to hesitate – in those vital seconds dividing public safety from catastrophe.
