Letters to the editor: Armed police can’t stop attacks

Flowers laid at the spot in Russell Square where Darlene Horton died following a knife attack last week
REUTERS
8 August 2016
WEST END FINAL

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On Wednesday your newspaper displayed a terrifyingly stark front page featuring four Robocop-style Met officers [August 3]. The clear message was that this would “keep Londoners safe”, despite the Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe’s past comments suggesting that it was a case of not if, but when terrorists strike the capital.

We didn’t have to wait long to find out: on the same day a man struck in Russell Square, leaving one unfortunate US tourist dead and five others badly injured as a young man went on a violent rampage of terror.

While I don’t doubt the Met Police has stopped and will continue to foil many attacks in the capital, the fact of the matter is it didn’t this time. It is difficult for the police to prevent an attack, just as it is for it to stop knife-crime murders by schoolboys and young men — no amount of intelligence or armed presence can stop a random, lone individual who is not on their radar.

And that poses the question: why squander so much money, time and energy on defending against the “war on terror” when they may not be able to prevent it happening? Lessons must be learned but, as Wednesday night showed, arming our police to the teeth and declaring war on an unknown enemy is not the solution.
Michael Peters

In response to Camara Fearon [Letters, August 4], it is wrong to compare the UK police with other international forces and try to make a link that some armed officers in London have only become firearms trained because they harbour sinister motives. Regardless of whether the said weapon is a baton or a firearm, police are trained to use their judgment based on necessity and armed police in particular receive extensive training.

To create mistrust at this time between police and the public when we are seeing attacks across Europe is particularly alarmist and ill-judged.
Paul Davies

I am not impressed with the deployment of more armed police in London by the Met. We already have additional armed officers in the British Transport Police and the City of London Police, so why do we need more?

I do not feel any safer now that police have guns. In fact, I feel quite the opposite. With more armed police the danger of innocent people being killed seems to rise.

One only has to look at a recent case involving a disabled man being tasered because he had a plastic toy gun to know that mistakes can happen.
Andrew Edwards

The Metropolitan Police had no choice but to arm more of its officers after the recent rise in terror attacks in Europe.

Would people prefer the police to stand idly by and watch innocent civilians be killed as we saw in Russell Square on Wednesday?
Jill Blake

Labour have got their priorities right

While it is a sorry sight to see the Labour Party’s leadership wrangle continue, Jeremy Corbyn’s 10-point plan — which includes policies such as a real living wage, more council housing and a £500 billion investment policy — will provide hope.

This proposal would help those people “left behind” — who Theresa May mentioned a week ago but now seems to have forgotten about. Of course the first response will be to claim that we cannot afford these investments. However, it would be feasible as the Bank of England has just announced plans to pump £70 billion into the banks. Perhaps now we will get down to some serious politics and see a change in direction for the whole country to help improve life for us all.
David Reed

Jeremy Corbyn’s 10-point plan could see him blow Owen Smith out of the water in the Labour leadership contest. But the fact is Labour are so far behind in the polls that unless the party undergoes a massive repair job, it is unlikely that it will be able to implement it.
Alan Fox

Olympics really improved Stratford

I am sorry that Simon Jenkins views the provision of a state-of-the-art, well-used swimming facility as “detritus”. [Comment, August 2]. Does he think that the contaminated wasteland that occupied most of the site before the award of the Olympics was preferable?

The Olympics, far from being a “disaster”, regenerated a huge area of east London long neglected by successive governments. While there are legitimate questions about the use of the stadium, the fact is that parks, sports facilities, new jobs and a cultural hub are not the exclusive preserve of affluent west Londoners.

Mr Jenkins may prefer Stratford “as it was” but for those of us living in east London, we don’t miss the filth, the lack of facilities and the economic deprivation that came before.
Jonathan White

Mayor must act on rail nightmare

Thousands of Wandsworth residents have been facing daily torment on Southern’s rail services, and the pleas for help are now become deafening.

We fear the situation will become far worse now the RMT union has gone ahead with its five-day strike. The Mayor promised “zero days of strikes” on London’s transport network but so far he has failed to tackle this chronic failure on the railways. It is time for Sadiq Khan to stand up for London’s commuters and takes decisive action.
Cllr Sarah McDermott (Con) and six other councillors, Wandsworth councilLow interest rates will cause new crisis

Low interest rates have rewarded many of the reckless risk-takers who caused the financial crisis, boosting the prices of homes and shares. Meanwhile, prudent savers have seen their cash wealth devalued by central banks’ actions. Those at the bottom can only ever dream of setting foot in the plush new apartments that cheap money has spawned.

The Bank of England’s actions will see appalling inequality, young people never owning their own homes and lay the seeds of the next financial crisis. It is depressing to see more of the same with this latest cut.
Haroon Abbasi

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