A man with a machine gun came up to me - or was it a dream

dylanwinter said:
genius little exchange there

Triassic holding some pretty good cards in that argument

on the subject of armed coppers

I was talking to the postie the other day - nice man - tall.

he was singing the praises of the autumn colours and the sunrises at this time of year

he has only been a postman for six years

before that he was a close protection officer

got shot in the back at Bisley

I had to ask the obvious question

what does it feel like to get shot?

he said

first it feels as though some-one has just kicked you hard in the back

then there there is an overwhelming sensation of heat - the hot bullet - and you just want to get it it out of you

says he likes his new job better than the other one.

more interesting
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I spent a lot of time at Bisley

As a youth

It is a public range

It has good rules for safety

My mother was the first female range supervisor

For someone to be shot in the back

There

Involves stupidity at one end of the gun or the other....
 
Triassic said:
I make no secret of it, I was a copper for thirty years, now retired. Spent the vast majority of my career in front line operations including a spell on Special Branch and the last decade within Tactical Operations. A lot of my work involved planning and running operations which at times included a firearms element so knowing how they operate, including their vulnerabilities, was pretty much unavoidable..... I don't think distain is an accurate description of my view of some officers so I'm sorry if it comes across that way, mistrust or a lack of confidence in them might be more appropriate.
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so if I get this right, you spent thirty years in a career with people you are now rubbishing on a very public forum. Oh dear.....

Sorry but that doesn't sound right to me. I know a lot about what it's like to be on the inside of the sleek black underwater deliverers of death. I will always remain loyal to my fellow Submariners.

Sorry that your career seems to have ended somewhat differently.

Happy sailing.
 
JumbleDuck said:
How many times has that happened?
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I can't give you a figure but know several people who have been shot at (and on at least two occasions hit) by US Service Personnel who considered them (wrongly) a threat, albeit not in the UK. The weapons that their upper deck sentries carry are loaded even in the UK these days.

Had this been a US Naval vessel rather than a ferry I'd give you even money that shots would have been fired:

redjet-jetski-incident-Richard-Bache-5-close.jpg
 
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Elecglitch said:
I can't give you a figure but know several people who have been shot at (and on at least two occasions hit) by US Service Personnel who considered them (wrongly) a threat, albeit not in the UK. The weapons that their upper deck sentries carry are loaded even in the UK these days.
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Yeah, well they invented "friendly fire" didn't they?
 
Triassic said:
I make no secret of it, I was a copper for thirty years, now retired. Spent the vast majority of my career in front line operations including a spell on Special Branch and the last decade within Tactical Operations. A lot of my work involved planning and running operations which at times included a firearms element so knowing how they operate, including their vulnerabilities, was pretty much unavoidable..... I don't think distain is an accurate description of my view of some officers so I'm sorry if it comes across that way, mistrust or a lack of confidence in them might be more appropriate.
Click to expand...

You type remarkably well for an alsatian.
 
Andrew E said:
Even in UK territorial waters?
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I vaguely recall a fairly intimidating NtM when Roosevelt visited the Solent in 2015, but can't find it on the QHM site. It made it fairly clear that repeating our trick of sailing under the anchor chain of Dwight D Eisenhower in the 80s might not be a life-enhancing thing to do.
 
capnsensible said:
so if I get this right, you spent thirty years in a career with people you are now rubbishing on a very public forum. Oh dear.....

Sorry but that doesn't sound right to me. I know a lot about what it's like to be on the inside of the sleek black underwater deliverers of death. I will always remain loyal to my fellow Submariners.

Sorry that your career seems to have ended somewhat differently.

Happy sailing.
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That's an interesting interpretation of what I have been saying but I guess you're entitled to your opinion. For what it's worth I think the vast majority of police officers provide a very professional service under what can at times be very testing circumstances, however in any organization there are going to be exceptions and with the diversity of roles contained in a police force there are going to be ones that may not suit every individual.

In my case the ethics, principals and methods I repeatedly saw demonstrated within the police firearms community were against the very core principals that I believed in and I was sufficiently passionate about those to ultimately put them before my career. I'm more than happy to discuss that further if you wish but I'm not sure you're really interested.
 
Triassic said:
In my case the ethics, principals and methods I repeatedly saw demonstrated within the police firearms community were against the very core principals that I believed in and I was sufficiently passionate about those to ultimately put them before my career. I'm more than happy to discuss that further if you wish but I'm not sure you're really interested.
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Not going to get involved in this thread, but FWIW I think Triassic comes across as a voice of reason, moderation and enlightenment. His views are also broadly in step with thinking right across the political/civilian spectrum; i.e. that everyone's a winner when the police and military maintain a good relationship with the British public. The corollary holds equally true; we're all losers when that trust breaks down.
 
Triassic said:
I might have been tempted to play with them just a little.....

"Tell me officer, just how do you suppose my little sailing yacht might be a threat to the safety of that nuclear submarine, even if I did have both the space and the foresight to pack it with enough explosive....?"
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:ambivalence:
 
capnsensible said:
I spent a lot of time at Bisley

As a youth

It is a public range

It has good rules for safety

My mother was the first female range supervisor

For someone to be shot in the back

There

Involves stupidity at one end of the gun or the other....
Click to expand...

Yes, amazing really.

Lots of other experiences on Google which portray the same physical sensations as described by this Postman chap.
 
Triassic said:
That's an interesting interpretation of what I have been saying but I guess you're entitled to your opinion. For what it's worth I think the vast majority of police officers provide a very professional service under what can at times be very testing circumstances, however in any organization there are going to be exceptions and with the diversity of roles contained in a police force there are going to be ones that may not suit every individual.

In my case the ethics, principals and methods I repeatedly saw demonstrated within the police firearms community were against the very core principals that I believed in and I was sufficiently passionate about those to ultimately put them before my career. I'm more than happy to discuss that further if you wish but I'm not sure you're really interested.
Click to expand...

I would be as I feel the armed side of the police are not as it was. Open mind here b
 
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