England: "Armed police swoop on Fram 'gunman' "

[cuchulainn]

Anyone ever watch Terry Gilliam's Brazil. "Do you have a 27B stroke zed?"


http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/Conten...ESTOnline&itemid=IPED19+Jan+2003+17:31:19:647

From the Evening Star, Framingham

Armed police swoop on Fram 'gunman'

Armed police swoop on Fram 'gunman'

BY JAMES FRASER

January 20, 2003 10:52

STUNNED neighbours saw armed police swoop to arrest a 62-year-old man after a gun scare in the centre of a Suffolk market town.

As a police helicopter hovered overhead, officers recovered a replica 9mm handgun from an address in The Elms, Framlingham.

It happened after a member of the public saw a man carrying a realistic-looking firearm in the town's Market Hill at 2.35pm yesterday and alerted police.

A man was arrested on suspicion of possessing a firearm or imitation with intent to cause violence after police surrounded The Elms, a block of flats owned by Suffolk Heritage Housing Association.

No one was injured during the incident and other people living in the housing complex remained in their homes.

A 20-year-old who lives in Bridge Street, Framlingham, heard the helicopter hovering over his house.

He said: "When I came out of my house with my fiancee there was a police officer standing by the bakery opposite and a car parked across the road.

"There was also a policeman outside the flats talking on the radio and it looked like he was talking to the helicopter as he kept looking up at it.

"We park our car in the Elms car park behind the flats, and as we got to our car there was another police car and officer in the car park.

"The helicopter was hovering in the sky for about 20 minutes. I didn't actually see anything apart from the big police presence. It was all quite exciting for Framlingham."

An elderly man who watched the drama unfold said: "I saw about six uniformed officers escort a man from the flats.

"The helicopter alerted me to the commotion, but I had no idea what it was all about.

"It certainly livened up a Sunday afternoon in the town."

The 62-year-old man has been released on bail to return to Leiston police station on February 14.

 

[Bog]

You should see the news over here at the moment. It's jammed solid with memorial services, interviews with family, Vicar Tony mourning etc. over DC Oates.

Hooray the Hero of the People.

It's getting silly. Really silly.

 

[Airwolf]

Let me get this straight....

A "member of the public" (anonymous tip probably) sees a 62 year old man with a "realistic-looking" firearm (not a real firearm at all). The cops then descend on his home with a helicopter and at least 6 cops are sent in to arrest this man (for a replica gun that he never did anything with other than be seen with it).

Oh and the charge of "suspicion of possessing a firearm or imitation with intent to cause violence" which translates to "the sheep were terrified at the very sight of your "realistic-looking" firearm (which wasn't a firearm) so we must arrest you to reinforce their rampant paranoia."

Notice that there is no difference in the law between “firearm†or “imitationâ€. An inert piece of metal or plastic has become the same as something that can do harm.

Reminds me of primitive cultures that cower in fear of talismans and symbols. Simply amazing to watch the complete disintegration of what was once the most powerful nation on earth into people that run away and cower in fear at the mere sight of “scary thingsâ€.

Feh! :banghead:

 

[Bog]

Airwolf:

Yeah, that's about it. The Brit Media seem to be playing ball most compliantly as well. The news is screaming "Terrorists! Terrorists!" and clamouring to arm all cops, ban anything more offensive than a plastic spoon, etc. etc. etc.

In the meantime, public disgust with the government is skyrocketing. Nobody here thinks war with Iraq is necessary, or even a good idea. Mr. J. Public of Ilford is getting increasingly sick of Vicar Tony being nothing more than a foil for Dubya, and is finding the whole "Terrorism" thing to be utterly ridiculous.

After all, here on the mainland we've had terrorism for the best part of 100 years. We know what terrorism is, and we also know that you only become a terrorist when you perform an act of terror. At least in this way, our bullsh*it metres are quite well calibrated. This is one of the reasons we've got such a media storm on at the moment, as all the various spin-doctors try to re-educate us into seeing Reds under the Beds.

I'm happy to say, it's not working too well. The average, under-informed bloke in the street still seems to have his head on straight enough to realise that there aren't serried ranks of Al-Quaedans living in Burmondsey and getting ready to fly planes in Surbiton Tube Station.

Now if only someone would tell the Cabinet....

 

[QKRTHNU]

It happened after a member of the public saw a man carrying a realistic-looking firearm in the town's Market Hill at 2.35pm yesterday and alerted police.
A man was arrested on suspicion of possessing a firearm or imitation with intent to cause violence

Let me get this straight.......

He was seen with what was thought to be a gun the day before. Obviously no act of violence took place that day. So he was arrested because he had "intent to cause violence"?

Wow, it's a good thing the police over there in England are mind-readers or else something bad *Might* have happened.

 

[agricola]

bog,

you make many good points in your second post (although i'm not sure about the first). however, given what the chap's been arrested for, it rather sounds like he's pointed the imitation gun at someone.

i'd also point out to airwolf that its impossible to tell the difference between one inert lump of metal and/or plastic and another one that actually fires shots until its in your own hands and safed. until they actually had control of that imitation they have to, for their own safety, assume that its real. also, there is a difference in law between an imitation and a "real" firearm. so you were just wrong on all the points.

 

[Don Gwinn]

A man was arrested on suspicion of possessing a firearm or imitation with intent to cause violence after police surrounded The Elms

So the paper was wrong? Airwolf clearly did nothing more than take this statement at face value. If there is a single charge of using either a real firearm or an imitation, then how can there be a difference between the two?

Frankly, Ag, it's possible that he pointed the gun at someone, but I'll reserve judgment for now. The whole thing still sounds crazy to American ears.

And who is DC Oates?

 

[agricola]

Don,

that section of the Firearms Act (16A) is the only portion of that act that elevates an imitation firearm to the level of an actual one. its main use is to cover a percieved gap in the legislation allowing people to imtimidate or threaten with a replica gun. there has to be a "victim" (ie someone that was threatened with unlawful violence). there is a legal difference between "real" and imitation weapons, as airwolf no doubt knows.

DC Oates was the GMP Special Branch officer that was fatally stabbed by what they are calling a "terrorist suspect" during a raid on premises, after a tip off from the Met that a person sought in connection with the recent find of Ricin in Tottenham was at the address. Four other officers were stabbed, and the assailant is currently inside awaiting trial for murder and attempted murder x4.

 

[Bog]

Ag,

(Hallo, chap)

My comments on the deceased DC are coloured by how much more important his death seems to be to the media and the government than the deaths of non-uniformed civillians. If I seemed to speak ill of him, I apologise. Any death is to be mourned.

With regards to the news that I have read, I saw no mention of the toy being pointed at anyone. *shrugs* I can only work with data given me.

 

[P95Carry]

I can only say that the reaction (scale of) sounds total overkill ......... wish the cops there would deal with real crime instead of some poor bugger who was careless flashing his toy piece.

Paranoia reigns ... makes me ashamed to admit I was once from there.

 

[Bog]

P95,

Frankly I think it's to do with Tony's Clampdown. Once we've got an armed and armoured police state, and the media keeping the Peepul in a state of Fear of Terrorism, then they'll be happy. All the law-abiders crouched in their homes, as tax-paying prey, the criminals (who aren't being sent to prison anymore, if you read up on the current UK goals for burglars) feeding off them, and the police (no offence, Ag) feeding off them both.

Lovely situation. A place for everything, and everything in it's place. Communist Utopia.

 

[P95Carry]

Can't deny you are right Bog .... this was all on the way before I quit there ... it's all a matter of degree now.

Quite how anyone ... even sheeple ... can tolerate that slimeball Blair a moment longer I cannot understand... he has screwed that place to where the criminal is all but revered and the victim is a mere'' embarrassment'' ...... incapable of and forbidden, to even defend him/herself.

The outlook is bleak ... and the racial tensions will erupt ever worse, as the antagonists generally realize they can deliver armed aggression almost at will. Usually by time an ''armed response team'' (joke) .. has arrived, it's all over and all the cops can do is pick up pieces.

Now ... if the hoods knew that some people carried ...... well, that would change things entirely. I am fully in support of ''an armed society is a polite society'' ....... but the gov and cops think they can handle anything and everything. WRONG . they can't and never will.

I am depressed even from this side of the pond ... and far from happy that my daughter still lives there.

 

[madmike]

"Thank God my parents moved us out of that Fascist hellhole in 1974."


I would just LOVE to take some IHATEAMERICA college punk to Britain for a few weeks, make them eat the food, stay in typical housing, walk the streets...

My first memory of North America is a car so big I couldn't reach the floor and a store that had fresh fruits and vegetables stacked where anyone could touch them and help themselves.

After that was steak and color TV with more than 3 channels.

Next was my father's shotgun, that didn't require a license (then) in Canada.

The things Americans take for granted.